Yara Shahidi is the 19-year-old force of nature that we all want to be when we grow up, and with the confidence of 1000 Beyoncé's, this policy adjacent influencer doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon. After skipping the first grade, snagging her first movie role at only 9 years old, and becoming a lead character on the network television series, Black-ish at only 14, the future looks bright for Yara, who understands that her purpose is much bigger than herself.
In a recent interview with Glamour, Yara revealed the real reason that she goes so hard at her craft, and according to her, it's because she doesn't have any other choice. She explained:
"What remains a through-line in each and every project—and any world that I occupy—is that I want there to be a greater purpose. That purpose may be as simple as providing joy or it may be helping in the field of equity or amplifying other people's voices. But my metric for success is having an impact on something greater than myself."
For the 19-year-old actress, life has always been a place for exploration, and this was a trait that her mother appreciated and cultivated since Yara's childhood.
"I've always been curious. My mother always says, 'There's nothing more interesting than an interested human.' And I've just always been interested."
Strong women raise strong daughters, and Yara and her mother, Keri, are a true testament to this fact. In the interview, Yara explained that her mother's unconditional acceptance helped cultivate a spirit of pride in the actress that shines through her smile every day. Nobody can root for you if you aren't rooting for you, and Yara says that her mother's constant affirmation has helped her to remember that she deserves to be in the room.
"She constantly says to me, 'You deserve to be in the room.' One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to advocate for myself as strongly as she advocates for me. It's important that women of color and anyone from marginalized identities understands that they will try to intentionally unsettle you. They'll do this so that you'll spend so much of your time trying to convince people you belong that you don't get to dig in and do the work you were meant to do."
As children, we're taught not to talk back, and we carry this way of thinking into adulthood; but Yara says that by allowing our daughters to speak out and challenge previously established ideals, we're opening up the door for a world of innovation:
"There's this assumption that young people are supposed to stay quiet and all of a sudden turn 18 and have fully formed opinions. But the problem is that you haven't been given a platform or the opportunity as a young person to develop or form those opinions."
While Yara is out here inspiring us with her style, grace, and affinity for advocacy, the young entertainer says that she's only been able to become the agent of change that she is after being encouraged by others. For Yara, true success means leveling the playing field so that women that look like her not only feel comfortable in the room but have a seat at the table.
"I don't think I'd be doing the work I'm doing if I wasn't constantly inspired by the other young people doing this work, by the other young people doing work I didn't even realize had to be done. I feel like we constantly educate one another. Because we inherited a world in crisis, we enter this world inspired to make change."
To read Yara's full interview, click here!
Featured image by Giphy
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak