- You're totally out the shot.
- [Hallease] That's the point.
This is about you.
I'm in this one.
- Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
(Hallease laughs)
- Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's good.
It should just be with you in that shot--
- Okay, okay, we're gonna do this.
- Okay.
Jouelzy as y'all know, Jouelzy is on her channel
talking to me about head wraps.
- Aha.
- Yeah.
And now on my channel, I actually just wanted to talk to her
a little bit more about Smart Brown Girl,
and everything she has going on with that,
and what the goal is for that.
And I guess talk a little bit more about the side of you
that may be,
is like different from the content creation side of you
I suppose, like kind of let people see
a little bit more into
who you are. - Of me?
Okay.
- You know.
And I just wanna start off with something simple,
'cause you've lived in so many different places,
right? - I have, yes.
- So you've lived in the east?
- The north east.
- The north east and now recently, for the last what,
few years?
- Three.
- Yeah, for the last three years.
- I've been here for three years.
- Yeah.
You've been down here in Texas, and to me it's just like
I always find it fascinating when people from the east
come down.
- Mhm.
- Especially like, below the Mason-Dixon or whatever.
(laughter)
And hang out with us down here.
- Ooh girl, yeah.
- And like, so what fueled that move?
- So I knew that I wanted, I was tired of like
living someplace that was really expensive.
I knew that my audience,
as I started on the Smart Brown Girl mission,
a lot of my audience is in the Southern United States,
and when you talk to black women about success,
especially in non-traditional career fields,
it's always framed as they either live in
New York, LA, and then sometimes Atlanta.
And so I, I felt like if I was really gonna start this
movement about encouraging black women to be who they
wanted to be,
I mean then why limit myself to only staying
in the north east or only stay in these cities?
And then it's like alright, well I need to be somewhere
that has a cultural hub.
And so at that point I was like
well there's Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta or Houston.
Houston has a really rich culture.
It has a black community.
And so I originally moved to Houston.
I will say that I didn't consider some things though
when I moved.
- Okay, like?
- Like how difficult it is to make new friends
post college.
And I think I was really spoiled living in New York,
because I didn't really go to college in New York.
I dropped outta college and then moved to New York City.
And you're not-- - I could do that
- you're not going to New York to stagnate.
You're going to New York to like, build your career.
And so there's just a whole different mindset about
relationships and you know, social interactions.
So I didn't really account for how that would impact
my ability to build a community or my desire
to build said community.
I don't know that I've made
the best choices when I moved to Houston,
about where to live and stuff.
- Yeah.
So then, but then so you transitioned over to Dallas.
- Yeah.
So I moved to Dallas, which is funny.
I moved to Houston for culture and I legit feel like
Dallas has no culture.
Someone's gonna come for me with that, but you don't.
(laughs)
It's white.
Industry is here.
The industry that I work in.
Like Mary Kay is, not that I work with Mary Kay,
but Mary Kay and Sally's Beauty is headquartered here.
So there's a lot of influencer stuff that happens here.
And a lot of times, I was getting hit up for stuff
because people were like,
oh you're in Texas and it was in Dallas.
It was very Dallas centered.
There was a few contracts that I couldn't get
because I was in Houston and Houston is considered a
sub-market.
Dallas is considered a primary market.
- So then like, talk to me a little bit about
Smart Brown Girl in general.
Like, what is your hope for Smart Brown Girl to become?
I know it already is something
- Mhm.
- and that's great, but like what do you,
what do you hope for it to be?
Like what's its ideal
grand scheme, you know? - There are
so many things that I think Smart Brown Girl can become.
I'm just like, you know, I'm a thinker.
I'm a creative, but the actual management function of it
is like, oh my gosh, you know?
I think my over arching mission with Smart Brown Girl
is to encourage critical thought.
I want us to really be able to like think,
about how things are interconnected and use that as
inspiration and use that to allow ourselves
to define ourselves.
- Mhm.
- Right?
And not get so caught up in all these societal norms
that bind us in.
I would like to like, potentially build a,
not that there's gonna be a Smart Brown Girl school,
but like workbooks and workshops and stuff like that.
Doing a tour in the immediate future would be cool.
- [Hallease] Yeah.
- Doing Smart Brown Girl events.
Just providing more resources for black women,
because I think a lot of times like,
kind of where I'm at with Smart Brown Girl is
we have all these ideas and we literally have
no knowledge of where to start.
- [Hallease] Yeah.
- And it's not necessarily because things aren't
accessible to us sometimes.
It's that we just don't understand how the pieces
of the puzzle fit together.
- [Hallease] Yeah.
- And so providing the kind of like,
knowledgeable resources.
- With when you're thinking about Smart Brown Girl
for the future,
do you see it having like a centralized location?
- You know
I live in-- - Like a office?
- Deep Ellum, and there's like all these like
office spaces around here like, you know, work spaces
like with the windows all open and I'm like, hmm.
But what would we be doing in the office, right?
- Having programs?
Having-- - Well,
obviously to run the website, yeah.
I would have to get a office.
So that could be one function of it.
And also I want there to be like a history component.
Like I don't - Yeah.
- think we have a really great understanding
of black women in history.
I think African American History has definitely
hit a stride, but it's very male-oriented.
- Yes.
- And I don't, I think there's a lot of erasure of
the black woman that is going,
and I would love to be a part of that,
bringing it back into the context of mainstream
American History.
- [Hallease] I wonder like, I guess I wonder if it would be,
cuz I could see-- - Creating curriculum.
- Yeah!
Creating curriculum, or I could see you partnering with
like, different, maybe they're watching,
maybe like different museums or organizations
and things like that. - Well, you know one
did hit me up dog.
- Oh really?
So like the African American History Museum
in DC. - The Museum of African
American History and Culture.
- Yeah.
- Aha, yeah.
- Partnering.
- I have a meeting coming up with them that I'm like,
I don't know what's gonna happen but,
yes, make this happen.
- See, yeah.
- Every time I talk to someone about applying for
a doctorial program, for my PhD,
they're all like, yeah well what are you gonna do
with your YouTube?
But I'm like, now but it all ties in--
because it's - It's all, yeah.
- like this thing that I never knew could be.
- Yeah.
Since, knowing that you don't really technically
like Dallas that, you like the place you live
which I-- - I don't
like the community in Dallas.
- Yeah.
- That's what I don't like.
- Yeah.
- But also, I haven't, I also have no desire to
put effort into it.
- Right.
So where do you see, where do you see yourself
in the next year?
Do you see-- - Oh man
even in the next year - still here?
- I mean.
- Well okay, fine, two.
Let's say two then.
Because I know you, I know you're here until August.
- Ideally, I would like to get into a PhD program,
but that's five to seven years.
- [Hallease] Yeah.
- And I'm 32 now.
Girl.
(Hallease giggles)
At some point I would like to find me a black man
that respects black women who love me,
and start a family.
That would be, you know, I'm bein' told that's a
unicorn of a dream, but whatever.
I don't think imma find him in Dallas, though.
But yeah, I would definitely like to do that
and start a family in the process of pursuing
my PdH.
And I think it's kinda up in the air like,
do I stay in Dallas?
I don't think I'm gonna raise a family in,
I'm not going to raise a family in Texas,
actually. - Yeah.
- Definitely not in Dallas.
If I was going to raise a family and stay in Texas,
I would go back to Houston.
- [Hallease] Okay.
- I like this idea of community.
And I like this idea of living amongst your community.
Like, even whether your community is your family,
your friends, you know,
having like these really strong interpersonal bonds
and like literally living in the same neighborhood together.
- So something that really like, drew me to your channel
when I first, because all of y'all probably
don't even realize.
I actually emailed Jouelzy out of the blue.
- Did you?
- Yeah.
When we had dinner together.
In Houston. - But I knew who
you were though!
I remember the email because you were like,
oh my God!
(Hallease laughs)
And I was like, Girl I watch your channel though.
Like you, I like, I used to comment on you
and Evelyn when y'all did the collab series.
- Did you?
I mean I knew--
I knew you watched-- - And that's how I knew who
were, cuz I was like she got so much hair!
She got all that hair!
- No so like, I remember we had dinner or whatever,
but like I think the thing that drew me to your channel,
aside from, especially, I think I actually started,
I followed your channel originally for like,
yes, the hair.
- Mhm.
- But like, as I saw you transitioning, that was
actually what drew me more to you.
Was because it was like you were so knowledgeable
and yet still so approachable.
So like I remember you've talked about how like,
I don't come from black excellence,
like all this kind of stuff.
- Mhm.
- But it's like, and I think you're, I'm trying to remember
the context of the video.
It wasn't, I don't think you were trying to be
deterrent about it, but like, I think that adds
to your character.
What makes you so like, valuable, in the YouTube space
is that you're so approachable in the way that you
talk about these topics, and that directly ties to
where you came from and how you grew up.
Like it's an asset.
You know?
- Like I'm not bougie.
- Basically.
I guess so. - Aha, that's such a
compliment, thank you. - A long way to go
to say that.
But yeah.
- Like I wanna be able to like, meet my audience, right?
- Yeah.
- Cuz I think it means.
I don't need to be complimented.
But it means so much to me that like I get to see
who's actually watching my channel.
- [Hallease] Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely.
- You know?
Because I get, I'm inspired by y'all too.
- My final question that I wanted to ask for you is
yeah, how can people support you?
How can people support Smart Brown Girl, the movement?
(Halleaselaughs)
- So there's these, they're gorgeous.
They're wonderful.
You can lay on them.
It's so beautiful and you too, can buy one
at shopsmartbrowngirl.com.
I also published a book.
It's available on Amazon.
It's called set it on that,
ah set it on dot com.
It's called Send it On,
like the D'Angelo song.
It's a collection of short stories
about a young woman coming into her womanhood.
It's an emotional, short stories.
And then my Patreon, and honestly you can literally
support by,
if you are into what I talk about,
if you are actually into my content.
It's weird, I'm not really interested in like
building my YouTube channel bigger.
- Really?
- Like I don't,
if I get more subscribers, I don't.
I'm more interested in engagement.
Like, are you watching and engaging me?
Like, am I hearing you?
Like, and I don't even really mind when people
disagree with me.
I know folks are scared to comment.
My bad.
But I love a good, healthy debate.
So it's not that I think you're like,
a horrible person.
It's that I like a good debate.
And I will debate with you.
But, I just generally like hearing from people
that I watch.
Like, I don't know why black women have such a fear
of commenting in the comment section that
they're watching.
- Well, Jouelzy.
- Well Hallease.
- Thank you so much--
- Thank you for having me.
- for doing this.
- You're awesome.
- Links to her store will be in the description box.
- You can check out hair wrap tutorial, Leslie.
- Cuz Hallease helped me do it, bruh.
It's gon be on anuva level.
You know we steppin' the game up.
Okay.
- [Hallease] We'll see you when we see you.
- [Jouelzy] Deuces.
- [Hallease] If you're interested in seeing an extended
version of my interview with Jouelzy, head over to
my Patreon account.
Also in the comments below, let me know if you enjoyed
this content, and you would like to see more.