Meet Mya Jasmine | Creative

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mya Jasmine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mya, what principle do you value most?
Happiness is the most important value to me. Especially with the pandemic, I’ve realized that being happy and truly enjoying how you spend your time is really what’s going to get you through the rough patches.

I tell this story a lot but prior to March 2020, I was working an internship that I didn’t really care for. I ended up in a role that I didn’t have much interest for, but out of respect for the people that got me in and just having wayyy too much anxiety over telling my boss I’d like to quit, I thought “why not push through it, it’s only 3 months”. Between the long hours, my part time job and it being in the middle of Canadian winter (if you know, you know lol) it really felt like I had no time for anything else. I was dragging my feet through the weeks and counting down the days till I could leave. The one thing I did do on my spare time was make this huge plan on what I was going to do after I finished. I was going to push my creative business on social media more, start going out and meeting people in my field, work harder on my Youtube channel etc. But then a week (literally exactly 7 days) after my contract ended, COVID-19 hit us heavy. Everything shut down, everyone was in a panic… you know how it went, we we’re all there. It was awful.

With the uncertainty of what this virus was and how we were going to beat it, I felt like I wasted the last few days/months of freedom I had working an internship that I didn’t even like. I was so focused on pleasing others, that I ignored my own wants. It really crushed me and I kept beating myself up over it for a long time.

Moving forward, I’ve been making a conscious effort to prioritize my happiness with anything I do. I had fell into this habit of people pleasing through out the years. It’s always been a lot of “it’s only {..}”, “just get it over with and when I had all that free time during quarantine to think back on life, I realized those phrases had me trapped in a sea of “meh” experiences. In 2021, beginning to find the balance has already made my life a whole lot easier to navigate.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m super proud of my most recent project, NobodyAsked. It’s a creative content studio founded in Montreal. I started it back in August 2020 with my childhood best friend, Nia Estwick. We do an array of things, from interviews to reviews to press coverages. In such a sort amount of time, it has became bigger than I’ve ever imagined. It was hard at first, trying to balance work and managing such a big project at the same time; especially when we’ve never done it before. It was a lot of trial and error, but with consistency it’s became alot easier to navigate. Our team is growing, we’ve been doing a lot more collabs and I’m really excited to see where we’ll end up by end of the year!

On a personal note, growing my branding agency, SoFiyah Studios, has been a handful. I am self taught and still learning at my own pace but I’m so proud of everything I’ve done so far. I’ve been able to work with amazing up and coming women-ran business from the city as well as with some amazing non-profits.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d take them on the walk of their life around the island lol. What I have learned this summer is that something is always happening at all times in this city, you just gotta be outside lmfaoo.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout my highschool English & Dance teachers, Ms. Joyce & Ms. M!! They gave me the platforms to use my creativity in a multitude of ways, like letting me submit some school work in that creative nature; which made me become a lot more intentional with my choices when creating art. Through those opportunities they gave me in school, I was able to really push myself in directions I probably wouldn’t have gone towards. Without that encouragement, i’m not really sure what i’d be pursuing today

Website: www.nobodyasked.ca

Instagram: @myasofiyah

Twitter: @myasofiyah

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/myajasmine

Other: tiktok: @myasofiyah media platform : @nobodyasked.ca (Instagram)

Image Credits
featured image: John Dagsaan ( @johnslostfiles)