Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeanette Schock.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born and raised in Germany. I moved to Jacksonville, Florida for most of my schooling, and recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue my passion for acting. I have never considered myself a southern girl until I got a taste of the west coast. I’ll start by saying that I come from a great city. It’s big, great for business, and a great place to start a family. All of that sounds like the ideal package, but my mind had always been on another track.
I’ve always desired to wake up in a city where possibilities were endless and where I’d experience the good, the bad, and the ugly struggles of life independently. I decided to move to Los Angeles because I always cut myself short and wanted more out of life. I hated being comfortable in an environment where everyone was comfortable. I always found a way to travel outside of my city and explore different environments. For many years I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do in life where I would feel 100% complete internally. I picked up my first playbook when I landed a lead role in a play called “Hot L Baltimore,” written by Lanford Wilson. I found it very interesting learning about a woman that was opposite to me, from her personality to her lifestyle. To live this person I had to internally connect with and become this character as well as create a world around me. During this process, I fell in love with the art of acting. I started to put my all into my acting classes and for the first time, I began to get excited to read stacks of papers, which before this I hated. From this day forward is when I decided I wanted to be an actor.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Struggling as a young woman trying to figure out her plan, I tried to find many different routes. I was a server, a cheer coach, and I also became an esthetician and established my own business that I enjoyed. Over some time, I realized the money looked better than my actual fulfillment. I woke up every day questioning why I was not pursuing what I wanted full time, continuing to pray for answers. One day, a few doors closed unexpectantly, and on this very day, I realized that these doors needed to be closed in order to walk fully into the start of my whole life. A new door was waiting for me to walk in. A few days later, I found my old journal where I stated, “2 to 3 years I will be in LA.” Exactly three years ago was when I wrote that. Out of the blue, the date August 15th came to mind to be settled in Los Angeles. Three months had passed, and I left everything back home and finally made my way to LA by driving 36 hours across the country and arriving on the date of August 17th. Manifestation.
No journey is easy; especially when it is something you truly want in life. My parents split right before I was entering middle school, and my dad left back to Germany at this time too. It was very hard to see the most important people in your life fall apart right before your eyes. My mother was raising four children under the age of 16 by herself, working two plus jobs to put food on the table, and living in a house that we could not afford while my oldest brother had to take the role of a father. I never understood the struggle and why she worked so hard for us until I parted ways on my own. At the age of 19 years old, I moved to Miami to pursue modeling and go to school. Modeling was a passion of mine. I loved the fact that a woman could express her feelings and natural beauty all through a lens.
Unfortunately, I struggled through Body-Shaming for many years. In the eye of the public, I was too skinny, and in the eye of an agent or client, I was too chubby. When you hear this for several years, it starts to affect you. I became very insecure, depressed, unmotivated, and struggled to eat too little or too much. I felt as if I had no say or control over the most precious things a woman has, her security, and respect. For about four months in Miami, I gradually became very distant from the world. The contact I had with people disappeared, and my home was my safe zone. I worked every day and hid at home. On Sundays, I would go to church alone. This became my blessing in disguise, I learned what being lonely felt like but during this time I learned more about my faith and myself then I have ever before. When I decided that I wanted to pursue acting full throttle, it allowed me to learn that who I am today and on is who you are going to get, my body is what you are going to respect, love it or hate it, this is me. I also learned to be patient. I understood that every chapter of your life, the good and bad are all for a purpose, your purpose. Since then, I have been able to weed out the people in my life who do not impact me internally, and I have been able to be patient in the process and people.
What else should our readers know?
My secret is in my simplicity. I’m real with no senseless gestures. I come as I am, and I hold that very close to my heart. I am in the process of creating content and building myself up from the bottom while working hard and trusting the process, and God.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I had a fascination with cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds. I enjoyed variations of different foods, different languages, and different conversations. To this day, I love to observe people and the world around me. This was the beginning of me always wanting more and learning more. This hints at my favorite hobby… traveling. It gave me a different perspective of life, and that was to always enjoy the small things, as well as appreciate them while they are here.
I never had a group of girlfriends, just a few friends here and there. My friends wore dresses, and I would wear gym shorts. You would catch me in all black, with a Jabbawockeez mask on for Halloween while the girls would wear princess costumes. Later on, I struggled to be around people in my age group. During high school football games, I always sat with the parents, and on weekends I binged watched movies and watched my brothers play call of duty with their friends. My older brothers were my heart. They bullied me countless times, but I would never leave their side, still today we are best friends. I loved sports, but I also had a love for cheering. I was a competitive cheerleader for nine years; it was my heart. The discipline, dedication, physical and mental strength, and endurance I received from it shaped me into the very strong-minded woman I am today.
Contact Info:
- Email: jeanettemschock@gmail.com
- Instagram: jeanette.schock
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZoitgom7P8rnVuRuazu1lw
Image Credit:
Roxy Rodriguez, Kevin Johnson, Joshua Santana
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