Check Out Aliesha Renea’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aliesha Renea.

Hi Aliesha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m the founder of Aliesha Renea brand, a unique clothing brand for women and men. It is a street-style awareness brand that builds strength and empowerment. I’m from Columbus, OH and I moved to New York for college and to have a better relationship with my father. My mother told me not to go because he never wanted me, but I wanted to because the times I did see him in my life I cherished them.

By my second semester of college, my father disappeared. I didn’t know what was going on and why he left me. I dropped out of college and moved in with my boyfriend at the time. Then he got kicked out for having me there so we had to go to a shelter. I was already experiencing cheating and abuse from him so I was kind of happy to go to the shelter where he couldn’t continue to do those things. But I was wrong, this man continued to abuse me in public and he continued to be unfaithful. It was a mess. I ended up getting into a better shelter and yet I was still with him. I couldn’t leave him. Although I literally couldn’t stand being around him, I was so scared to leave.

I ended up leaving a really great shelter to be with him which was dumb. But we rented rooms from that point and I ended up separating from him eventually by getting my own room to rent in Brooklyn and he was in queens. I don’t know what happened to his room so he asked to stay with me. I let him until he kept abusing me. He head-butted me and smacked me for the last time and for the first time in 2 years I called the police. They came and escorted him out. The next day, he waited for me at the train station but I asked him to leave me alone, I think he finally saw I was serious and he never really bothered me again. Thank GOD!

In 2015, I started dating someone else who was older than me who had an amazing HUSTLE! He worked at the same job as me, but he also rapped and sold his own clothing. He made me more ambitious. I ended up selling clothing as a side hustle since he had the machines. But it was just like a regular brand I called “Leelee Designs” it didn’t really have a purpose. It was just to help me make extra money to pay my bills. I didn’t have a passion for fashion at that time. That relationship soon ended due to his ego but the relationship taught me a lot and helped me want to really figure out my purpose in life.

In 2016, I ended up moving out the room I was renting because it was too expensive and I couldn’t keep up with the payments, so I ended up hearing about a shelter called “Ali Forney” which is an LGBTQ shelter. I’ve always been bisexual so I felt this was a great shelter for me to try out. I did my intake and I got in and when I got there the place was underneath a church building with like 20 bunk beds inside, 2 showers and one bathroom. It looked just like the movies, I was like OMGGGG I hit rock bottom!! I was nervous, scared and depressed.

I ended up being able to get into the advance part of Ali Forney shelter so they moved me to a better place in Brooklyn. I was happy because I only shared rooms with 1-2 people. One day I believe me and my bestfriend was having a conversation and he told me one of the residents at the drop-in location committed suicide. That is when I got the idea to start my AWARENESS BRAND and I decided to call it my name: Aliesha Renea! I was at a very low point in my life. I struggled with depression and just being uncomfortable and also I noticed the people around me did as well. I decided to start this brand to show that anything is possible and to help other people who are going through the same issues. I write poetry but I felt like it wasn’t enough. I felt like it wasn’t reaching the amount of people I wanted it to. I felt like I needed to do more. So I decided to make clothing since everybody seemed to be into fashion. No matter what anyone was going through at the shelters, we all tried to look our best!

My mission is to bring awareness to the issues that we face in society everyday through fashion using my own personal life experiences (body shaming, domestic violence, mental health, etc) I realized over the years, the more I shared my own trauma; the more people opened up about their trauma. I would get direct messages on Instagram saying I helped them leave their domestic violence relationships because I would post pictures of my own abuse stories. I got messages saying my mental health design and how opening up about my own trauma helped them cope with what they were going through. The more messages I got the more I realized people actually understood my WHY and I fell in love with what I do even more. Also releasing all my trauma takes a lot of weight off my shoulder and I can live more at peace. I am a proud, strong black woman and I am determined to be an example of what we all can do when we do not lose our sense of where we came from and have the drive to work hard to make our dreams a reality.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has NOT been a smooth road. When you start a business in a shelter you have no money and you have no freedom. I had a curfew and I had suffered from so much depression that I didn’t even think my brand would even develop to what it is now. FAITH has gotten me here. I pray daily and without God I wouldn’t be able to get through those voices in my head telling me to give up and telling me to commit suicide. I didn’t think I was enough and I kept telling myself like what am I doing, I can’t afford a business. BUT GOD was like girl you better tell your story. You better do what you love and I got you!! God always had my back and without my faith I am nothing!! One of the struggles was just not having money because I didn’t have a consistent job until 2017 when I start working at Sprint. Another struggle was fighting off the devil and not listening to those voices telling me that I should quit and that I don’t belong in the world.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I currently work at Target part-time however my passion is poetry and fashion. It’s weird because I always wanted to be a lawyer and that’s just not my passion at all anymore. I love waking up every day and working for myself full time. I love to sit down at my computer desk and start writing my poems for my second poetry book that I am hoping to release in December. My first poetry book is called “Internally Dying” and it’s a really deep book about things that happened to me in my life that made me feel like I was internally dying. My second poetry book will be called “Dark Memories” and it’s really going into more detail about my past trauma.

Honestly, if I had the funds to be able to quit Target and work for myself full time I would. I struggle with keeping inventory and the funds for marketing. If I had the money for both, I would definitely take a leap of faith and just focus on my business. Working for someone else just does not bring me peace.

I am most proud of my 2019 BILLBOARD in Times Square, that was an emotional moment for me. It was like WOWWWW I started this business in a shelter and now my pictures are on the billboard in one of the biggest cities. I was HAPPY in that moment to show anything is possible when you are determined and you have FAITH!

I think what sets me apart from others is my spirit and my story! A lot of people think I have a poker face when I’m around people because I go through so much behind closed doors and when I am around people I am always smiling and laughing. Honestly, it’s not a poker face! I literally just do not like bringing my own problems and negative energy to a place where people could be at peace. Sometimes you don’t know what others are going through and if you show up angry and crying and depressed; you could make their day worst. But when you show up laughing, smiling, singing and dancing and just all-around great energy; you make their day better. Even when I go to work now at target and I cried my eyes out praying because of my own trauma I’m facing; when I walk inside that door none of that matters. I’m always saying good morning and singing and making everyone happy because life is too short and you can’t live with negativity. We all going to have problems but it’s how you react to those problems.

My spirit is something you could never kill. Whether I burned bridges with people in the past and wish I didn’t. Life is all about growing and learning. I take accountability for my wrongdoings and I move on and make sure it doesn’t happen again. If I lived every day mad and sad about my past mistakes, I’ll be bitter, angry and just all-around negative. Nobody wants to be around a negative person!! So I don’t live my life that way.

I was always told my energy is different. It’s like when I walk in the room people just look at me because they can feel my energy, I LOVE THAT! I strongly believe God put me on this earth to make others happy and I had to go through what I go through to share my story and help others! My clothing brand is not just a regular clothing brand it’s a MESSAGE! BE AWARE IN STYLE IS MY MOTTO! We can try to go through life and push our trauma to the back of our minds but it will always be there if you don’t face it. THIS IS ME FACING MY TRAUMA! This brand is me getting out my own trauma and helping others with theirs. We don’t always have to live life like that. When you are wearing one of my “Anti-domestic violence” shirts, you are not re-living in your trauma; you are having the courage to say THIS PERSON TRIED TO BREAK ME AND I’M STILL STANDING!

My brand is to help people realize we go through a lot of issues in society but we are still here. We are still living life. LIFE BE LIFING!!! Those situations that we cried about saying we can’t get through, look at us.. we got through it. Wearing “Aliesha Renea” makes you a survivor. You overcame so much and look at you still able to try and conquer more! When I released my “Anti-body shaming” swimwear collection I wanted women and men to LOVE the skin their in; whether that’s XS or 4XL. Society has created an image that doesn’t exist and they want you to look a certain way. Some clothing brands are only sizes small through large, I don’t like that which is why I made sure every person any color any size looks their best. That sets me apart from others as well. When it comes to YOU vs society… YOU WON and that’s how my brand makes people feel!!!

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
This one is a really hard question to answer because I am very transparent with what I go through. I put myself out there and I’m an open book! I guess I can say I’m so hard on the outside but I love very hard on the inside. II LOVE PEOPLE. The people God actually sent on the earth not the evil ones. I could literally cry about anything that hurts anyone whether I know them or not. I pray for a lot of my enemies as well. I hate drama even if I caused it LOL. I instantly always want to work things out with people. I do not like looking like a bad person when my heart is pure but I am still willing to take the fault for another person so they don’t look bad.

Sometimes I find myself asking God to fix relationships that broke me in the past just because I don’t like when people don’t like me. If there is a way to talk it out, I am always willing to talk it out. I am definitely one of those people who act like I don’t care about losing friends or family but cry later LOL. I find myself praying a lot for the world because I don’t like death although it’s a part of life. I just wish everyone could live forever and be happy forever. I always felt like happy moments shouldn’t end. I don’t even like to fight because I’ll cry afterward lol. I just don’t like hurting people physically, emotionally, or verbally.

It’s crazy but a lot of the bonds that are broken I wish I could get back and just figure out what went wrong. My biggest fear is being HATED for past mistakes I’ve learned from because I’m really a great person at heart and would do anything to make sure anyone is happy around me. I guess that’s the Pisces in me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aliesharenea.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ALIESHARENEA/
• Facebook: Aliesha Renea
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALIESHARENEA_