Life & Work with Amy Lee of Highland Park, Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Lee

Hi Amy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey began when I uploaded my first YouTube video on personal style over 13 years ago when I was just 17 years old. This eventually led into a unforgettable, pretty successful journey of 10 years of being an influencer. While I began posting fashion and beauty in the beginning, it eventually led into self-development, spirituality, and mental health/trauma as I naturally grew more passionate about those topics. Since the pandemic, as I saw there was a huge mental health crisis, the last three years of my life, I transitioned and got certified for life coaching.

Since then, I have been helping young women (primarily Gen Z and Millennial) of color (and one male client!) break their toxic, inherited cycles, reclaim the truth of who they are, and step into transformative self-worth. I’ve worked with over 30 clients who have struggled with abusive parents, heroin addiction, domestic violence, and more. It’s been such a fulfilling, wild ride and now I am currently pursuing my passions of being a writer. I write and host an online writing newsletter called To Be Seen & Safe that sends one piece of creative writing, usually an intimate, honest story of my life, with a bit of levity, that revolves around trauma/triumph, pain/power, love/loss, on the first every month for $1/month.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have evolved and transformed a lot, in the public sphere, since I was a teen to a young adult now going into my thirties, for everyone to comment on and scrutinize. There are have been many real struggles: mental, emotional, sometimes financial, all whilst going through growing pains. But the biggest struggle was trusting my own gut and sticking to my guns, especially in a sticky world of big dollar signs, and ultimately, not being fearful or resistant of each transformation. Would I lose my audience if I changed from fashion/beauty to self-development/spirituality? Would I lose my audience from going to a YouTuber to a transformational life coach? And now, am I going to lose my audience from going to a life coach to a writer/artist? Following my heart and being in my own integrity, not for money or optics or for viewership, has been the biggest struggle but the most rewarding. It has always worked out in the end, and in my favor. The Universe has my back!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Currently, I do some private 1:1 life coaching, through an application and interview process. I am only taking on special cases, at this time, but if it’s a right fit, I transform my clients’ lives through deeply cultural and spiritual perspectives along with comprehensive psycho-education, and through the application of somatic-focused practices such as ecstatic dance, yoga, breath work, and more. It is the only program (that I know of) that is spiritual, practical, trauma-informed and LGBTQIA+/POC focused, along with highlighting communities such as those living with chronic illness, disabilities, etc.

Most recently, I am transitioning into becoming an author and artist. Most of my writing is memoir-style with a mix of self-help and meets at the intersections of comparing and contrasting trauma and triumph, pain and power, and love and loss. I tell intimate, honest stories of my life and my journey to healing and reclaiming my authentic self. I have been through a lot, to say the least, and if my stories can help just one person (how Lady Gaga of me), that is my intention and hope. Ultimately, though, I write for my younger self, who needed to read these stories to help contextualize and support her through extreme pain and trauma. Like her own life manual. And also, for her to know she isn’t alone. Though the topics may seem heavy, I also think my writing does a good job of being both concise and oddly fun/playful, which is very indicative of my own personality. (After everything I’ve been through, I would be dead without my sense of humor or lightheartedness.)

Currently, my artwork and paintings focus on colorful, joyful snapshots of moments that spark joy to my inner child: my dog sleeping in my living room, my brother’s new backyard, a cool Mustang car in Highland Park amongst the palm trees. I work primarily with acrylic and watercolor painting. I am aiming to host my first exhibition within the next year.

What are your plans for the future?
Right now, I am focused on and looking to get my writing into more hands and eyes, and hopefully, will land a book deal within the near future. I am also hoping to have my first art exhibition in the next year or so.

But as someone who has been a chronic overachiever due to childhood neglect her whole life, I’m just along for the ride, living and surrendering to the present, most of all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://seenandsafe.beehiiv.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/amy_lee
• Other: https://tobeseenandsafe.com