Check Out Alyssa Miree’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Miree

Hi Alyssa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Where do I begin? I am humbled and honored at this opportunity to share my story. It has been truly unbelievable and I am forever amazed at how God has shaped me through this city. I’ve had to grind, hustle, cry, scream, pray, believe, surrender, and embrace all while living here. I have spent the last few years working on my personal struggles with vulnerability and opening up so this platform to challenge myself to do so is an indescribable blessing. I hope my coming-of-age story not only comforts others but also cautions them on the cost of following your dreams and the cost of choosing not to.
With nothing but love,
Alyssa.

I became an Angeleno in 2014 to attend Loyola Marymount University. It had been a lifelong dream of mine to escape to LA (The Weeknd reference intended) from the brutal winters of Chicago and the East Coast I had endured. At 18, LA seemed like the land of endless possibilities and I felt as though I had endless potential. I had the best collegiate experience, and I am infinitely grateful for that opportunity. That community surrounded me with like-minded people and exposed me to a different caliber of lifestyle. It was very special for me to come to Los Angeles, a prestigious and intimate private school, in this context. Coming from the Midwest at the time – I went to high school in the Chicagoland area after living in Maryland for the majority of my childhood – Los Angeles was the most glamorous place on earth. I had never been exposed to so much privilege, wealth, status, or access. This was a whole new world for me, one I spent years designing in my vortex of desire that ended up manifesting. I felt so lucky.

I embraced these years fully, excelling greatly while seizing every opportunity that came my way with unwavering confidence and finesse. While studying Communications, I dove into every creative pursuit I could find—from internships in luxury furniture PR to editing for a publisher that produced airport travel magazines. I even landed a job at the coolest photography gallery in Manhattan Beach just by walking down the street and studying abroad in Florence, where I worked at an antique jewelry gallery with a store owner who didn’t speak a word of English. I felt unstoppable.

Many aspects of my life seemed unreal to me and I realize my own privilege as I recount them back. Since I was surrounded by peers with expectations of high achievements, mostly due to their own merits but also afforded to them due to their privilege, it was easy to become immersed in this. I was so far removed physically from where I came from and I had effectively reinvented myself. I mean why does anyone migrate to the Wild West?

I speak about this often. especially considering my journey with vulnerability. Many people judge Los Angeles as a superficial place, and while this is not entirely ill-intended or displaced. It is a premature conclusion that does not consider the full explanation. Think about it this way, historically pioneers traveled West in search of something – a new venture, a new identity, another chance. For centuries, people migrated West in the hope of reinvention. Imagine abandoning what you knew in pursuit of something perceived to be an improvement. With this newfound ability, one has the choice to curate who they are and most of all who they desire to become. Is this insincere? Possibly. But when you’re in your most defining adult years, Finding yourself and curating yourself are synonymous. Also, it is important to consider one of my favorite factors about California – its fertility. I’ll elaborate more on this soon, I cannot give everything all at once and the ideologies I’m sharing here were crafted from my experiences. So before I immerse us into this rabbit hole on my proverbial soap box, I need to finish my story.

Upon graduating from undergrad, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I just knew one thing – I need to stay in LA. I started working in the media industry immediately (before I graduated I had a full-time job at an ad agency in Playa Vista). This was an incredible opportunity, but I was far too immature to understand how. I had just turned 21 years old with a 401K company match and pet insurance. I did my best to go into work with the good attitude I’d advertised in my interview, but I could simply not fake the funk enough for corporate America. I felt like my creativity and voice were being stifled. I had a job working as a brand strategist for Hyundai – a very big girl job. I learned so much about the industry and business in general here. This led me to my next job, working in advertising sales for a vendor of my previous employer. Yikes, this also taught me many lessons about the industry and business in general. Both jobs were blessings, but this would be the last time I worked a traditional “job” and the last time I’d ever have a boss. See, for me, corporate was the safe route. It was the road most traveled for my family. It was the one they knew the most to guide me in, my school had the most resources for and was where the majority of my colleagues existed. But in 2020, as I was laid off from my job in cinema advertising, my boss told me, “It’s clear you don’t want to do this. You’re brilliant, you need to go lay on the beach and figure out what you want to do.” At the time, I found it insulting, but looking back, it was one of the best things he could have said to me (the movie theaters were closing anyway).

I, in fact, did sit on the beach in Malibu with my best friend Kara for months and tried to force a “purpose”. But it does not happen that way. This took a major stab at my ego and the self-image I spent the last few years curating as an overachiever. The one who “worked hard” and my accolades came from my merit alone. This time was very confusing and redefining for me as I had to reestablish my identity on a more stable foundation.

I started house-sitting and dog walking while I was working full-time to make some extra cash. This quickly and unexpectedly turned into a full-blown pet-care business, Pet Care by Alyssa, due to the good reviews and referrals I received. I grew this to having over 50 clients in Los Angeles, receiving over $30k in grant funding from companies like Goldman Sachs and Mastercard, and expanding my reach to provide pet care services at weddings. At the height of this, I would spend my days biking over 30 miles through LA to service my clients all over the city. I. became an avid biker, a hobby that my 12-year-old self fixated on as well. This became my primary mode of transportation for a while as it gave me the most unique immersion into the city. I learned Los Angeles in the most intimate way. Despite doubts, I was supported by my family during busy seasons and holidays. Alongside this, I applied for the Fulbright Award twice and became an alternate finalist—an accomplishment that challenged me to aim even higher and take risks with my aspirations.

Although I still service a few clients, I knew I wanted something more. I got selected to attend an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos as a background audience member. The wardrobe for the day was cocktail attire, and I was told what I wore was too revealing for ABC. (I’ll include a photo) But while I was backstage, I met a production assistant who told me to join Central Casting to get into background acting. I thought this was the coolest idea ever and immediately I signed up and in a week or so I was on set for my first shoot, Snowfall. I absolutely loved doing background and being on set. I was so grateful and thought this was the best job I’ve ever had in my life despite the pay. I was so humbled to be on set with some of my most revered performers and on my favorite shows. I had abandoned my childhood dream of becoming an actress at this point. I was extremely shy and soft-spoken as a child and my mom enrolled me into acting classes because she once thought I was deaf. After a doctor’s visit, she learned that I was perfectly fine, I just allowed my older brother to represent my thoughts. A practice that continues today. I loved acting and I pursued it committedly until middle school when other conflicting life experiences took over. I had no intentions of coming to LA to be in Hollywood, I knew better than that. But I could not deny how much I loved being on set.

While pursuing background acting, I also used my creativity to do DIY photoshoots, investing in camera equipment and taking
professional classes. Over time, I began getting paid to take photos of others as well, which further honed my skills and expanded my creative outlets. At first, I struggled with my anxiety about social media—especially Instagram, where old coworkers and childhood associates still followed me. But I pushed through my discomfort, sharing these photos weekly despite my fears. It’s something I still wrestle with today: the vulnerability of exposure.

Of course, the strike happened and that paused my background acting career right as it was beginning to take off. These experiences taught me adaptability and the ability to pivot. So, I immersed myself in another passion- horticulture. In Culver City, I found solace at Stoneview Nature Center so I began volunteering there weekly. This experience taught me so much about Los Angeles in a different light and I received a commendation from the County of Los Angeles for my volunteer work. I created a vision board and I said that I would like to learn more about gardening, within that year I received a certification from LA Green Grounds Community Garden in edible gardening and I became a University of California Master Gardener. This passion for gardening opened my perception of how fertile the land is in Los Angeles. Physically, California is a breeding ground for almost anything as it has the perfect conditions for growth. This is true for our dreams as well, that’s why it attracts so many people. It is the perfect environment to cultivate your desires. The land is conducive to growth and expansion; if you respect it, it will respect you.

This leads me to where I am today. I recently completed training to become a Pilates Instructor as a recipient of a diversity scholarship from Mighty Pilates in Santa Monica. As a way to practice my teaching, I started a YouTube channel – Alignment with Alyssa -to document my journey there and share my experience with vulnerability on social media. I continue to act in commercials, do freelance media work, and train AI. I’m excited to see where I am led to next. Los Angeles means so much to me and for the decade I’ve lived here I have fallen in love with this place. I aspire to be in a movie or host my own talk show one day, but I can be patient with arriving at that destination as I am thoroughly enjoying the journey and the many stops along the way.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been far from smooth, but I would not have it any other way. My sage brother Drew always tells me, “Smooth sea never made for skilled sailors.” No truer words have been uttered. It feels like no one warns you about all the sacrifices required to evolve. I guess nature does warn us if we really pay attention. The trees sacrifice their leaves, and the butterfly sacrifices its chrysalis. But when you’re up to bat and it’s your turn to swing, the losses sometimes make the risk of trying seem like a losing game. Some of those losses were deeply personal: deaths, and friendships. Some felt personal, like finances and jobs. But nothing is more personal than the sensation of losing yourself. Through all these losses, I’ve learned that shedding an outdated layer of your identity is the prerequisite for forward expansion. I see now that the sacrifice is more of an offering. It’s life gently nudging you to expect more of yourself and loving you unconditionally by giving you the free will to decide to evolve on your own terms.

I could go into detail about all the struggles I’ve endured to get to where I am today, or I could sum up the conclusions I’ve come to and provide reassurance to those who are struggling themselves. I could speak more specifically about some external struggles, but the truth is that all those struggles originated from within. I could speak about how my parent’s divorce affected me. Or how losing my job, relationships, family, and friends was something I had to overcome. I could explain how having an unsurmountable amount of student loan debt and misappropriating funds led me into financial ruin. While all those things might be true, I have to be honest with the fact that all of these “struggles” were self-induced, and I am no victim. I’m not saying I had control over when my stepdad passed or those high interest rates. I am saying that the perception of these events as struggles was entirely up to my interpretation.

I recently learned more about psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of stages of psychosocial development. He theorizes that at each stage, people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. If we successfully deal with the conflict, we emerge triumphant, equipped for the next stage. But if we fail, we might not develop adequately for the next stage or cultivate a strong sense of self. While in my young adult years—Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation—the goal is to cultivate strong personal relationships with the outcome of learning how to love. But before I could fully embrace intimacy, I had to first understand who I was outside of expectations, obligations, and old versions of myself.

That realization hit me hardest when I found myself sitting at my desk at my corporate job, staring blankly at an Excel sheet I didn’t care about. I had done everything ‘right’—got the degree, landed the job, secured the benefits. But why did it feel so wrong? The truth was, I had become a version of myself that fit everyone else’s expectations but my own. The layoff that followed should have felt like a failure, but instead, it was the first time in years I felt free. That moment forced me to ask: Who am I when I’m not performing for validation? And for the first time, I allowed myself to find out.

This led to a time of isolation. It was something I invited; it wasn’t as simple as choosing to be alone for the sake of personal growth. There’s something powerful about solitude, and I embraced it as a tool for reinvention. Moving to Los Angeles meant leaving behind the familiar, and that gave me the freedom to escape any external expectations and curate a new identity. There was a sense of liberation in that—being able to shape who I was without the weight of history or others’ perceptions. But as much as I sought that freedom, there were moments where the distance between myself and everything I left behind felt more deeply than I anticipated.

Being so far from my family, my friends, and the communities I once belonged to created an undercurrent of abandonment that I couldn’t ignore. The very thing I had sought—the ability to reinvent myself—sometimes left me feeling disconnected. I had moments where I longed for the familiar, for a sense of belonging that wasn’t built only on my terms. I chose isolation, yes, but in doing so, I unintentionally distanced myself from the circles that once offered me comfort and rootedness.

This tension between solitude and abandonment was complicated. There were times when I was relieved to be alone—free from others’ expectations, allowing Los Angeles to shape me. But there were also times when loneliness crept in, reminding me that in my pursuit to define myself, I had left behind parts of myself that I wasn’t quite ready to let go of. In my hyper-independence, I had always believed that I could do everything on my own, and to some extent, I felt I needed to prove that. I carried the weight of this belief with me, and it made opening up to others feel like a vulnerability I couldn’t afford. I had learned at an early age to rely on myself and tackle challenges alone, never truly learning how to lean on others for support. It was a delicate balancing act—creating space for growth while still yearning for connection. I both craved peace in solitude and felt the sting of separation from the familiar. The further I went physically from those I loved, the deeper that gap felt.

The most profound obstacle I have faced is in alignment with this theory: learning how to balance a strong sense of self and independence while simultaneously allowing myself to open up for intimacy. Every subsequent obstacle has been founded on this imbalance. To develop my strong sense of self, I had to first discover what that was. I had to do that by being authentic and making choices that reinforced that truth. I could no longer work at jobs that I knew were not right for me simply for a paycheck. Or participate in relationships that were misaligned because of history. Those losses were all imperative for me to become the truest version of myself. Once I went through a deep period of isolation, I was only then able to open myself up to intimacy because I was the designer of Alyssa Miree.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to service, creativity, and integrity. I have always been someone who is fascinated by many things, allowing myself to explore and develop a wide range of skills across different industries. Rather than confining myself to a single path, I honor my inner child by following my curiosity—whether that means capturing a fleeting moment through acting, curating compelling content, nurturing life through gardening, or helping others find balance through Pilates.

I take great pride in my professionalism, believing that excellence and dependability are just as important as creativity. I approach every project with intention and care, ensuring that my work is not only high-quality but also meaningful. My artistry and creative eye allow me to see things from unique perspectives, bringing beauty, depth, and storytelling into everything I do.

What sets me apart is my willingness to focus on myself—not in a self-centered way, but in a way that prioritizes alignment over external validation. By doing what fulfills me, I am able to show up fully, create from an authentic place, and serve in a way that is both intentional and impactful.

Above all, integrity is my foundation. No matter the industry or role, I move with honesty and authenticity, staying true to my values while remaining open to new possibilities. My work is a reflection of my passions, my commitment to service, and my belief that life is meant to be explored with curiosity and wonder.

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is my inner peace and alignment with Source despite how cliche it sounds— the understanding and connection to a greater force that guides my life. I believe that when I am in tune with this alignment, everything else flows effortlessly. My decisions, actions, and passions are fueled by a deep sense of purpose and trust in that greater force. It gives me clarity, strength, and the ability to navigate the ups and downs of life with grace.

Alongside this, my family plays an incredibly important role in my life. Their support, love, and encouragement keep me grounded, and knowing I am surrounded by people who believe in me is a constant reminder to stay true to myself.

But above all, I prioritize living a life I’m proud of. To me, that means being at peace with who I am—embracing my vulnerability, staying authentic to my values, and living with integrity. When I am aligned with myself and Source, everything I do is an extension of that, and I find fulfillment in knowing that I’m creating a life that reflects my deepest beliefs and aspirations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alyssamiree.my.canva.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssamiree/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC837Lp6CMTGEWpfJ4yUAo5A/?themeRefresh=1

Image Credits
Alyssa Miree