Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Tillman-silva
Hi Brittany, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I would say that I had unusual and humble beginnings. I was adopted by my foster mother when I was about eight or nine. I am very blessed to have been raised by a mother like Ruth Tillman and her older adult children because they provided my younger brother and I a safe, wholesome and loving family environment. They went out of their way to make sure that we were never treated any less than family. They afforded us private school education and a firm Christian upbringing and foundation. I credit a lot of who I am today because of my foster family discipline, structure, and guidance. Every opportunity I get, I always give them credit.
I have always considered myself to be an artist, a very creative individual. Since I was young I was always drawing doodling and scrapbooking. But I was never really encouraged to pursue art as a hobby or even career because my mom would always tell me that artists never make any money and artists only make money when they’re dead…
This led me to feel insecure about my artistic skills and talents and even caused me to suppress them for very many years. I eventually focused my attention to my intellectual skills and interest in science where I found much success and accomplishment. I attended and graduated from Cal State Dominguez Hills with a bachelor’s degree in biology. While in college, I was accepted into an NIH funded program supporting young minority students who were interested in the STEM fields called the MBRS RISE program. This program eventually led me to dedicating 10 years to biomedical research at La Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA medical center, where I worked as a lab technician in the pathology department under renowned pathologist, Dr. Samuel French. During this time I co-authored over 20 research publications in the journal of experimental pathology on alcoholic liver disease. And have worked with UCLA, UC Davis, and Harvard. I am very proud of the work that I was able to contribute to research and biomedicine. I still receive emails of my work being cited to this day!
All this science, all this logic, all this hard work eventually got to me and not having a creative outlet eventually made me very depressed. So after graduating college I had more spare time and I decided to start sewing in 2015. I initially began creating cute and silly outfits and costumes for my little sister, Gabby. We would spend the weekend making plushies and tie dye shirts. The creativity that I had long been suppressing had re-emerged.
I bought a used sewing machine off of Craigslist and began teaching myself how to sew, draft, and manipulate patterns by using books I found at the library and YouTube tutorials. It was like my creative floodgates had been opened.
The better I got at garment design, I started to post them on Facebook and eventually Instagram. Sewing actually help to get me out of my Shell. I would not consider myself to be shy but reserved and introverted. And making clothes was like wearing and armor and mask. It allowed me to be brave enough to go out to various events in La, like raves, BDSM/kink parties, festivals, etc. where I was able to meet and connect with other creative like-minded individuals. Being that iron sharpens iron, being around so many other creative people only inspired and motivated me to design and create more! And from then on Unworldly was born around 2019.
Being the overzealous and busy Bee that I am, I also partnered with my now husband, Leland, to incorporate, manage and bookkeep for his construction and maintenance business in 2018. I did this for seven long years and though I did not like it, I am now reaping the benefits of our hard work and due diligence as it led to us being able to buy our first home in the South Bay! And an added bonus is that my husband converted our garage and den into ADUs, One of which we are currently renting to travel nurses.
And I have done so many other things in between like phlebotomy, sterile processing, property management, cold/ hot process soap making, growing cannabis and cigar leaves, pole dancing, and even raising chickens!!
Wow! Writing this interview has really opened my eyes to how much I have accomplished in so little time and how far I have come!
And how much more there is for me to do!
As of December 2023, I gave birth to my greatest masterpiece of all time, my gorgeous baby girl! She is so awe-inspiring! She of pure love, a love I have never in my life experienced!! And she has brought me so much inspiration, motivation and encouragement!
And after all the grinding and hard work and even with all the constant career changing and bouncing around, it is nice to have a home and some stability because I know that it is a privilege and blessing to have stability in these hard times. Moreover, with this stability I also know I will be able to do more and grow more in my art/creative career!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing in my life has been easy or conventional. Visibility and community have been my primary struggles.
I have always struggled with not feeling seen and being undervalued in various aspects of my life. After having been on social media for a while as both a consumer and a content creator, I eventually realized how damaging it was becoming to my overall mental health and sense of self-worth.
In order to be seen on social media you have to constantly be pushing out content to the algorithm gods.
Social media has made art into fast content. “Good” art is slow.
And eventually it can lead to burnout and frustration to having spent so much time and effort chasing likes and views and even worse basing the quality and value of my work on how many likes I did or did not get. I started to believe that I was not good enough and that my work was not good enough because no one was seeing or liking it.
Another one of my struggles is community. I don’t have a very strong family/ friend base or a strong social network. I have spent a lot of time making my presence known in various creative spaces. And I always seem to feel out of place. A lot of people claim that they are about female empowerment, sisterhood, finding your tribe and camaraderie, but it is all virtue signaling and a facade. I have experienced a lot of toxicity, gatekeeping, jealousy, and unhealthy competition. I never feel acknowledged or appreciated. And eventually the rejection led me to believe that something was wrong with me.
However, after a lot of reflection, I came to realize that it is okay if I am not everyone’s cup of tea. There is nothing wrong with me, there’s nothing wrong with my art, and that I am merely not reaching the right audience.
So that is my focus moving forward is finding quality people that are meant for me and building strong connections.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Well I can do a little bit of everything. I am multi- talented, multifaceted and multi-dimensional. I am a jack of all trades, and pride myself in that, although that identifier does get a bad rap as being someone who is wishy-washy, fickle and probably not very good at any one particular thing.
Thankfully that is not the case for myself and I think that is what makes me stand out. I don’t believe in half-assing anything, periodt!
I really take the time to immerse myself in the learning process of any new thing that I pick up. I like to hyper focus on mastering and understanding all the fine and oftentimes tedious details of things. And it is only a bonus that I am naturally a fast learner and am able to execute with precision on the first time.
To be honest, I may just be addicted to learning and researching and trying new things.
I am primarily known for my creative and artistic skills and also my science and research accomplishments.
For the past few years I have been working on my brand Unworldly. It is a brand that centers around going above and beyond.
To Infinity and beyond!
It’s about not being afraid to be different and to stand out. It is about unconventionality. It’s about finding purpose in unusual circumstances. It’s about paving one’s own destiny even when life has left us crashed landed.
It is primarily a clothing brand, but I would also like to branch out and showcase some of my other hobbies and interests. I would love to make Unworldly into a DIY/lifestyle YouTube channel centered around my day-to-day life as the wife of a contractor, a first time mother and an multi-passionate artist trying to find her way!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
To be honest I don’t know where life will take me in the next 5 to 10 years.
One thing motherhood has taught me is to just take life day by day. And to live in the present. To appreciate and take joy in what I have now.
But wherever I will be or whatever changes happen in life or the industry, I am ready to dive all in because I have never been afraid of challenges or trying something new or even having to evolve myself for the better to get to where I need to go! Game on!
Pricing:
- Swimwear starting at $60
- Dresses starting at $250
- Jackets starting at $350
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/i.am.unworldly?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/gA4icaGJGNg?si=Zu9LCNq2FYHKAYRS
- Other: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Brittany+Tillman
