Life & Work with Brittany Acosta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Acosta.

Hi Brittany, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Well, where to start and finish? I first stumbled onto VoyagerLA when I saw one of my good friends and homie Lyric Johnson’s article posted on his FB wall, and man is that dude talented<3 I also saw Mini Trees, another one of my favorite recent vinyl I’ve been spinning did an article and so much respect for the realness of Lexa. I also saw a talent acquirer for AGT, Naela, was interviewed by you guys, and I said, you know what? It’s my turn! I could and am in the process of writing a whole book about my life. I have been told by so many people I need my own reality show ever since I was younger and to write a book the way Goldie Hawn fashioned a similar upbringing and breaking into her craft. I came from a very small and impoverished area of the Philadelphia, my family Italian and Puerto Rican, with a dash of German from my mom’s side, whos from Pittsburgh, PA. My father passed away when I was in school and my mom was a 3rd generation waitress, and I’m most recently a graduate and the first person from my family to graduate college, I walk in a few weeks actually and it is such a big moment for me! I’m constantly defying others’ expectations of me and pretty much everyone besides my family will tell you, as well as my other autistic friends, that they never knew nor do some even believe im autistic but I share a lot of similarities to someone with down syndrome socially, and even at times Altzheimers.

I took care of a 103-year-old woman with it and I believe my ID helped me immensely with communicating in a way that she would understand, and that was music. Music has always been the one thing that people have admired about me, even if they didn’t like me, there’s no denying they didn’t respect my hustle and constant go-getter attitude, I attribute this to growing up having my mother yelling at me for eating the last slice of bread, being so impoverished. I grew up in a neighborhood with a high crime and drug problem, even prostitution, but went to school with the likes of the richest people in my city solely because of an academic scholarship and a lot of begging and pleading to be given a chance. that is not much of my style, but my mom has heavily relied on that being her primary mode of action to get every job she has ever had. She still to this day tells me to write to Christina Aguilera because maybe, just MAYBE, she will surprise me with a visit. I wish it worked like that nowadays. bless her soul, my mom is my number one fan from the very beginning and I credit her for why I’m my biggest critic and why I persevere no matter what. She set such an example as so that there is no going back, this is now or never, slow and steady wins the race though is how I live nowadays after I had a recent surgery on my stomach due to literally not being able to afford the food or supplements I need as an autistic person, but I heavily rely on her tactics to kill people with kindness, but the rebel in me says to kill them with tenacity as well!

I eventually did try out for a couple reality shows and refused to sign the NDAs, especially as they werent paying for room and board at the very least, one of those being American Idol, which ran their talent much like a concentration camp, and I was so devastated by this show I watched my whole life as a kid, thinking this was going to be my ticket to my dream, only to finally see all the behind the scenes and be completely floored by disappointment that its not all about the talent, or the stories, but heavily political based and geared towards what every media or viewed event is, its the views and what gets people’s attention, I realized this very quickly when I was crying because the last time I auditioned was when I was a teenager and they said they already had “too many blondes” on the show, and it was the very last time I would see my dad before he passed from cancer not even 2 months later on my senior recognition night, and my mom created a scene that night already that was something relatable to “Carrie,” or a mortifying moment in a movie. its been such a trip my life, and I believe every little nuance and detail has shaped into the strong, confident individual here today. I went offline for almost a decade after my stint with American Idol made national news, I dropped out of school for Broadway Theatre, I just wanted my life to end, but it wouldn’t, and I’m so glad it didn’t because it just wasnt the right time I think in pop music for me anyway. 2010’s was a decade of debauchery and self-destruction and it conflicted with everything I have ever stood for, sexual exploitation, I was supposed to get a record deal in Times Square at Quad Studios before Cardi B took over, and I remember the direction I was going and how everything was happening so fast, it felt foreign, and not aligning with who I was as a person and as a young person on her own like Madonna, autistic on top of that, I stepped out and felt like I was lost, and no good, because I didn’t do what others wanted from me, but I’m so fortunate for that because look what has happened to Lady Gaga, and Demi Lovato, etc.

My heart goes out to these people who have had to have the public watching their every move, and I don’t think I was cut out to handle something like that in that time period. I could really go on and on about everything but the thing I think that hurt the most was when I DID go back online and youtube, etc and saw a very young girl saying I ruined her life because we have the same name, and the way the American Idol news stories were painted it was obvious clickbait, and my life was also ruined as well in Hollywood. I even had someone from my same neighborhood running around Hollywood telling various events and venues not to book me, wanna know what happened to him? He recently just came back to town after sinking his temporary residency at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas and partying too much, came up to me to hit on me, and I said hello! remember me? yeah, the American Idol girl. his eyes were so wide and he beelined for the door because the glow-up and success is real I guess, right? I am a firm believer in karma and it eventually circles back around to those that wanted to tell you to commit suicide and exactly how to do it, and yet you’re still standing stronger and better than ever, and it always catches up to the energy vampires and their sabotaging, negative ways. I want to be able to tell that young girl, Nicole Acosta because that is what I go by now as well, that you are IMMENSELY talented, we BOTH don’t need American Idol(she also did the rebooted version and didn’t make the finals, but man can she sing with some passion, it must be Latina thing;*) <3 I really just want to help as many young people as I can because I want to be there for the girl that feels alone and cornered and like giving up, don’t. I have been involved with a few nonprofits for autism and an advocate for those in impoverished situations and if I can do it, so can you! nothing brings me more joy than to be the adult that younger me needed for these younger kids <3.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
To elaborate more on what I’ve already touched the tip of the iceberg with, I also believe I saw at one point you had interviewed the mega-famous now, Moses Storm, and I think we have similar struggles of how we grew up. I didn’t grow up on a bus with a bunch of siblings though, but I definitely had my own struggles defying the odds of being autistic and having to hide it so I didn’t get bullied, I still did anyway, but most of the time because I’m extremely passionate about standing up to bullies and I wouldn’t and couldn’t stand to just be a bystander when I would see people getting pushed and shoved around, so I would be the martyr instead, I think it made me so resilient and desensitized to the trolling culture and name-calling, it’s like, can you come up with something original and actually TRUE at this point? lol my father lived across the state, my mom did the very best she could with raising my brother and I, but we struggled a TON. I remember writing letters to my friend’s parents to adopt me at one point, it was crazy.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am and always will be an every artist, meaning I do ten different things all the time, I go between being an activist to helping out the homeless, disabled, minorities, sometimes I feel like I relate to Jesus with all the good I do, honestly! it gives me purpose though and helps me to relax, to help others. relaxing is such a hard thing to do for an autistic person, we feel like relaxing on a beach or any sort of non-productive thing is boring or a waste of time. It’s referred to as “white space.” I am a runway model turned fashion designer, although I started designing my own clothes from what my mom bought at goodwill at a very young age, now that’s the “cool” thing, but it was very much quite the contrary ten years ago. So that’s cool that my fashion is what’s trendy now. no pressure to fit in when you are what’s in, FINALLY! ^-^ I focus the most energy and time into choreographing and singing, and songwriting however, but also possess a law degree as of a couple of months ago!

I was really on my way to being very successful in acting then the pandemic hit, but I was booked 14 times within a month and a half when I first started out! so that’s exciting, and I also on the side screen write shoot content constantly, my TikTok is findyourownhome. YouTube is @nicoleacosta586. but if you accidentally just type in Nicole Acosta, DO check out the younger girl by my name as well, such immense talent and also an American Idol alumni! I also stay sane by hitting up comedy open mics once a month, those are my people and it’s like unheard of an autistic comedian, so we enjoy each other all of us. One of my first friends out in Hollywood was the uber-huge star from the new Scream movie, Jamie Kennedy, what a hunk! I used to blow my friends off going to movie premieres on Thursday nights to tune in and watch my favorite crush JK Experiment 😉

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
If you would like to contact me, I am looking for new collaborators and I am very much like if Howard Stern, Charlotte Laws, and Elon Musk, and even Andy Warhol had a love child. Quite the mix, huh? I can be reached at [email protected]. Thank you so much for allowing me to share my story that due to feeling overwhelmed when American Idol happened, I missed all of the radio stations and publications that wanted to interview me sitting in my message requests on Facebook back then. Thank you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: coleladylala
• Facebook: lady lala
• Youtube: nicoleacosta586
• SoundCloud: Brittany Nicole Acosta

Image Credits
Al Reid Pittsburgh