Life & Work with Chandler Love of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chandler Love.

Hi Chandler, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Colorado Springs, CO and have literally always been artistic (and autistic, but we’ll cover that later.). From what I’ve heard from my parents, it took me a long time to start speaking and when I finally got around to it, it was not only a full sentence, but I also sang it. So from the moment I knew how to speak I was creating art.
I grew up in a ballet and musical theater that my mom used to teach and perform with, so I was consistently surrounded by art of some sort. Of course, I fell in love with it.
Throughout my childhood, I had various different ventures, whether it was being the comedic relief in various ballets, trying to get the lead in a musical, or having a few different bands with my sister and best friend Cassie.
By the time I was 18, I knew that I wanted to be a performer of some sort, so I packed up my things and moved to Austin, TX to pursue music full time. After playing a few side shows during South By Southwest, I decided to try my first side quest and I auditioned to be an immersive actor at the (at the time) top Haunted House in the country. I got the position and within a few weeks was promoted to a more lead role. Thus began my love for acting beginning. While I was working at the haunt, I also met a few friends that did modeling for a hobby and I was so extremely intrigued. I started reaching out to photographers in my area to do collaborative photoshoots, but after a few month, due to mental health issues, I decided that Austin wasn’t exactly the place for me. I packed my things and moved back to Colorado.
Once I was back in Colorado I started fervently pursuing modeling. I started reaching out to as many photographers, I could, started practicing runway walks, even auditioned for Denver Fashion Week and got through. (I walked for them quite a few times).
Through the years, I found my absolutely wonderful and dear Mother Agent, Ellen. After proving that I was dedicated and had an absolute love for the art, she signed me on and has been helping guide me ever since.
I ended up moving to New York and Philadelphia where I was then signed with True and Click Philly where I started booking pretty regular fit modeling jobs. I did a few print jobs and auditions every single week. It was absolutely exhilarating!
After about 4 years on the east coast (maybe less), due to personal issues, I very quickly made the decision to pack up my entire life and my dog and move to Los Angeles.
Once I got here, I was able to live near my sister (yes, the one from before) where she is pursuing her DJ career and we are able to help each other pursue various things!
Since I’ve been here, I’ve once again found a love for acting and have been pursuing that in addition to my modeling career. I’ve made beautiful, wonderful, and supportive friends and we all support each other in pursuit of the art dream. I have the privilege of working with some wonderful people, meeting thousands of people and being around other driven and creative people. It’s a dream come true!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh god, no. hahaha
In fact, it’s been the absolute opposite of smooth.
But that’s okay, because the outcome is worth it.
When I was in Colorado, the issue was my weight. When I was in New York, the issue was my time, when I moved here, the issue is volume.
The thing is that I don’t know that a smooth road exists when you’re going after something that is this widely loved, and that’s okay. Just like how not everyone gets to be a CEO, not everyone gets to be an actor, model, or a musician. It’s a huge privilege alone to be able to pursue it at all!
The road is always challenging especially for someone that has low self esteem, which I have struggled with for my entire life. I grew up in a challenging household, I didn’t have a ton of friends in school, I never was self assured until recently and that is a huge hindrance when you’re pursuing something that is based off of your confidence.
Trust me when I say that I absolutely love what I get to do. Anytime I’m able to walk onto a set (paid or not) I recognize how truly blessed I am to have an opportunity such as that. Something so many people dream of and I get to live. But the amount of therapy I have had to go through to work on loving myself no matter what people say about me, no matter what size I am, it’s been a real and true struggle.
I am also privileged enough to have a superb team of therapists that I see every single week that are helping me with that battle. (I am a strong advocate for therapy) Together they have helped keep me from falling back into disordered eating, and I have finally reached a point where I truly love myself and surround myself with other people that I love. (Does wonders for your psyche)
I’ve adopted the philosophy with life, and specifically auditions that if I get rejected, (Which, let’s be honest, that’s the majority of the job) then that just means that it wasn’t the right role for me and I have to keep going so my right role WILL find me. Makes it so much nicer to pursue and I can easily EASILY cheer for my friends and the other models and actors that DO book those roles. Takes the jealousy out of it completely!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The majority of my work so far has been in music and in modeling. While I was in New York City, I was blessed to be able to work with companies like Kohl’s, Uniqlo, Lord and Taylor and more. For a while there, my photo was on the side of a building a block away from Times Square. That was pretty cool to experience!
While living there I also got to live one of my many dreams and walk in New York Fashion Week! I got to walk for the designer Max Jenny at the Swedish consulate and I got to walk for ROOTS brand where everything was recycled earth friendly AND WE GOT TO HOLD PUPPIES WHILE WE WALKED. Amazing.
I still write my own music on the guitar and piano and although I gave up my dream of being an Opera singer when I was younger, I’ll still mess up a good karaoke night depending on who I’m with.
My acting has been proving to be better than I remembered. I absolutely love what I’ve done so far in short films and auditions, and I’m very excited to see where the universe takes that.
Honestly what I’m most proud of is that every day I’m able to get up with a smile on my face, pursue what I want to, and support my friends pursuing the same thing.
To be quite honest, my move here was very traumatic and I don’t go into public detail about it, but I will say that when you live your life in enough darkness for long enough, just being able to live in the light is something to be proud of. I know that’s probably not the answer you were looking for, but it’s an honest one.
There’s a lot about me that sets me apart from others in the same way that others are set apart from me! People are all so unique and wonderful. Everyone is different and I think that’s also part of what makes art so wonderful because it’s not only created differently by each person that creates it, but it’s also is seen differently by each and every person that witnesses it. Like they say, music is the universal language, but it’s interpreted differently every time it’s heard by new ears.
That being said, I do think that my outlook on life is quite different from a lot of people, but in order to combat that, I try to spread my way of thinking to anyone I can. Only because living this way puts your nervous system to rest. Life is enjoyable if you actually do stop and smell the roses. So hopefully more people will think that way eventually anyway!

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Oh my goodness. There are so many. I guess to me the most important lesson is that you really should try to learn to love yourself.
This world is filled with people that love *things* too much. There are actors out here that love the spotlight and the attention, there are people that love the money, the cars, the flashy things, and all of the desire for material, for things, I feel personally sully the art. And don’t get me wrong, I completely understand WHY people want those things and yes, I would love to have those things, myself. But that’s not the main goal for me. I feel that if your reason is to make the world more beautiful, to spread love and happiness, then everything else falls into place.
Because whether or not I ever become rich and famous, I’ll still have lived the life I chose to live and why would I want to look back and think about myself as envious or money hungry when I could look back and say “Remember when my best friend and I walked around Larchmont and window shopped for two hours because he didn’t have anything to do that day? What a lovely memory to have.”
The thing is that you can pursue your career and also enjoy life. I do it every day. I am constantly working. I am constantly trying to maintain social media, reach out to client, submit auditions, tape self tapes, practice monologues, go to photoshoots, etc, etc. But that doesn’t stop me from taking a night a week to go get sushi with my sister so we can visit the friends that we made that work there. (Such a wonderful feeling to get a hug from your server when you walk into a restaurant. Isn’t that just sweet!)
So I guess the synopsis is that the most important lesson is to really truly work on loving yourself and others and love LIFE because we only get one. We should enjoy it while we can. Life is beautiful, you just have to hesitate a second or two so you can breathe in the air of it, you know?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.omodelsagency.com/mainboard/women/2785377/chandler-love
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chandler__love
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovelychandlerlove
• Other: https://tiktok.com/love_by_chan

Image Credits
Matt Kallish, Kristine Lisman, Jill Bottcher, Matt Baron, Munglassy, Tawny Horton, Gohar, Juan G, Alexia Gonzales, Valeria Negru, Ana Mania