Meet Ashlee Rodarte of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlee Rodarte

Hi Ashlee, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Before I moved to Los Angeles, I grew up in San Jose, California where I split my time between East San Jose where most of my family lived and the Saratoga, Willow Glen areas where I went to school. If you are familiar with San Jose you will know these are two worlds separated by only a few miles. I am lucky enough to have grown up in both.
Thanks to my family I am a proud Latina. Attending predominantly white schools I liked to think this was my own super power. I did a report on Cesar Chavez and wore my dad’s Huelga bird shirt. None of the students had any idea who he was and although some boys teased me calling me a gangster for wearing this shirt I held my head high. I knew their jokes just meant they were the ones that lacked knowledge and for lack of a better word.. sazon. I acknowledge I am definitely white passing but I know who I am and where I come from.
I credit my confidence to my father. He was someone who faced a lot of adversity in his life and yet always was able to shine the brightest in any room. My sister and I were my dad’s place to freely express himself. Being a more flamboyant and bisexual man while being a father was still pretty unheard of even for the 90’s. Therefore, he kept his sexuality private until the last few years of his life. He was the one who exposed me to art and fashion at a young age. Spending time drawing with me and showing me different ways to style my barbie and bratz dolls. He would create new outfits for them using scarves and tissue paper. I loved watching him create different clothes out of simple things. He truly wanted me to believe I was a star pushing me to try anything and everything I wanted. Something I think in today’s gig economy could be potentially useful. I credit my mother to taking that confidence to the next level. She always entered my drawings and little books into small contests in San Jose and I did occasionally win a few. My first great achievement was winning a reading rainbow contest at age 8. I wrote and illustrated a kids book and was featured on an episode of Reading Rainbow. My big head only grew from there. I continued to draw and paint in my freetime and this has been a constant hobby in my life.
In middle school I discovered my love for music, specifically rock/alternative music. I dreamed of being Hayley Williams and was involved in two small bands for two years. I sang mostly and attempted guitar. We did a couple talent shows but I think my love for listening to music was more powerful than creating it. I was obsessed with finding different Myspace Artists and would record videos of myself lip syncing to songs on youtube. This was where I faced my first hit to my confidence. During my freshman year of highschool these videos quickly gained popularity around San Jose. Some people loved them and some people didn’t. Being the stubborn big headed girl I was, I continued to hold my head high like my father taught me and kept making these videos. Even when I had kids at my highschool made fun of me, sometimes putting awful notes in my locker saying things not worth repeating, even when I had teachers taunt me during class, and of course even when I had a principal who called me into his office telling me I should delete them because I represented the school. I wasn’t sure if he even watched them and maybe he really was oblivious to the torment I was experiencing but I just sat there holding that head until I was dismissed.
I would be lying if I said I stopped the videos entirely because I lost interest but I did eventually stop because I was tired of the negativity that sometimes followed a new upload. Thinking back on it now, especially in a world of millionaire influencers I might have been too hasty.
Of course, as I grew up my confidence and fearlessness were tested by the harsh realities of life. They hardened and molded into different things. My interests became more palpable, easier to swallow for the people around me. I became more interested in being someone people wanted around. Someone fun and carefree. I still painted, drew, and created in my free time but kept it to myself.
My senior year of college I took an art class as an elective and I loved it. I felt slightly disappointed in myself knowing I did not try to master any of my creative passions. I graduated college with an international relations degree with no idea what I wanted to do with it. I worked for a year as a banker until I decided to take an internship in London. Here I met so many different friends from all over the world. Each of them with their own passions for life. I decided to travel to Berlin, Scotland and Ireland by myself while spending my time abroad. As a young woman I was cautioned against traveling alone. However, I was set on exploring the world and I did not plan to wait for anyone to do so. Traveling on my own sparked the passion for exploring the excitement of challenging myself again and I couldn’t wait to bring it back home.
When I returned back to San Francisco I continued to chase the high of being uncomfortable. I started working at a yoga studio and became a certified instructor. I also started creating different types of jewelry and sold them online. I returned to the girl that truly believed I could try anything. This time with an expectation that these creative ventures can change. I took the leap to move to Los Angeles with the push from one of my best friends. I was lucky enough to find my career in advertising before the pandemic and have worked at a few different networks before finding my current job at Disney. When I moved here I quickly fell in love with Los Angeles and will continue to defend this amazing city when people try to talk badly about it. We have absolutely everything here. Culture, great food, amazing food, incredible people and anything else you can think of. I always say LA is for the creative and the patient. You have to be creative with where you are or be patient to get where you’re going. I think this can also pertain to life but if you can be those two things then LA will show you her magic.
My father also loved Los Angeles. He frequently took our family on trips to LA throughout our lives. He was always in awe when we would shop in Melrose or visit Venice beach. He truly saw the sparkle the city has. The day before he passed away he landed in LAX to visit me and my sister with my mom. In his arm he brought a pair of Louboutins he found at a thrift store in San Jose for me. I had a whole weekend planned to take him to trendy restaurants and go sightseeing. He wanted to go shopping also because I started to share my love for thrifting. He was amazed at the things I would find in the thrift stores here. Unfortunately, my fathers alcohol addiction had fully taken over. The years leading up to this were heartbreaking. I watched my father change from someone who was the light in the room to someone who was constantly agitated with endless shots of Fireball in his pockets. He was ultimately broken. He spent the entire first night in LA drinking alone in the hotel so I wasn’t surprised to find him in bed. When I tried to get him out of bed to make the drive to my sister’s house in Encinitas one of the last things he said to me was “Okay I’m only going because you look cute.” He made it to my sister’s house before he went into cardiac arrest. I think his body knew he had to wait to see her one last time.
It has been a year since he has been gone and I still think about him everyday. I was heartbroken when he passed away. I had spent the last year trying my hardest to convince him to go to rehab but I couldn’t make that decision for him. I wasn’t sure how I could be truly happy feeling like I had failed. Luckily I had my sister and mom to grieve together. I also am incredibly grateful for my three best friends. They called me almost everyday for months. But it was up to me to ultimately take care of myself. I decided to dedicate my new hobbies to my father. I am currently working on a book about his life. Mainly focusing on his struggles with his sexuality and addiction. Aside from that I have fully invested my creativity into clothes. Through thrifting I have found my own personal style. I have had many different hobbies and phases in life but one thing that was constant was expressing these phases through clothes. I am obsessed with tracing my fingers through the rack taking the time to go through every single piece until I find something that is truly me. I no longer let the mannequins tell me what to wear, I let myself find it. I started flipping clothes as well with the help of a sewing machine my grandma gave me. I put it all together in videos I post on tiktok and instagram. I get so happy when friends and family send me pictures of their outfits that they say are “Ashlee inspired”. I get most of my styling inspiration from characters in films I watched when I was a kid. Movies like Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Coyote Ugly, Charlies Angels and plenty more. I love animal prints and fake leathers but while adding my own twist to them. I hope to one day become a personal stylist. I would like to help people find their true style and even push them to explore clothes they wouldn’t think of wearing for a sustainable and reasonable price. My ultimate dream would be to style musicians or become a wardrobe stylist for films and series. Until then I am enjoying the ride with my small styling tips on my channels and I look forward to my next adventure.

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?
The challenge of trying new things is always going to come with the fear of failing and the fear of being embarrassed or made fun of. The initial fear is what if this flops. The truth is this at first it most likely will. You have to embrace being uncomfortable because once you do nothing is impossible. Everything starts out uncomfortable until it’s easy. The point of pushing yourself isn’t to become successful; it’s to prove to yourself you tried.
I think another obstacle myself and many people face is pleasing others. I know I made a lot of decisions based on what others would think of me. I specifically made most of my choices to please my father. Now that he has passed I have learned to honor his opinions but choose to follow my own. I think especially being a woman, we face the pressures of cutting our personal lives short. I hope everyone can have the fearlessness of going for their dreams but especially women. Whether you are a little girl, a young woman at the peak of her life, a mother, or an old lady who has lived many lives, I hope you find the strength to push yourself to choose what you want from life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have been working since I was 15 at many different jobs but started my career in advertising in 2020. I started at A&E networks in 2020 working with their post sale television ads. I was lucky to have a supportive and caring team that pushed me to continue my career in advertising. From there I accepted a job BET as the west coast digital planner for their digital platforms. I landed my current role as an addressable sales planner at Disney in December 2021. I am enjoying learning the large portfolio of the Walt Disney Company and hope to eventually move into management or sales.

My creative work is currently my writing and styling. I dedicate my time after work to writing more of my father’s story and working on my sewing projects. My dream job to work as a wardrobe stylist and to finish my book.

What does success mean to you?
A quote I fell in love with is from one of my favorite books Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid which is “Let me tell you the sweet spot for being in rock ’n’ roll. People think it’s when you’re at the top but no. That’s when you’ve got the pressure and the expectations. What’s good is when everybody thinks you’re headed somewhere fast, when you’re all potential. Potential is pure fuckin’ joy.” I fell in love with this quote because it made so much sense to me. I don’t think the peak in life is when you’ve made it, it’s the journey. Success in my opinion is only within yourself. I define success as knowing exactly who you are and embracing it. Not money, not beauty, not even love but being fully confident in yourself to the point where you truly believe you have the potential to do anything. I find my success in challenging myself with any new creative venture that comes my way. Surprising myself with what I am capable of. There is no better feeling than finding the many wonders you can do. That is what I think success is.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://depop.com/sk33vynicks
• Instagram: ashleeinclothes
• Other: @skeevy.nicks (TikTok) [email protected] (email)

Image Credits
Vivante Image Media and Ben Karpovich