Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgan Justus.
Morgan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in a small town called Temecula, California. I lived a normal life dancing competitively and attending grade school. I have a beautiful family of five including an older sister, younger brother, and both my parents. Everything in my life was nothing far from normal until around freshman year.
Throughout middle school, I remember being very popular. I had tons of friends and everybody knew me. Going into high school, I imagined it being completely comfortable considering I knew everybody and everybody liked me. Little did I know, freshman year was not only the end of my popular streak but the start of my entire career going forward. High school was super hard for me. I lost all my friends and it became popular to either hate me or harass me through social media. This behavior crushed me and put me in a mindset that I had never experienced before. The most common thing they said about me was that I was “nothing” or that I would “never be anything in life.” I was forced to leave my school due to death threats, physical violence, and social harassment in which lead me to fail all my classes. It took me a while to overcome not only the constant questioning of why this is happening to me but the severe social anxiety and depression. Once I went homeschooled, attended therapy, and got a grip on my mindset, it became clear to me why it was so popular to tell me that I had “no purpose.” I took everything they said to me and saw it as their defense mechanism of been threatened by my capability. At the time, I didn’t know what my capability was, but they clearly had an idea before I did. I set off to find the missing piece of my full potential. This leads me to finding music.
I begin making music when I was 16. I had written poems during my dark ages of high school so I started translating them into melodies on my piano or guitar. I would record my original songs on my phone and post them on my social media platforms. I understood that this was risky and definitely asked for negative feedback, but music became a passion of mine and I didn’t let them stop me. About six months into posting about my new found hobby, I was discovered through Instagram from a producer out of orange county. I didn’t know what precautions to take going into working with major studios and producers, but from past experiences I knew that I had to jump the gun and just do it. Social anxiety has been a huge speedbump in my career. It took me forever to be comfortable in front of the mics and hear myself through the speakers. A whole year went by of constant writing and creating and recording until I finally released my very first album on iTunes. I got such amazing feedback from people that really mattered outside of my hometown in which subsided a lot of my insecurity and anxiety to do what I love. From there on out, music became my entire career and has boosted my social media platform from “nothing” to “something.”
Has it been a smooth road?
As I mentioned before, anxiety took a toll on me for years. I would try to perform but found my hands shaking uncontrollably. I couldn’t even get the words out and sometimes found myself singing the wrong lyrics when I could. Having a high following on Instagram also creates a lot of stress in the business. 40,000 people watching me everyday? It’s hard to please 40,000 people. I also started seeing a pattern in my social and actions. It’s funny how those who didn’t believe in you could completely change once you’ve either made it or made it further than them and the ones who destroyed my high school life suddenly want to support me. I have come across a lot of people who want to be my friend for the wrong intentions; not for who I am but what I could do to benefit them. This behavior creates a lot of trust issues in letting people into my life or getting close to me at all. I have to constantly remind myself that being nice will always take me further no matter how frustrating my past has been. For the past year now, I have been struggling to let go of the life I lived before I made a name for myself. I have learned that it is okay to go through hard times. Those demons will continue to travel with you on your journeys, but it’s not about what you went through it’s about how you take a bad situation and use it to your full advantage. This mindset has helped me tremendously through negative situations.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am often asked “what do you do?” This question is difficult to answer correctly considering I have a very vast image of who I want to be. My music career is top priority in my life but it definitely helped me venture out toward modeling. I guess I would consider myself my own brand within the music business and freelance modeling. I am known for wearing hot pink every single day. When I perform, I want my artistry to come off as an all pink aesthetic and personally, I think I’m doing a great job of setting that image throughout my social media. For example, at important occasions, I will wear a pink wig not only because it is my “look,” but because you can’t forget the girl with neon pink hair. I am very proud of myself for creating the imagine I aspire to have because it has become a part of my everyday life organically. Nothing has been forced and I feel that is very important when it comes to what you want to be known for. I feel like this sets me apart from other artists because I am who I am on and off social media. Whether that’s in person or on camera, I hold the exact same persona and I feel like that will pull me in the right directions career-wise.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Los Angeles is known as the city of Angels, as we all know. Personally, the only angels I found in LA are the ones within me that helped me see through the fakes and stay true to my roots. It is so easy to lose yourself in the big city and get caught up in things that encourage you to lose focus on your main goal. I have a strong love-hate relationship with LA. The best thing about it is that everything you need to be successful is within that city. Everybody that you need or want to know is in that city but sometimes you get so drawn around looking up to these people that you lose sight of yourself. I had to learn this the hard way. It takes a lot of willpower to not attend the crazy events and once-in-a-lifetime chances to see or party with celebrities. At the end of the day, I learned that none of that matters. It is so artificial and does nothing to help you and your career. If you really want to succeed, you have to push it for yourself. LA is very much known for earning success off of somebody else who already has it.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Themorganjustus
Image Credit:
@c4_productions; @carmardenim
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