Meet Trailblazer Yaroslava Kharchenko

My story starts in Ukraine at six years old when my parents ask me a serious question: do I want to be a ballerina? My answer was yes, knowing at that age that I am giving up my childhood to become a ballerina and that I have chosen my career path, that was my choice. At nine years old, I get accepted to Vaganova Ballet Academy which is known to the best ballet school in the world, but my family and I get a chance to immigrate to Canada so we seize the opportunity and make the move, I got accepted halfway through the school year to National Ballet School of Canada then a few years later, I transferred to Quinte Ballet School of Canada.

I keep training all through middle school and high school years, six hours a day, six days a week, sometimes, no days off but I absolutely loved to dance ballet and that drive kept me going, although it was tough at times because you always have to be at your best and perfect all the time because there is always that fear if you don’t get a move right or mess up a step that you will never make it as a ballerina. It is a very tough career physically and mentally at such a young age. In the high school years, as I was training, I also started taking theater classes and I loved it. So, as my senior year approached, I had a very hard choice to make whether I wanted to continue to dance and start auditioning for ballet companies or to pursue acting. I always wanted to try other forms of performing art and I decided to do just that, so I left the professional ballet school and finished off the year at an art school still dancing but also taking film acting classes and opera vocal training lessons and somewhere during that year I was discovered as a model. I graduated high school and was accepted to several universities and shortly after, I had to make another big career choice because I got offers from modeling agencies in Asia and Europe, so I deferred the universities for a year and decided to travel as a model. I modeled in Tokyo, Athens and Barcelona and of course Toronto.

After an amazing traveling modeling year and seeing the world, I thought it was time to take acting more seriously and go to a film school and what better choice to do that at than the city of Los Angeles, and that is how I ended up moving to LA. I enrolled to New York Film Academy the LA campus and studied acting for film, I earned a degree of fine arts. Today, I still reside in LA, going out to auditions, filming, castings, modeling, and my new found passion TV hosting. None of this would have been possible without my most amazing and supportive parents, so a big shout out to my father Oleg Kharchenko and my guardian angel mother Liudmila Beskova who is watching over me now.

It has not been a smooth road for me, I don’t think its smooth for anyone. My biggest struggle was when I lost my mother three years ago, we were very close, she was my everything. My grieving process was a long one Im still going through it. I went through very dark times being depressed. There is no handbook to deal with the loss of your closest person. I had to take a very long break from everything to take care of my mental health, it was only recently that I started to work again but I came back stronger than ever. I am wiser, stronger, and keeping my eye on the prize, I learned a lot along the way of how strong I really am, although at times, it seemed like I was never going to get back up.

Another struggle of mine from my earlier days is that I let people around me get in my head about certain things about my career and it really put me down. It’s really upsetting but most of the people around you do not want you to succeed or get jealous so they try to sabotage you and get in your head, even some of my acting coaches did that to me. That used to really upset me and I took it to the heart because I am a very emotional person. I have been through a lot of rough times that I know how to stay away from toxic and manipulative people like that and only listen to myself and people around me that want nothing but the best for me.

My advice for young women is don’t listen to anyone else but yourself do what your gut and your heart and your brain tells you, know who you are, stay truthful to yourself, and keep going no matter what. Confidence is key. Don’t get me wrong take constructive criticism to better your craft, but learn how to see through people who truly want what’s best for you. Also, learn not to compare your life and your path with other people, friends or whomever that’s a big step back and a downfall. Don’t be jealous or compare because somebody got a better job or a better offer. Everybody has their own path, so be patient and stay focused.

Also, with social media these days a lot of people are struggling with their appearance because so many people on Instagram “look better” trust me they don’t they just got a lot of editing apps and go to beauty doctors. Just strive to look and feel your best from within by being healthy, going to the gym, and being positive, and if you must there is nothing wrong with going to a beauty doctor if you are of age and doing it for yourself and not because you are in competition with others, or want to look like someone. Everyone has different goals and if you work hard and keep your eye on YOUR goals your time to shine will come, and don’t forget to have fun while at it.

I am an actor, model, dancer, creative director, and a TV host. I love being in this business and I strive to be better at what I do every day. I am always looking to take on career challenges in the entertainment industry. TV hosting is my newest passion which I am working on by taking classes and getting coaching. I got passionate about hosting when I booked a job being a live streaming host and I really loved it and thats what made me decide to gain more skill and training in this area on becoming a television host. I am very excited about this venture.

I love acting more than anything taking on different characters and appropriately to the character using my range of emotions which I channel from my own life experiences. To be a great actor, you really need to know yourself and understand life, it’s really psychological and sometimes draining because you have to tap into and revisit your deepest and darkest memories and feelings but thats what I love about it. When I am in front of the camera I become someone else, I get to go into another world, a different reality thats not my own.

I took a break from acting for a couple of years to heal after my mothers passing, but I am back to auditioning now, and currently filming comedic skits for YouTube. My goal with acting is to get the role of a powerful woman that kicks butt (getting cast as a Bond Girl or a Marvel character is a dream which I will manifest into reality), I love doing stunt fighting and I am training three days a week for it, I pick up on choreography really fast because of my ballet training. I also still take ballet classes every week because I love to dance still and it’s my therapy and just in case I get cast in a role playing a ballerina.

I am very proud of my modeling career, having traveled successfully all over the world at a very young age. The first job that I ever booked at 18 years old actually ended up being a cover of an international magazine. I am currently booking modeling jobs constantly in LA, thank you, God. Also, I am in talks of becoming a brand ambassador for a few companies. Modeling is very different now from when I just started as a model, we had portfolios back then, now Instagram is almost your portfolio and agency. I actually love this shift because you can control your content and show your creativity and who you are in an artsy way that shows your personality and who you are and what you’re passionate about.

I am very versatile with my looks and I love showcasing that on my social media page. My most favorite content to shoot is fashion films, I have many creative ideas I executed four fashion films so far and currently in development of putting together another fashion film, I especially love the creative direction part of it, putting the fashion the location the cinematography vibe together thats where I really show my creativity and my vision. I would say that creating fashion films is my niche.

I do social media work for business branding and also personal branding thats where my creative direction work comes in as well, I have a great eye at making things look good visually while catching the essence of the brand or an individual in an artistic way. My good visual eye comes from experience being in the modeling/fashion industry having to have worked with some of the most amazing designers and photographers from all over the world.

What sets me apart from others is my drive, passion, and discipline. When I book a job, to me, it’s more than just showing up and doing the work and getting paid, it’s doing the BEST work, that becomes my priority. I am a perfectionist so I help in any way I can to get the best and most successful outcome, I really go the length for every project, if asked I am more than happy to step in and advise and play a bigger role to help execute the vision to success. I have a lot of life experience and training which I draw from. I take direction extremely well, and I am very versatile. I am a very positive person and make sure to shine the light of positivity on everyone that I’m working with and the people around me.

Mostly, I am proud of my discipline, love, and passion towards all jobs/projects that come my way, its that same discipline and the drive that I learned at a very young age from being at some of the best ballet schools in the world.

I pour my heart and soul into every project.

My personal barrier to female leadership is that, and I am very saddened to say this, that it’s actually women putting other women down based on just appearance and assumption. Just because a woman looks a certain way in my case I look like a model because I am one, but that doesn’t mean that I work any less than any other women who worked hard to be leaders, I worked very hard to be where I am today and to be the trailblazer that I am.

There is still this stupid stigma that comes from women that if you are pretty you must not work as hard therefore you don’t deserve the job, or you got the job just because you are pretty. Some doors open for me differently or maybe unconventionally from others but it’s my path and I seize a good opportunity when I see one and there is nothing wrong with that. I will not apologize or feel ashamed that I am recognized for my beauty, knowledge, talent and life experience. Some women need to stop with the assumptions because of jealousy. I am a trailblazer and a leader and a powerful woman no matter what any other jealous women try to say or put me down.

We, as women, need to support and empower each other to build a united front to fight bigger barriers like to be treated correctly in the workplace and equal pay, it’s a big issue in the Hollywood entertainment industry, but I feel like there are some amazing women with huge platforms in the forefront fighting this cause, some have already broken these barriers, we still got a long way to go but we are on the way to erasing this stigma of inequality.