TDFW: Issue #1 The Magnificent Keah Brown
"When one dream comes true it reminds us that all of them can come true if we put the work in, with a little luck and perseverance."
KB: Well, I’m a writer and a journalist who is also a cheesecake connoisseur and a flirt. I believe I was a professional dancer in my past life and she is aghast by my lack of skills today. My work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Essence.com, Catapult, Glamour Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Lenny Letter among other publications. My debut essay collection THE PRETTY ONE is out next year from Atria Books.
Any weird jobs?
KB: I once licked a ton of envelopes for like $40 and thought my mouth was going to be a desert forever afterward.
Talk about a time when turning something down was a pivotal moment for you.
KB: I used to do whatever anybody offered me for free because I thought I had to. At the beginning of the year/end of last year, I started turning down a lot of really cool opportunities but they were unpaid because I know that my time is money and that the work that I do is worth being paid for because I have the résumé to back up my desire to be paid for my work. Sometimes I feel a bit regretful but I am very grateful that I am where I am and that I can afford to say no to things. I think it’s so hard because we talk so much about getting your foot in the door but so many people can’t just do things for free because like it or not exposure doesn’t pay bills. So, for me, I’ll only do something for free when it really matters and I know that the time that I’m taking to do it will not keep me in the hole.
Best or worst advice you’ve ever been given?
KB: The best advice I’ve been given is to stay in my lane because there’s no traffic. That’s the best way to get the work that I’m trying to do done. So I try now not to get bogged down by what everybody else is doing and keep my eyes on my own paper because my time is coming.
The worst advice was to quit while I was ahead. I think that it’s bad advice because that’s when you achieve even greater things, past what you already thought was possible. When one dream comes true it reminds us that all of them can come true if we put the work in, with a little luck and perseverance.
Follow Keah Brown on Twitter and check out more of her work here.
Photo cred: Reid Beels
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