The odd one out?

Joann is a 22-year-old beauty hailing from Suriname, she grew up in the Breda and later on moves to Rotterdam for her studies. Growing up in the South of the Netherlands as a black girl, always made her feel like the odd one out. She was part of the culture but didn’t always fit is, because of the color of her skin and her cultural background. She also often realized the nuanced differences of her and others when she started working as an intern, where she had to intertwine within the grown-up world and office culture.

Luckily she found her tribe and made some good friends who flowed with her on the same frequency. Like they always say, birds of the same feather flock together! In other words… the biggest lesson to learn here is to stay true to yourself and don’t believe you need to change just to fit in.

Corine Bailey Ray’s song ‘Put your records on’ is therefore one of Joan’s favorite songs, as it really explains the way she feels about life and how she feels every girl should feel.

Mindfulness

Joann has always been a creative spirit. She fetches her inspiration by focusing on spirituality and mindfulness. She is the true personification of what she preaches, if you look closely to her chest, in between her collarbones, you will read these 3 letters, A R T.

We can really say in her case, life imitates art and art imitates life

Joann believes that your goals can come true by envisioning it through vision boards and having an entrepreneurial mindset to achieve your goals. Her advocacy as the face of Melanin Wonder is to promote the creativity of individuals. And that is why she also started her own business, called ‘SundayVibes’!

‘SundayVibes’

She has done it al, horse riding, classical ballet, photography, and trend watching. Joann can teach you the 101 about making your creative concepts tangible! Follow her on the Melanin Wonder NL platform to get all the ins and outs.

For anyone interested in personified articles and props for your business, follow her platform ‘Sunday Vibes’ on Instagram and Facebook.

Follow Joann on Instagram ( click on the Instagram names to be redirected to Instagram)

@churelyjoann 

Peace & Love <3

Face Melanin Wonder Shanice was 14 when she came to the netherlands, she has been living in Zwolle for almost 10 years now.

“You can be beautiful, black and smart at the same time.”

WHO IS SHANICE?

I choose to not have many friends, I am sort of introvert and usually do not let too many people come in my circle. My experience with friends and people in general has made me make this decision.

Friends need to have at least something to lift each other up or have something of value to each other. My health and peace is the most important for me. 

Family is very important to me, and I have A LOT of family members.  It is so big that they are literally spread out throughout the whole of Netherlands, living in different cities.

PASSION FOR DESIGNING

Designing clothes is my absolute passion. Also, do I want to travel to many African countries. Contributing to the African community is always something I wanted to dp. The company will start out with designing collections and helping out small companies that are in need professional designs. By letting someone design clothes professionally the chance of wrongly manufactured clothes will be smaller. 

My Youtube Channel is on hold at the moment, but it will be back and popping. Besides, I want to focus on myself first before I do anything else. Things such as, networking, business and my skincare for example.

“I have bought some weights, dumbbells and a trampoline to keep myself in shape. Also, do I run outside regularly. It is actually not my favorite thing to do. But I forced myself to do it to keep in shape.” *laughs* 

 IS A MELANIN WONDER PLATFORM NEEDED?

There are enough platforms that only promote non-black people. Why would people question a platform that focuses on only black people? I really do not get that! We really need it! Especially, when you look at our media history. More platforms like Melanin Wonder need to be promoted and be online that promote darker shades.

Dark skinned people have a lot to offer and contribute a lot to the economy. We have so much buying power and are very much a part of the economy. We spend our coins on companies that have few to to no black people. To me it sounds very strange. 

DARK SKIN IS BEAUTIFUL

Dark women are the people that buy the most hair products for example. But we are not really in the forefront of it all when you look at where our money goes.

HOW DID YOU GO INTO BUSINESS?

Before I started thinking of creating my own company I really asked people around to advise me. When it comes to administration, it is not a big deal at the moment, because I just started. Designs by Sissi. It is my nickname I got from my grandmother and I simply like it. 

“Family is very important to me”

GOING TO AFRICA?

South-Africa sounds like a dream as well. My plan is to become a fabric expert and use my knowledge to be part of sustainable fabrics. I think this is my way giving back to my home country. It is the place to be when it comes to fabric. People around me also said why go to China when you can go to South Africa. It is out of the box and I really want to do an internship there as well. Anyways, I have always felt drawn to the motherland.

Ethiopia and Nigeria. To be honest I would love to visit every country. I feel like I will get to know myself more and I want to get more knowledge. I sometimes notice that Suriname people do look down on Africans and I want to go there and also document what I experience in Africa. The media always portrays Africa differently and I feel the urge to show the real Africa through images, videos and sharing on social media. 

BE YOURSELF! LOVE YOURSELF!

@shameless_sissi  my instagram profile for example, I use it to be totally my self without any shame. Why can’t you be yourself and I feel like it is like meditation to be yourself and be honest and speak your truth. Of course sometimes things need to be nuanced and respect is number 1 in every conversation. 

Sissibeauty – Facial beauty and promoting skincare so that less foundation will be promoted. I occasionally make some home made products. You can always check my tips and see what works for you. 

More younger girls who need a platform where they can see themselves. The mainstream media doesn’t do it enough for my liking.

“You can be beautiful, black and smart at the same time.!”

MEET DESTIN MAKIESSE 

“Freelance work as a model would fit my lifestyle perfectly.”

I discovered Melanin Wonder when Daniel Pando became the first Face of Melanin Wonder back in 2018. My sister sent me the info and told me to also go for it and become the next Face of MELANIN WONDER. I remember that Beni (a friend of mine) applied the following year and was part of the casting in 2019.

MORE ABOUT DESTIN

I love pictures, photography and taking pictures too. Also am I a perfectionist. It is hard for me to post pictures of myself that is why I do not post a lot. But I do have a lot of HD pictures waiting to be posted LoL. 

I registered with two pictures that my sister took of me and that is how I ended up being on the casting. Now, I am the Face of Melanin Wonder 2020 and I never expected to come this far and get this much support.

WHY FASHION?

Fashion is really my creative outlet and I love shopping and I am kind of addicted to shopping as well. Following trends is not my thing, I usually do and wear just what I like. Combining clothes, colors and outfits is one of my favorite things to do. It is really my passion.

Project promise, was a photo shoot and modeling project organised by the church I go to. On the casting day they would give young people an opportunity to work on your modeling portfolio. They would also do that by taking photographs. The people who actually organised it, used to be models themselves. But they would never do and would never promote nude photo shoots though.

Destin Makiesse

My mother grew up in Congo and I personally speak Dutch, English, French and Lingala mixed with French words.

I was born in the Netherlands and I never got the chance to actually go home and visit. When the time is ripe I will definitely go visit. I would go there for a holiday and of course visit my family too. I have a lot of family over there and we have regular contact with them. Meeting them would be very sweet. 

HOBBIES

Playing football is one of my major hobbies. I have been playing ball ever since I was 5 years old. I’ve been playing football for 14 years now. I play football 3 times a week. It is just for fun tho, I used to dream of being a pro football player. I love football and I have my local club where I have been playing for years. Everyone knows who I am over there.

I still go to school and I want to finish school and focus on being stable, getting a good job. I am used to always being on the road. This also makes it that I have little to no time to be on social media and sharing photos and content all the time. But I am almost done with school and I might have more time to be on social media by then.

Doing Management and entrepreneurship are totally up my lane. Financial based jobs are also very interesting to me. Someone once told me that I could have some leadership skills in me too! The teacher recommended a leadership related study to me.

I love modeling too obviously. Freelance work as a model would fit my lifestyle perfectly. Developing my modeling skills and my personal portfolio are one of my goals as well.  

Sr.king_dapper on Instagram- he is actually one of my inspirations. He takes pictures in suits and shoots in different countries around the globe. The combination of dope locations and beautiful and well put together outfits are amazing. Being a stylist could very well be one of the things I could be doing in the future. Who knows, I might be able to do it once. Maybe I can style a shoot for melanin wonder, who knows! 

MUSIC

I actually love different styles of music. Gospel music for example, but also Moise Mbiye and Stevie Valentine. I usually listen to music on Spotify or YouTube.

Michael Jordan film, action movies, crime series and documentaries are my favorite thing to watch. Also, do I like to watch things that are realistic.  Black Lightening and TopBoy arer my favorite. “Black Panther” is my favorite movie  and “All day all night” .