Page 111 - Nicole Ari Parker

coolest celebrities, they also brought so much joy to people’s lives. TRL has really be there for
me throughout the years. All I ever wanted to do in live was to be a VJ but I didn’t feel like it was
an attainable goal because I couldn’t find a lot of ethnic face like mine on TV.

Erika (Q): ​So having never seen any faces similar to your own, did this discourage you and how
did you go about facing this challenge?

XiXi (A): ​I was discouraged in the beginning but I’ve had to learn to own it and accept who I
truly am. I remember the first year I moved to LA, I landed a big meeting with one of the top

broadcasting agencies in town. I walked in with stars in my eyes and within seconds, the head
agent took one look at me, one look at my resume and said, “We can’t represent you unless you
change your name. Middle America won’t trust a name they can’t pronounce.” But even if I
changed my name, I still won’t be able to change my face! They’re still going to see this Asian
fierceness walk in! After going to countless auditions and meetings, I ended up getting very
frustrated. I couldn’t book jobs because I didn’t have the experience they wanted, but how was I
supposed to get more experienced if I wasn’t working? I couldn’t wait for the “dinosaurs” to
feel like the time was right to give a fresh face like me a shot. I decided that I was going to be the
change I wanted to see. Before opportunities came knocking, I had to build the door first.

Erika (Q): ​Explain to me more in detail about your journey to becoming the journalist and media
influencer you are now.

XiXi (A): ​Well, I’m sure you know that in the beginning, even our own mom and dad weren’t
really sure what I was doing! Shoot, I didn’t know. I didn’t know where I was going or how I was
going to get there. All I knew was that I was going to give it all I’ve got. At the age of 19, I
moved across the country to start my career in media. I transferred from NYU to UCLA because
I knew I had to be in the city where everything was happening. It was my dream to work for a

network back then, but after hundreds of auditions, I was told I wasn’t good enough. I decided to
start my own independent media company. I saved up a few hundred dollars and invested in a
handheld camcorder and a cheap karaoke mic. Yes, you read right - a karaoke mic was all I
could afford. I went around LA and interviewed everyone and anyone I could get my hands on! I
put all my exclusive interviews on a blog site and within months, I was getting so much traffic I
had to get a better server! As more publicists and managers took notice of my interviews, the
requests for interviews came pouring in. I got a few workers on board and just like that, with no
prior experience in business, I turned my side hustle into a profitable LLC. Don’t get it twisted!
Being a young CEO was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done my whole life. For every
second of glamour, there were eight hours of hard work behind the scenes. I had to learned all
levels of operation - shooting, editing, producing, selling ads, pitching, payroll… shoot, I even

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