Ghettodiva
When I was first beaten by a belt when I was 4 years old, this left marks and bruises all over my body. This carried on throughout the rest of my childhood. When I was 14 years old, I began to realise my body and felt no one will ever marry me due to the fact that my body was marked up with belts. I used to look at my body, my arms, my legs, my thighs and see the marks, they were two long lines always in the same direction and these patterns were everywhere on my body and sometimes going over each other, as to some twisted design. but I also thought if I could get belts to go over the designs, to make it fit, then I could wear it as a fashion which will be incorporated into my clothing, and if I ever have to be naked, people will assume, as I am always wearing the same belt with the same design for years explains the marks on my body as done by it.
When I completed my degree in Dance, they told us to always think outside the box, to be different, create different things. So I create stunning designs in sports wear, club wear, evening gowns and wedding dresses with the best quality fabrics I can find, designs that will make others give you a double take.
However when I began to create fashion, and buy fashion,I stayed well away from belts, they were a reminder of my childhood, something I wanted to forget, something that terrified me as an adult.
After years of anxiety attack due to the effects of my childhood abuse, I decided to change my fear of belts, use belts for what’s it’s been initially created for, for fashion, to be used with fashion, not as instrument to torture people.
People ask who does this brand represent? Who is your customer base? This brand represents all those you don’t think of, this brand represents all children who have suffered physical and sexual abuse around the world and especially the children in Brazil, those living in the Amazon, the people most have forgotten and don’t care about. This brand is here to bring awareness. This brand is here to show that people who have suffered physical and sexual abuse should not be written off, blamed for their abuse and told they can’t be good parents when they are adults because of that abuse. When grown adults and even some professionals think this way, please realize this is an extension of our abuse now in Adulthood. Most of us was not only physical and sexual abuse, we were also mentally abused. This becomes another circle of abuse. Due to this, we donate money monthly to help give an abused child in the Amazon in Brazil the counseling they need. If we build up a child’s self worth as a child then they are more likely to feel capable of pursuing their dreams and goals as adults.
Our customers are people who love fashion, people who want to wear creative fashion, people who care about what the brand represents, the reason for the brand. Here we care about everyone, and especially the abused children in the Amazon in Brazil that most people don’t think about and those adults that are suffering due to the effects of abusive childhood, because these people are going through exactly what I went through as a child and an adult. I am here today, to say we are not our abuse, we are no more victims, we just want to be allowed to live happy, we can create the life we want, live our dream and achieve what we want regardless of our childhood, regardless of if anyone believe in you, believe in yourself, because I believe in you as I believe in myself. They did and said all sorts about me, who am I? My name is Ghettodiva and this is my brand.
