Tasha: All I need is a Birkin bag, or at least I thought I did, since many women in America seem to think the same way. But coming from the fashion world, I’ve learned that simplicity is key. It helped me understand the power I had within, and that not much on the outside mattered.

Here at the Heart Of Cool, we believe what truly makes you cool is being you – the you that makes you happy. The things we wear are just an addition to who we are; it’s really an inside-out job and that’s what stands out most to us! Although we love fashion we love people too, and if it just so happens that you’re one of us, just know you aren’t alone you have a home here at HOC.

Cristen: All I need is love. Like LL Cool J, I imagine.

Seriously though, perhaps we should live life for love and ensure that its spirit is incorporated in everything we do and pursue; whether through our careers, relationships, or the daily thoughts we allow to roam through our minds, love should be at its core. And if not, it may behoove us to recalibrate, reboot, and really ask ourselves why we use our free will to operate from a place of fear and unoriginality as opposed to love and authenticity.

I know that we all should have our physical copy of our freedom papers by now, but I still wonder how we unlock the mental and spiritual enslavement that runs wild in the average person’s psyche regardless of race, class, or creed. I wonder how we muster up the courage to be fearlessly authentic and true to the very core of who we are in the midst of the ups and downs of life.

It’s from self-love, self-knowledge, and self-awareness. It’s from learning how to truly love ourselves first and express ourselves, unconditionally and unapologetically. It comes from the possession of an inner boldness to beautiful and different, no matter what others may think, say or do.

This is the season of authenticity, so if you have not started quite yet, you may want to travel down the road less travelled and live your life for you; congruent to your values, beliefs, attributes, convictions, and of course, sense of cool.

Keep it stupid. Keep it simple. Just be you! No matter what challenges life throws your way.

?Love & Light☀️,
Cris