*phew* I know it's been a while since we've spoken but once you meet our next artist, you'll be glad you waited.
The beautiful girl above is Cre-comm student, Cella Lao Rousseau. This accomplished young lady has not only been accepted into her competitive program in Winnipeg but is also, among other things, an opera singer, a photographer for hire, a makeup artist, does social media for the Red River Ex, does freelance advertising/PR, is the creator of an award winning blog, and is also working on a book.
Ever since I've known this lady, she has been keeping herself busy with multiple projects. "I have a tiny little moleskin notebook that I write everything down in," Rousseau says of how she keeps up with everything. "I'm pretty all over the place. To quote a guy in my class named Cory, 'I procrastinate but somehow I get everything done.'" She went on to say that she doesn't know how she does it all, but she does it really well. "It works for me and I manage to produce something that's of value so I just think that's pretty important."
Right from the beginning, it would seem that Rousseau was destined to be a name that people would remember. When she was working with her voice teacher, she would have a few lessons every week. She went on to be in music festivals from age nine until she was twenty years old. "I've placed gold, silver, bronze, I've been runner up. I've just been all over the place," she says.
Her voice has been known to bring people to tears, one time in particular being when she sang opera for a coworker. "For me, it's not my voice that makes me cry because god, would I ever be egotistical but Leonard Cohan makes me cry. He's my man, I love him."
The beautiful girl above is Cre-comm student, Cella Lao Rousseau. This accomplished young lady has not only been accepted into her competitive program in Winnipeg but is also, among other things, an opera singer, a photographer for hire, a makeup artist, does social media for the Red River Ex, does freelance advertising/PR, is the creator of an award winning blog, and is also working on a book.
Ever since I've known this lady, she has been keeping herself busy with multiple projects. "I have a tiny little moleskin notebook that I write everything down in," Rousseau says of how she keeps up with everything. "I'm pretty all over the place. To quote a guy in my class named Cory, 'I procrastinate but somehow I get everything done.'" She went on to say that she doesn't know how she does it all, but she does it really well. "It works for me and I manage to produce something that's of value so I just think that's pretty important."
Right from the beginning, it would seem that Rousseau was destined to be a name that people would remember. When she was working with her voice teacher, she would have a few lessons every week. She went on to be in music festivals from age nine until she was twenty years old. "I've placed gold, silver, bronze, I've been runner up. I've just been all over the place," she says.
Her voice has been known to bring people to tears, one time in particular being when she sang opera for a coworker. "For me, it's not my voice that makes me cry because god, would I ever be egotistical but Leonard Cohan makes me cry. He's my man, I love him."
"My voice teacher really wanted me to go into singing," she continues. "I couldn't do it because I have friends that are into singing and I know they're going to be very successful but it's just not my thing and I wanted something that was a little more secure." When it came to the stigma attached to young artists and singers, Rousseau understood that when it came to music, you didn't make a lot of money. "For me, I think money is very important. Maybe that makes me shallow but I work for what I have," she says.
So after finishing high school with honours, off she went to university. At Red River College, Creative Communications is one hell of a hard program to get into but will open many doors once you're in. And that it did when Rousseau started her blog, hellorousseau.com. Her blog's main focus was on having a positive body image, regardless of whether you were a plus size or not.
One of my personal favourites is "Fat". The post discusses when she got into a fight with her friend years ago and got called "a fat bitch". The post went on to say how much it hurt her but ended in her triumph over the insult. Read up, folks: http://hellorousseau.com/2013/10/06/fat-3/
"I watched a documentary called 'The Fat Body (In)visible'. It was featuring a few body positive bloggers and it kinda blew my mind because super plus sized women dressed super well and they were happy," Rousseau says of how she got inspired for her blog. "Even though, I consider myself plus sized - I'm a size 14, 12, 10, but I'm never a size 16. So they call them 'small fats' and a lot of people are really discriminatory against that because they're like, 'Oh you're not fat. But you're not thin.' and just let me kind of identify where I identify."
On a more personal note, I understand where Rousseau is coming from. I remember when I had confided in plus sized friends of mine about how I thought I was fat and one got angry and replied that if I called myself fat again she would hit me and went on this small rant about how I wasn't fat. I don't know if she thought I was trying to get attention or what but I stood there like:
So after finishing high school with honours, off she went to university. At Red River College, Creative Communications is one hell of a hard program to get into but will open many doors once you're in. And that it did when Rousseau started her blog, hellorousseau.com. Her blog's main focus was on having a positive body image, regardless of whether you were a plus size or not.
One of my personal favourites is "Fat". The post discusses when she got into a fight with her friend years ago and got called "a fat bitch". The post went on to say how much it hurt her but ended in her triumph over the insult. Read up, folks: http://hellorousseau.com/2013/10/06/fat-3/
"I watched a documentary called 'The Fat Body (In)visible'. It was featuring a few body positive bloggers and it kinda blew my mind because super plus sized women dressed super well and they were happy," Rousseau says of how she got inspired for her blog. "Even though, I consider myself plus sized - I'm a size 14, 12, 10, but I'm never a size 16. So they call them 'small fats' and a lot of people are really discriminatory against that because they're like, 'Oh you're not fat. But you're not thin.' and just let me kind of identify where I identify."
On a more personal note, I understand where Rousseau is coming from. I remember when I had confided in plus sized friends of mine about how I thought I was fat and one got angry and replied that if I called myself fat again she would hit me and went on this small rant about how I wasn't fat. I don't know if she thought I was trying to get attention or what but I stood there like:
Rousseau went on to say the really big thing that bugged her was the fact that people were talking about being body positive but it wasn't being articulated that well. "I'm not shitting on other body positivity blogs at all. Tess Munster, all of those body positive women are fantastic writers but there are a lot of people that wanna articulate their point but can't really do it," she says. "So I thought, I might as well try."
With her great advice, charming wit and a variety of women talking about the ups and downs with their bodies, her blog was well received immediately. "People were pumped," she says. "I got a message from some chick in Dubai asking me why I haven't updated my blog," she laughs.
"I just felt it was important to articulate a message that anyone is attractive no matter what your size is," she continued. "I'm not shitting on thin people and I'm not shitting on obese people I'm just -- you're pretty. You''re a gorgeous person, you can wear whatever you want, fuck everybody else and who gives two shits and that's the end of it," she says.
With her great advice, charming wit and a variety of women talking about the ups and downs with their bodies, her blog was well received immediately. "People were pumped," she says. "I got a message from some chick in Dubai asking me why I haven't updated my blog," she laughs.
"I just felt it was important to articulate a message that anyone is attractive no matter what your size is," she continued. "I'm not shitting on thin people and I'm not shitting on obese people I'm just -- you're pretty. You''re a gorgeous person, you can wear whatever you want, fuck everybody else and who gives two shits and that's the end of it," she says.
Though, she admits that ever since she won her award, she can't write anything. "I'll sit down and I'll panic and I think, 'I won an award and now it's not gonna be award winning anymore!' And I freak out and I cry a little bit and it's just like, 'Cella, get over yourself.'"
And receiving an award was not the only thing her blog has earned her. Rousseau has also appeared on a television show called Independent Chick for a focus on social media. With her fame quickly on the rise, she admits she isn't sure how to handle it. "I'm pumped and people are pumped too but I don't deal with attention very well," she says. "I love it but I get really uncomfortable. My acceptance speech was just horrible because I had been drinking," she laughs. "And second off, I didn't think I was gonna win so I was like, 'I can get drunk, it's fine.' And they told us, everyone who was nominated for an award should have a speech ready and I was like, 'Pssh'."
Upon winning, Rousseau ran to the stage and in front of 400 people, thanked all the fat chicks, the thin chicks and then remembers doing some sort of salute before getting to her seat. "The woman who gave me my award was like, 'You're ridiculous. That was so funny. You're so funny!' And I was like, 'I don't even know what's going on right now.'"
"At the end of the day I feel like I've accomplished something but now when I go to write something I'm afraid people will be like 'Oh, I don't know why she won the award' and then I fan myself like an elderly Southern woman," she says.
Her blog also went on be the inspiration behind a cre-comm project where she and her group needed to create a magazine. And thus, Charge was born.
And receiving an award was not the only thing her blog has earned her. Rousseau has also appeared on a television show called Independent Chick for a focus on social media. With her fame quickly on the rise, she admits she isn't sure how to handle it. "I'm pumped and people are pumped too but I don't deal with attention very well," she says. "I love it but I get really uncomfortable. My acceptance speech was just horrible because I had been drinking," she laughs. "And second off, I didn't think I was gonna win so I was like, 'I can get drunk, it's fine.' And they told us, everyone who was nominated for an award should have a speech ready and I was like, 'Pssh'."
Upon winning, Rousseau ran to the stage and in front of 400 people, thanked all the fat chicks, the thin chicks and then remembers doing some sort of salute before getting to her seat. "The woman who gave me my award was like, 'You're ridiculous. That was so funny. You're so funny!' And I was like, 'I don't even know what's going on right now.'"
"At the end of the day I feel like I've accomplished something but now when I go to write something I'm afraid people will be like 'Oh, I don't know why she won the award' and then I fan myself like an elderly Southern woman," she says.
Her blog also went on be the inspiration behind a cre-comm project where she and her group needed to create a magazine. And thus, Charge was born.
"On our first day back from winter break we got put into groups and had to make an entire magazine in three months," she remembers. "We were kinda just pitching ideas and I told them I was writing a body positive blog and it just took off and it was awesome."
"I have not received one negative piece of feedback," she continued. "Watch now it's gonna happen," she laughed as she knocked on her brother's wooden scale (we were Skyping, we don't just have interviews in the bathroom). "If anyone's ever talked shit about me, I'm just not interested nor have I ever had people straight up saying, 'Your blog sucks'."
And when it comes to writing, Rousseau hasn't stopped at her blog. She is currently working on a book called Damsel which will consist of six morbid short stories. Pitching the idea to her superiors in her program wasn't easy. "In your second year of cre-comm you spend the majority of your year working on an independent project," she says. "Basically you have to come up with this idea then you have to pitch it to a panel of three professionals. If they like it, they approve you and if they don't like it, they deny you and you have a week to come up with an entirely new idea and a new proposal and if you pitch it again and you get rejected, you have to start the entire program from the beginning."
"I got approved without any conditions so they fucking loved it," she continued. "I busted my ass on this thing and I got approved which is cool. My book is set to launch next year and in between each of the stories there's going to be a small morbid comics which is shit from my childhood," she shares.
Rousseau is also expecting her novel to gain some attention in terms of her morbid material. "I love writing gore and all that shit, it's my favourite," she says. "And I write it really well because I grew up with serial killer literature."
She shares that the first documentary she watched was with her father about Jeffrey Dahmer and it was something she had always been interested in. "I've always been fascinated with why people do bad things and why people hurt other people because I've always wanted to avoid that from happening," she says. "Iv'e tried to be really nice to people as an extent so I feel like serial killer literature is not only a way to protect yourself, it's kind of a way to help you empathize."
She went on to say that she believes it to be very important but people don't want to read about it. "People think it's really fucked for some reason," she says. "But you can learn from it. You can learn that maybe not everyone is as they seem and maybe you can be a little more observant in your day to day life instead of thinking, 'Oh my god, that's so fucked up' because that's a really narrow minded way of thinking."
"I don't consider myself successful," she says. "Okay, I'd say I'm successful but I'm not like, the pinnacle of baby jesus christ," she says. "I do all right. I'm 20 and I feel like I've done some things."
Her biggest piece of advice for young artists everywhere is: "If you're writing, write about something that you love and write it to make people better versions of themselves. If you're singing, sing something that you enjoy singing. You need to pick something that you really love and you need to sing it and make it your own. Find beauty in stuff that you can create. If it's not your creation, maybe it's someone else's. It doesn't make you a bad artist it just means you're growing."
"I have not received one negative piece of feedback," she continued. "Watch now it's gonna happen," she laughed as she knocked on her brother's wooden scale (we were Skyping, we don't just have interviews in the bathroom). "If anyone's ever talked shit about me, I'm just not interested nor have I ever had people straight up saying, 'Your blog sucks'."
And when it comes to writing, Rousseau hasn't stopped at her blog. She is currently working on a book called Damsel which will consist of six morbid short stories. Pitching the idea to her superiors in her program wasn't easy. "In your second year of cre-comm you spend the majority of your year working on an independent project," she says. "Basically you have to come up with this idea then you have to pitch it to a panel of three professionals. If they like it, they approve you and if they don't like it, they deny you and you have a week to come up with an entirely new idea and a new proposal and if you pitch it again and you get rejected, you have to start the entire program from the beginning."
"I got approved without any conditions so they fucking loved it," she continued. "I busted my ass on this thing and I got approved which is cool. My book is set to launch next year and in between each of the stories there's going to be a small morbid comics which is shit from my childhood," she shares.
Rousseau is also expecting her novel to gain some attention in terms of her morbid material. "I love writing gore and all that shit, it's my favourite," she says. "And I write it really well because I grew up with serial killer literature."
She shares that the first documentary she watched was with her father about Jeffrey Dahmer and it was something she had always been interested in. "I've always been fascinated with why people do bad things and why people hurt other people because I've always wanted to avoid that from happening," she says. "Iv'e tried to be really nice to people as an extent so I feel like serial killer literature is not only a way to protect yourself, it's kind of a way to help you empathize."
She went on to say that she believes it to be very important but people don't want to read about it. "People think it's really fucked for some reason," she says. "But you can learn from it. You can learn that maybe not everyone is as they seem and maybe you can be a little more observant in your day to day life instead of thinking, 'Oh my god, that's so fucked up' because that's a really narrow minded way of thinking."
"I don't consider myself successful," she says. "Okay, I'd say I'm successful but I'm not like, the pinnacle of baby jesus christ," she says. "I do all right. I'm 20 and I feel like I've done some things."
Her biggest piece of advice for young artists everywhere is: "If you're writing, write about something that you love and write it to make people better versions of themselves. If you're singing, sing something that you enjoy singing. You need to pick something that you really love and you need to sing it and make it your own. Find beauty in stuff that you can create. If it's not your creation, maybe it's someone else's. It doesn't make you a bad artist it just means you're growing."