Daily Inspiration: Meet Natalie Singletary

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Singletary

Hi Natalie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Thank you so much for this opportunity to tell my story. My memories started at around three years old when my biological mother died and my sister and I were taken in by our aunt. She was in the Navy, so after her station in Pax River, MD, we went to Italy for three years, then moved to eastern North Carolina where she was stationed at Cherry Point. After my fifth grade year, my aunt adopted us, a process she had been working on for years. I tell you that as moving forward, she will be referred to as my mom.

From the moment I knew what writing and poetry was, I was writing my own. I devoured books and wanted to write like that some day. Poetry was my first love in writing and my pastor from the church my mother found when we moved to North Carolina encouraged me to continue writing, so I did. In high school, I would write short stories and novels with my friends, (most of which that are lost in the ether now) and we would talk about how one day we would be published.

I also loved watching music videos and attempting to learn the dances from them in my living room. I enjoyed pretending that I was the one singing and performing. My sophomore year in high school, I discovered So You Think You Can Dance and would practice the moves I saw on my back porch. My cousins would laugh at me and ask what I was doing, but for the most part, I attempted to ignore their banter. My senior year in high school, my school had its first ever talent show and I placed second in the solos. That was my first real taste of having an audience outside of band concerts/competitions and a school play when we were in Italy.

Between my pastor and my friends in high school encouraging and inspiring me to write and the cheers from the crowd while I was performing, I was bitten with the creativity bug.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha, it’s been far from a smooth road. As previously mentioned, my family would tease me, I was bullied whilst in middle and high school, and entering adulthood, even more challenges entered the picture.

During my late adolescence and early adulthood, I was riddled with the worst self esteem and faith in myself and my abilities. Such caused me to make a few poor choices and distract me from my gifts. Not growing up with a father (my mother did the best she could raising two girls by herself and providing for us) caused text book mental health situations that I struggled heavily with, a large core issue of feeling unworthy.

I would talk myself out of opportunities and self-sabotage at every turn. I was my own worst enemy, surrounding myself with people that didn’t really fuel the positive and ignoring the kind and well meaning folk that were rooting for me.

It wasn’t until I joined an amazing entrepreneurial team that I actually started believing that I was worthy to accomplish anything I set my mind to, separating myself from the toxicity of my twenties (for the most part, I was my own toxicity) and actually remembering some of the dreams I had wanted to run toward from when I was younger.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I consider myself a freelance creative. That’s the best term I’ve come across. I work in the entertainment field, from writing to performing. I’m also in my second year of directing the North Carolina Film Festival and am the secretary of Eno River Media, a non-profit company that specializes in helping the film industry. I work with film and entertainment companies to create short films, and soon, features. I’ve been blessed with the opportunities of working most of the roles on a film set. Everything from directing, producing, writing, editing footage. The only thing I’m not the most comfortable with is running sound, though I can hold a boom mic haha.

In addition to crew, I have also had the opportunity to act in a few films, my most recent being Sean Noroña’s short film, BLACKOUT, and we are currently in pre-production for his upcoming feature length film, OUTERBOUND. Last year, I had the opportunity to work with an upcoming music artist, Brandon Renegade, filming and editing his music video for his song, When Will This End. Would highly recommend you going to check out his music.

I’m most proud of being able to bring people together to create something new, cool, powerful, and (usually) fun for everyone involved. One of my entertainment mentors, Justin Yates from Silent Edge Entertainment, pulled me aside one evening after I put together a birthday rock show for a friend of mine and told me that what I did was what producers do in the industry. I believed him and began running with it. Last year, I dived (no pun intended) into aerial art and fire spinning whilst joining a local circus group and we put together an amazing show.

I’m also proud of being able to create things with fabric. Let me explain. One of my coping mechanisms has been arts and crafts for the better part of my life. In my adult life, I picked up sewing and crocheting. I’m still learning, for sure, but I’ve had my pieces at fashion shows here in North Carolina and walk down runways for New York Fashion week. I costume for drag and variety shows as well as wardrobe for films, most recently Lycanthrope Entertainment’s Nemesis from the book The Tombstone Confessions by Casper Luna. When I was crying in my room figuring out why my life was falling apart in my twenties, I’m so glad that I chose creation to cope.

Any big plans?
I have a few things on the list for this year and the upcoming five years. I’m currently in pre-production for a web series based on my first book, The Diamond Trilogy, available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com. I started an ezine called Natt3rZin3 last year that I plan on growing this year, current issues available on my Etsy shop, The Madd Natt3r’s Hut, that also has my fiber art for sale. The biggest change, professionally, is moving into a bigger space for my art, and honing my skills as a performer, focusing on dance, aerial, and fire art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/themaddnatt3rshut
• Instagram: @themaddnatt3r
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/obconwriting/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-singletary-801b13187/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@obsidianproductions8730