Today we’d like to introduce you to Dani Dissolve.
Hi Dani, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
For safety purposes, I’m keeping my legal last name private, but my public name is Dani Dissolve. I’m an alternative model, musician, and influencer based in Northern Virginia.
I have a following of over 70,000 on TikTok & 4,000 on Instagram. Content creation wasn’t something I was ever interested in, but when I realized how well my videos were doing, I stuck with it.
I come from an extremely rough background as I am a survivor of childhood abuse alongside the expected societal abuse as a black African-American woman. Despite the amount of pain I’ve endured, I’ve managed to, and continue to build a solid audience that regularly keeps up with me online.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Building my platforms was not easy. It took a lot of self-reflection, self-realization/awareness for me to get where I’m at right now. Before the pandemic, I was so unhappy. I had horrible relationships, no self-worth or respect for myself, and at that point, I was still undiagnosed. It was torture.
As awful as the pandemic has been, I feel like it’s also been my saving grace. It made me open my eyes to reality. Self-isolation forced me to love myself, and also become firmer with my boundaries, as I was not being treated how I wanted to be. I feel as though my confidence radiates through my content. If you saw me when I was 18 vs. now, your jaw would fall off its hinges. I went from absolutely hating myself to running my own online business & platforms.
The biggest struggle I’ve faced throughout this has been juggling between being an influencer & keeping up with my mental disorder. I was diagnosed with CPTSD & major depressive disorder when I was 21, and it truly changed my life forever. Being able to finally understand who I was as a person is what helped me find the confidence to put myself out there for the first time in my life.
Ironically enough, becoming a creator has helped me process so much of the unnecessary pain I’ve had to hold on to that was never mine to carry.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a micro-influencer with well over 70,000 followers on TikTok as of March 6th, 2022. My content consists of black activism, alternative culture, pop culture news, & the like. I am also a published model with two publications with Dreamy Magazine, & a multi-talented vocalist (cleans & screams).
Above all else, I feel my audience connects with me because I’m a Goth black woman. I had no one who looked like me to admire online when I was younger, and I feel like I’m able to be that for all of the young black alt girls who follow me. That’s what I’m proud of. There’s just something about the kind of person I am today that makes me so happy.
I never thought I’d get this far. What sets me apart from other influencers is that I’m genuine with my words. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. I don’t bullshit anymore. I’ve done enough of that. Not everyone is going to like that about me, but that doesn’t concern me anymore.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
My childhood is very hazy. I don’t remember much if anything at all about it. Both of my parents couldn’t have been bothered to do the job that they intentionally signed up for.
I cannot recall much from when I was a child apart from the dysfunction, but what I can vaguely remember is sitting at my unsupervised computer and listening to music I had no business listening to, and doing deep dives on alternative cultures every night.
I really do think that was the start of something special amidst all of the chaos. I felt like I could escape in all of the spikey boots & glittery emo tops. That was almost a decade ago… I guess it wasn’t a phase.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://danidissolve.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danidissolve/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/danidissolve
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82gbnUOyP8DXcHAmnRlGJA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@danidissolve
Image Credits
Geoff Lawrence (@glawrencephotography) https://www.instagram.com/glawrencephotography/
