Meet Britny Horton

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Britny Horton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Britny, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
“Red yellow, blue, and pink, and green. Purple. Orange. Blue. I can see the rainbow, pretty rainbow pretty as you.”

This is the song that my mother would to sing to me with beautiful brown eyes and a gorgeous smile that lit up the room. I remember being memorized by the soft melodies of her voice, the smoothness of her skin, and the piercing sound of her laughter. She was a Barbie doll. Beautiful, flawless, strong, and sadly rigid.

“She’s sick”. Those are the words members of my family would use to describe my mom. My mother battled with an addiction to crack cocaine. This addiction made it harder for she and I to physically be together resulting in me being passed from one family member to the next until I landed more permanently with my grandmother and dad. Even with that stability, I would crave for the times to be back with my mom. “She’s sick,” is what I would hear over and over, until one day, I went to the bathroom. I remember the scary feeling that I had when I wiped and saw the bright red blood fill the piece of toilet paper. I quickly left the room and ran to my aunt who told me that I had just become a woman. “A woman?” I thought. I was only nine years old. My aunt told me that we would need to tell my mother. I remember the excitement that ran through my veins as I prepared to tell her.

A few days later we traveled down to the local jail to visit her. I remember when she turned the corner. She was beautiful, vibrant, and excited to see me. “I got my period,” I told her. Her face immediately fell. I was her only daughter and her last born. Missing this moment crushed her and I could see it.

Once my mother got out, she made the choice to get clean. She went to a halfway house then bought her own house and car. She got married and I moved with her full time. It was at this time that she desired to go back to school. Night after night I would see her study on the large shiny wooden black and brown dining table that we got from my aunt and uncle. She worked hard and would graduate as an RN.

Once I left for college my mom became a traveling nurse. This had been her dream forever and she was finally going to pursue it. She did this until this year and now is opening her own home health care agency.

In 2020, my mother lost her middle child, my big brother, Damian Turner. I remember the devastation that oozed off of her. The questions, the resentment, the pain. It was all so deep and palpable. I watched my mother closely over the last few years and what I have found is stunning.

My mother was honest about her pain. She lost her son. She had a past that family members liked to bring up from time to time. She had guilt. She had all of the darkness and she moved through it. Shortly after my brother’s death, she returned to hospice care. There was something about ushering others through their final moments that made her feel closer to my brother. It was healing for her. A journey that she needed to move through and she did.

When I am asked where I get my resilience from, it is from my mother. The woman who survived it all just so that I could have the space to dream, the space to love, and the space to sing, “red yellow, blue, and pink, and green. Purple. Orange. Blue. I can see the rainbow, pretty rainbow pretty as you.”

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am an actress and producer based in Los Angeles, California. I am a griot, a teller of stories, and an artist. I believe (with my full chest) that stories are a vehicle to healing. Through stories we not only see our humanity, but we are challenged to embrace it.

Upon graduating from Spelman College and the British American Drama Academy, I began working for theaters, film, and TV productions across the country. My most recent credits include: Little America (Apple TV), The Resident (FOX), Hit the Wall (University of Iowa), SWEAT (University of Iowa), Men on Boats (Riverside Theatre), and Too Heavy for Your Pocket (Pyramid Theatre), YesToday (film), Incensed (Film), and Lights On (Film). I may also be making an appearance in a new show heading to The National Geographic. I worked as a Casting Associate for five years before pursuing her MFA at the University of Iowa (’21). In 2020, I produced the first film under her production company, Curvy Confidence (now Geraldine’s Pictures). In 2019, Britny won the Best Actress in a Play Award from Broadway World Des Moines for her portrayal of Evelyn in Too Heavy for Your Pocket. It is my mission to use her art to spread body-positive messages by playing and creating roles that challenge the standards of beauty and further incite the empowerment of black women.

For more information on me, please visit my website at britnyhorton.com.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The top three qualities, areas of knowledge, and skills that were most impactful for me were:

1. The desire to know more. I am a young girl from Rochester, NY who wanted to pursue a career in Entertainment. I knew no one or even where to start. I was hungry to know what to do and how to do it excellently. This led to me a number of internships, jobs, pitfalls, and victories but it was all well worth it.

2. Self-confidence. I didn’t have any. I still struggle with this. It is not easy to remain self-confident when the world consistently tells you that you are not good enough for whatever reason they thought of that day. However, when life hits, there is something magical that happens. You get the opportunity to look within and lean on your greatest friend of all.

3. A pursuit of fulfillment. We know when we are not on track. We know it. We feel it. Our souls scream it. One of the things that I am most grateful for is the echoes of my spirit woman. She keeps me honest and she keeps me on my path.

The advice that I would give to people who are starting out is to be honest about what you want. No matter what anyone has to say, tell the truth about what you want and then reverse engineer yourself to your goal. Start with the desired outcome and then trace what you would have to do to make it happen. Allow yourself to sit with that as often as you need to and then take inspired action to make it happen. Before you know it, you will be in the space your soul has called you to.

I would also say if you are just starting out, allow yourself to be at the starting line. Don’t look to someone who is in the middle or end of their race and try to keep up with them. Run your race at your pace. The beautiful part about being at the starting line is that the race is yet to be run. Take your time.

Contact Info:

• Website: britnyhorton.com
• Instagram: @britnyhorton
• Linkedin: Britny Horton

Image Credits
Jackson Davis Tavarr Foust