Meet Raven Kee

We were lucky to catch up with Raven Kee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raven, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Confidence and self-esteem we have an interesting relationship, it’s so up-and-down sometimes but I’m getting it to be more consistent. I really struggled with a positive view of myself pretty much all my life, I wouldn’t say it started to get more consistently better until I hit my late 20s and I’m 31 now. I’m so much more kinder to myself, I speak positive affirmations over me and remind myself that I am strong and capable. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to describe at what point self doubt started manifesting within me, but in my head I always found myself lacking.

My mom and family were very good at nurturing confidence and self-esteem, but I think it was more so my environment. We grew up in a tough area of dc, kids were going through a lot and the way to unleash that was to be mean to those around them. I was the soft spoken shy girl, I had a friend group but it was small and we were goofy and our interests didn’t quite fit in with the majority. But looking back on all of that now I’m just so grateful for my partner & friends that I have and the community that I built for myself. And they also speak kind words of affirmations into me and help build me up, but I also had to put the work in to actually believe the words.

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 started my makeup account on instagram back in August of 2017, my love of makeup and just art in general has been all my life. I remember being asked what I wanted to be growing up and I said an artist, and my grandma would ask if I was going to be an art teacher and I said I just wanted to be an artist. I’m sure that terrified her because there’s no guarantee that that’s going to be consistent income. So she tried to steer me more towards being a doctor, which I went along with for a little while, but in my heart I still want it to be an artist.

While I always loved make up the main reason I started my account was I thought it would be a quick way to make money. My family and I had just gone through something really traumatic, and the aftershocks of that were still happening. I had a job working for the library, but I wasn’t happy in that role – I was never excited to come to work and was severely depressed. So I thought why not start a makeup account, and maybe I’ll make a lot of money from it lol. It doesn’t quite work like that, but in growing with this account I discovered so many areas of myself I could tap into. I love to style outfits, I love doing creative makeup, I love being in front of but also behind the camera, I even love the aspect of editing and seeing a project come together.

I left the library over 5 years ago to pursue content creating full time and moved across the country to Seattle. But with that came other issues, the brand deals I pictured for myself didn’t come consistently, my account wasn’t growing as much as I wanted it to and so I started to doubt my choice in creating. I doubted my talent and my worth, which is so silly to think back on. But it had such a negative effect on my mental health and it’s something that was constantly on my mind. I had to learn to change my perspective, to stay in love with what I was doing simply because there was joy in the midst of me creating. Why should I be comparing my worth to follower count and brand deals, when I’m happy to create and God sustains me. I’ve created friendships through this and got the chance to meet and hangout with my online friends and strengthen bonds. I’m happier than I was 5 years ago, and feeling much more fulfilled.

Anyway I work at Sephora now!! I love it, I’m happy to go to work and chat about makeup. And seeing someone discover something new and the happiness they show in just playing in makeup. I plan on getting my cosmetology license, I don’t know where this journey will take me. I use to have plans for myself, and they’re still there but I realized I’m on a part of my journey I never pictured lol so I just have to stay on the ride to see where else it takes me.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Patience is the hardest one to learn, it’s something I still struggle with. And in a world where technology is only advancing and we get used to instant gratification it’s harder to obtain. Things take time, everything has a life cycle just as we do. If there’s something you’re praying for to happen in your life you also have to allow those things to fall into place and develop. You also have to grow and change as well to be in a different place and ready to accept what you’re praying for.

I’m not sure the word to gather what I’m saying but to not let anxiety control you! I have anxiety, it used to be so much worse for me but once I learned to get out of my own head a bit things opened up. I made friends, I got out and experienced some really cool things and created memories. My art skills also grew, anxiety put limitations on us and stops us from actually obtaining what we want. I don’t even think we realize that, go out and get what you want babes. We gotta be uncomfortable in order to grow.

Be consistent but also take care of yourself, give yourself time to rest when need be. Consistency is great, because you have to put the work in for what you want. But don’t let it overtake you and it’s left leaving you with burnout and a lack of motivation. Try to get ahead of that and plan out days off, where you can just be and exist. To do things that make you happy outside of your work, get some sun, watch a movie, take naps lol all the good stuff

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

Definitely try to be more well rounded because in doing that it only makes your strengths stronger. When I started makeup I just wanted my photos to be bright and sharp, thinking back on it now I’m sure that all those old photos looked so bad lol. I was using an app called FaceTune for everything, overly editing my photos and blurring my skin.

I didn’t take the time to properly learn photoshop until around 2019 I think, and that whole process overwhelmed me. I gave up trying to learn it a couple times before I forced myself to watch videos. The same thing goes for my lighting set up and my camera, it’s taken me years to develop those skills and my work has only gotten better.

If you neglect those other areas then I don’t think you’d reach your full potential, taking the time to learn and apply it in your work – then looking back to see your growth. It’s such a great feeling.

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