Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Chelsea Nwasike of Virginia

Chelsea Nwasike shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I’m at a stage in my life where the littlest things make me laugh. Something about just allowing myself to stay in that state of joy, however small, makes all the difference in my productivity, relationships, and honestly, health.

But if I had to point to something specific that makes me feel proud, it would be my recent leap into running my business, Our Ideas Loft (Known on Etsy as OIL Imprint), and my podcast, Me and My Imaginary Friends (MAMIF), full time. Though the planning, building, and budgeting that have come with it have been challenging, there is an indescribable sense of peace in this decision.

I am at the cusp of what I had always dreamed of, fully investing my time in something I love. And I am incredibly proud of not only taking that leap but doing so without an iota of fear of failure or doubt in self.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Sure! My name is Chelsea Nwasike. I’m an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and storyteller; the host of the podcast Me and My Imaginary Friends (MAMIF); and the founder of Our Ideas Loft (OIL), a creative studio dedicated to producing films, books, podcasts, and creative projects that challenge assumptions and create space for perspectives often left unheard, as well as for people to feel more deeply, or rather, to allow themselves to do so.

What makes my work unique is that I practice what I call resonant storytelling. Basically, creating from a place of honesty, vulnerability, and lived truth. I mostly draw from my personal experiences, growing up in three continents and navigating loss in various forms.
Whether through my award-winning films (Written Words, Reaction, False), my upcoming novel The Ones Before which reclaims West African mythology, or my podcast Me and My Imaginary Friends, where I talk about the challenges of being a multi-hyphenate creator trying to find their voice through their multitudes of passions, everything I create is about leaving an imprint that inspires, and expands how we see ourselves and the world around us.

With Me and My Imaginary Friends (MAMIF), I’m building a brand that serves as a creative sanctuary for unheard voices, especially women, immigrants, and multi-hyphenate creatives who are too often pressured to shrink themselves. My mission is to show that storytelling isn’t just entertainment, it can be a medium to express, discover and be transformed… I mean why else do we create art?

As a proud multi-hyphenate myself, right now, I’m developing my fantasy novel series The Ones Before (TOB), producing new episodes of my podcast Me and My Imaginary Friends (MAMIF), running my Etsy storefront OIL Imprint, and continuing to create films that have earned recognition on international festival stages. I live for the creative chaos! hahaha

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
That’s a great question! I’d say for the longest time I protected myself from opinions and judgment. It accomplished what I wanted, it kept me from being exposed and protected me from outside harm. But as a result, I took myself too seriously. I felt everything had to be perfect before I could share it. I needed to be perfect, even more. You know what they say, perfection is the enemy of progress. In the end, that protection did more harm than good by shrinking my light, a light we all have.

I was actually speaking to a friend recently and told them I feel like I’m in a season of shedding my skin, the way a snake does. And what I’m exposing underneath is the imperfect me. The true me. To become the most authentic version of myself and experience life through that lens, I must do so loud and proud. At the end of the day, most of what I’ve feared was only a creation of my own mind. Progress cannot happen in the shelter we build for ourselves.

There’s this quote I absolutely love and keep as a reminder whenever I find myself slipping back into fear: “To conduct an orchestra, you’ve got to turn your back on the audience.” My life is my orchestra… and I plan on making great music while I’ve still got breath in my lungs.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Hm… these are such great questions! Y’all are really making me dig deep, haha.

I’d say 2022 was the year I stopped hiding my pain. The year prior, I hit rock bottom…. and I mean, I don’t think there was any lower. Any lower and I would’ve found myself under a heap of fresh soil, if you catch my drift. A multitude of… let’s call it pain, for the purpose of this question… all came to a head that year. And instead of facing it, I ran. I sheltered myself by doing absolutely nothing.

One thing you have to know about me is, since childhood I’ve always been super ambitious and driven by some purpose. Actually let’s call it passion, because purpose and passion are not synonymous (that’s a whole can of worms I’ll open later), but I digress. So to see myself locked away, withering without direction, was terrifying. I knew it. My friends and family knew it. But when you hit rock bottom, it takes a moment for the concussion of the fall to wear off.

It wasn’t until mid 2022 that the answer to the question I’d been wrestling with, “What am I doing here?”, finally came to me, “Why don’t you write?” So I opened my laptop and began to write. And in doing so, my words unknowingly became my therapy. That was the birth of my West African Fantasy series, The Ones Before (TOB). A story with thematic undercurrents of grief, sacrifice, loss of self, and the consequences of choices. All parallel to what I was experiencing in real life.

Now it’s 2025. After multiple pitch rounds, The Ones Before (TOB) is being adapted first into a book series. The expansive world I built: the magic systems, the lore, the maps, the fictional language, the personality quiz to find your tribe, and all the characters who live in that realm, none of it would exist if I hadn’t hit rock bottom.

I can confidently say this: in the darkest places comes the truest form of art.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
That we all have God within us, call it light, call it power, call it spirit, whatever your belief system names it. Most people look for God outside of themselves, but I believe the real work of life is discovering that divinity within, and using our passion as the vehicle to express it.

Like I genuinely believe we are much greater than we imagine. The power of the mind alone can allow us to accomplish things we once thought impossible. Every single one of us has the ability to change our reality for the better. But the perpetual distractions all around us keep us in a limited state of being. You can find evidence of this truth explored across medicine, science, religion, and art.

I feel like in a way, that is the purpose of our existence, to find the God within us, the light, and let our passion be the vehicle through which we discover it, and illuminate the light in others. Why is this an important truth? Well as cliche as this question is, imagine there was nothing in this world that could stop you, what wouldn’t you do? Imagining it and knowing it as a fact is the line we have to cross. Once we cross it, our entire perspective on life shifts.

As an artist, I live inside this belief. We are drivers of emotion, and emotion is the language of the soul. If we are able to use our art to tap into that power, our light, our God within us, then through that same art we can speak directly to the souls of our audience, our readers, our viewers. If that isn’t a glimpse of the power we hold, I don’t know what is.

Does any of that make sense? I hope it does haha

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
When I’m gone, I hope people have overwhelmingly good memories with me haha. I hope they say I was kind to them. That I was a person they trusted and felt safe with. I hope they say I was always smiling even in difficult times. I hope they say I was generous with what I had to give.

I hope they talk about my films, and books, and business ventures, and all my accomplishments. I hope I’d inspire the next generation of close family members, grandkids and what not. I don’t know… I mean, if even one person can say that their life was brighter because I was here, then my little blip of existence on this earth will have meant something.

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Image Credits
Pavel Poboruev

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