Alycia Ripley on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Alycia Ripley. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Alycia, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
There was a friend of mine during freshman year of high school at an all-girls school who was treated like garbage by most of the girls within my very small class. I have this thing about injustice: I can’t allow it to continue. If there’s something, anything, I can do, I’ll do it. So this is a 2-parter. Back then, they locked her out of a hotel room on a class trip and she was without her inhaler and grew gravely ill. After that, I became angrier than ever and did what I could to protect her from the dozen or so that did this thing. I befriended the much older girls not only because they were more interesting but as a safe haven, for she and myself. Standing up for myself and for her certainly didn’t gain me an easy experience but 30 years later, I wrote about the experience in the hotel for my magazine, ‘Antihero’ and although I mention no names of people or the school, it cost me the contact and normal friendship with some people who didn’t want to admit to themselves what happened or what part they may have played in it. Even if you weren’t one of the terrible girls who mistreated her, my essay does make people look into a mirror and remember if they were on the right side of things or, regardless of not ‘doing’ anything, are they guilty of letting it continue without voicing just how wrong it was.
Some people who graduated from there may not contact me these days. and I know who those people are; Others may shy away due to not knowing what to say or if/how to address the situation that is clearly still very close to me. None of that matters, though. I’m so proud of that essay and how long it took to achieve the proper format and style through which to tell the true story. My opinion is, if you do it, you take accountability for having done it. If someone calls out the situation either verbally or in a written piece, so be it. The situation deserved to be addressed and my friend deserved some justice. It may have cost me a blessedly few people who don’t want to discuss it or be in contact since its release but if they weren’t involved in the 1st place and believed in this young woman, who died shortly after the incident described, deserving justice, there wouldn’t be a need to exit stage left.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a writer/filmmaker/actress/magazine founder.

I have three published novels out in stores and online: “Traveling With an Eggplant’, ‘The Final Alice’, ‘Alice’s Army’, and one memoir, ‘Wind Over Tide’. I’m the writer/director of and can be seen in three short films: ‘Watercolors’, ‘Mary Lou Attends a Wedding’, & ‘Midnight Postman’. Each was awarded various recognitions at film festivals, ranging from Best New Filmmaker to Audience Favorite. I’m using these completed short films as a resume to attract producers, crew, investors, etc so as to come on board for the feature film I’ve written and want to direct and am incredibly excited about.

I’ve acted in such films as ‘A Quiet Place 2’, ‘The Strangers,’ and several television shows. I’ve modeled for several clients and brands and use my Instagram itself as a creation. Anyone who follows me at @talentedmsripley will gain a large sense of who I am and what I do. I love the combination of the visual aspect and the written captions and music. It’s the only time I can film or create without a crew alongside me and love having the independence to do so without a budget! 🙂

My goal for this year is to establish a production company, Antihero Entertainment, to develop my written work for film and television and manage my book events as well as to develop the work of other artists. I write constantly with the goal of production and have several projects to soon set on course.

I founded a magazine, also named ‘Antihero’, to serve as an aspect of the production company that gives back to other creatives and shines a light on their accomplishments. It’s an interview-based magazine that highlights creative people within any industry and as of now we have two issues released. I’m incredibly proud of how beautiful a magazine it is, especially considering the small size of our editorial staff. I’m the Editor in Chief who creates the themes, researches potential interviewees, and handles the interviews themselves. We have one editorial assistant, a contributing writer, and one designer. I couldn’t be more thrilled with what we’re putting out with ‘Antihero’ in terms of subjects, interviews, essays, and format.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
The world and my external environment had very little say in anything I did. I’m not sure if that’s normal, or even a good thing or a strange one. I’ve always been the same person. I heard the same inner voice and mind and it was echoing within a very small child’s body. This wasn’t just because I began reading at 2 years old (and loved it) but because I was unnaturally aware of the world around me, what I wanted to do with myself (become a writer/fiilmmaker, or as I once called it, a professional storyteller) and what the adults around me were doing, whether that was positive or negative. I was just too aware and while that was a wonderful thing that made me a precocious little soul, it also turned me a little walking bruise. Any glance the adults gave each other, their conversational topics, most were things I shouldn’t have picked up on and honestly wish I hadn’t. I wish I hadn’t been so aware. Being more in my own world, as other kids were, would have kept me safer from hurt and discomfort and stuck with an anxious attachment style.
I stopped regretting how I was built and reminded myself that good things came from it. Skills and talents were developed in a way that they wouldn’t have been had I been built differently. I was born this way for a reason and the skills I forced upon myself at such a young age are what will help me at this stage of life with the projects I’m currently taking on.
I’m proud that I’ve always been the same person. I enjoyed affecting the environments I found myself in versus letting them affect me. I was never going to let me hometown or any microcosm of school, friend groups, etc dictate what I was and what I could become. I was always outside of the box.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I’d say, strength of character. So many people want things overnight. Influencers and ingenue celebrities seem to gain traction quickly and we don’t always stop to consider the resources or connections these people may have that we do not. I won’t say that I love how difficult my road has been at times. It didn’t make me feel good or at ease. I wish that I’d had better mentors early in life, people who truly had ideas regarding the roads I should take to achieve goals. I was an only child and my mom and stepdad knew little about the industry I wanted to work within. I wish I’d had mentors who could have advised me so I didn’t have to spend as much time chasing my tail, trying different avenues, wasting time on things that didn’t get me anywhere, searching for connections. But I built a strength of character while realizing that good things take time and sometimes the efforts are worth more in the end when they require effort, strategy, planning and not coming too easily or overnight. I’m proud of my successes but even those came with a longer road than one might assume. I can choose to be bitter or accept it and believe I have enough time in this lifetime to achieve the goals that are important to me.

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 would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Friends would say the Golden Rule matters a great deal to me, that I believe in treating people the way I’d want to be treated. I believe in thank-you notes. No one owes you anything, so you should always let someone know you appreciate what they’ve done for you.

They’d also say that being interesting is an important aspect to living in my eyes. I used to joke that one of the biggest sins is to be boring, but in many ways, that sentiment is true. We’re on Earth for such a short period of time that I think it’s such a waste not to be the best and most interesting and authentic version of yourself and leave behind for others, as possible. Think outside the box, build your authentic interests and follow them, talk about them. Invest in personal style. Be that person who enlivens the party not through sucking the air out of it and needing attention but offering an engaging personal vibe, interesting information others might not know, connecting people into friendships, asking questions, and really listening to the answers. Not everyone is a big talker, but can still make a big impact on people by making them feel heard and engaged with, and that leaves a meaningful impression on others.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
I’ve only recently been learning to handle stress more effectively. Probably because there’s been a lot of it lately, and rather than sink or swim, I learned to compartmentalize in a stronger fashion and stop catastrophizing. As far as peace, I feel it when I’m taking a walk outside during nice weather and listening to music. (You could argue that the music is part of my writing process and therefore, work, but creative work towards my projects feels peaceful to me.)

Overall, I’d say I feel most at peace when I have comfortable lounge clothes on, makeup cleaned off, wearing my LED light therapy mask, and watching a movie or tv show I love. Either that or a lunch/dinner or a get-together with a good friend or someone I’d like to know better. I’ve begun to get away from loving large group outings and prefer more one-on-one get-togethers.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @talentedmsripley
• Linkedin: Alycia Ripley
• Youtube: @talentedmsripley

Image Credits
No image credits for these. These are all my own photos that I own.