Meet Imani Johnson

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

Imani , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I paid very close attention to what I liked at a very young age. I was a journaler since the 5th grade, I would write about my hopes, my dreams, my day. I sometimes look back at my journal from that time and think “okay she was a little dramatic but she knew what she wanted.” I declared at that age that I wanted to be a fashion designer.

You see, I was a Disney kid in the late 2000’s early 2010’s. I’m talking ‘Shake It Up,’ ‘Hannah Montana,’ ‘Highschool Musical,’ era and I more than anything I wanted to dress like the people I saw on those shows, I was there to gain fashion inspiration. From there I fell in love with ‘Project Runway’ and ‘Americas Top Model,’ and started going through my moms magazines to get more of this fashion stuff. Her taking notice got me my own subscription to magazines more appropriate for my age. I would pour over these magazines, creating my own collages from the things that I loved. Telling my mom peplums were in, that the must have shoes are oxfords, bright neons are all the rage right now, and that she must get some highwaisted skinny jeans. Flipping through the glossy pages of a magazine was where my love of fashion grew.

But fashion wasn’t my only passion although it felt like it for a very long time. My family was a military family so I was moving and traveling to different states and countries for all of my life. The thing is I just thought that was my life so I never considered how special it is to be able to travel until I was in a place for longer than 2 1/2 years and thought, I’m tired of this place. Traveling was in my bones, it felt like freedom to me. I would write in my journal about how I would reinvent myself in this new location, what my friends would be like, I wondered what our new house would look like and what new things I would see. It was an adventure.

Once I got older and started going on my own adventures, I realized how few black women there were. I looked for content online and there was not very much there. I tried to find books and it was the same deal. All of the traveling TV shows didn’t have anyone who looked like me and were always food related. I started thinking what about the people who love fashion and travel, what about the people who look like me and have traveled but our stories aren’t shared anywhere.

Through my experiences living my life noticing things and being self reflective about the things I did and did not enjoy my purpose was easy to define. I was driven to create a magazine that highlights travel stories of the black woman traveler. To simply create the thing I wanted to see in the world.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Being an editor of a really small magazine I am most excited to hear peoples stories. I love getting to know the people who will be featured in the magazine. It always feels like I met a kindred spirit equally as obsessed of traveling the world and broadening our minds. I am releasing a true zine version of Arrival Magazine, its going to be less formal and dive deeper in to a particular aspect of travel that was mentioned briefly in one of the articles in the first magazine, the black experience of occasionally feeling like the outdoors this great expanse of nature, is not for us, and why that may be. It should be completed by June 2025!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

One quality is the curiosity to ask questions, not just that of the people I’m interviewing, but of the world. Why things are the way they are, and how can I change it. Next is the knowledge that I don’t know everything so to ask for help and in asking people IRL for help I am leaning on my community and developing stronger bonds. Lastly trust in myself. Imposter syndrome hits hard, and is something that I’m working on. But I know for a fact that if I don’t have trust and belief in myself then nothing will get done. The worst thing I can do is nothing at all.

The number one way to improve on these is to communicate. Communication to others your questions, your needs. Then communicating to yourself your truths. Closed mouths don’t get fed.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I would describe myself as a well rounded person. The first issue of the magazine was all created by me. The pictures, the layout, the words, the website, the marketing all by me. But, my goal for this first issue was to simply get the ideas out there. Working this way as a well rounded person is not beneficial for scale, I work slower as a one woman army, I lose momentum sometimes, when life happens. But, I do find great fulfillment in most of the hats I wear because I feel strongly about the purpose, so for now I am moving at my own pace. In the long run if I did desire to scale it would be more beneficial to focus on my strengths and then build a team whose strengths are my weaknesses, once I have the capital. Each persons path is different and depending on where they are in their journey might cause them to switch paths.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thefashiontourist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_arrivalmag/