Meet Kimberly Bowie

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kimberly Bowie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kimberly below.

Kimberly, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from the life experiences I have found to be extremely difficult, yet something inside refuses to let me quit. Even when I want to give up, I keep going and that has created a beautiful strength in me. God has formed me, shaped me, and chased me down with his relentless love and because of this I have a resilience that makes me a fierce warrior during life’s challenges. Growing up in a family fiercely affected both by mental illness and financial poverty created difficult circumstances throughout my adolescence and young adult years. It was something I could not avoid, and it deeply pained me yet forced me to find inner strength to endure. These are excellent conditions for resilience to be birthed in. It’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. While you are enduring, you feel so weak and alone. It’s not until you pick yourself up and look back that you realize how far you have come and that you are stronger than you feel.

Amid my family’s weakness and my own inner pain that felt ignored due to the chaos around me, I had to lean on God. At first it was frustrating, because I wanted to feel close to him, but could only feel pain and distance. I remember crying out through reoccurring feelings of hopelessness and futility and it was a very depressing time for me. Overtime, renewed hope, independence and love did find me, but my journey has not been a linear one. The thing about trauma is it doesn’t go away but simply finds news ways to present itself until you truly heal from it. So, I have confidence, but also much vulnerability as I’m still finding my way to complete healing, hope, and new strength in my life now. God shows up in ways that remind me that he is real, and it gives me hope and resilience to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel. Ultimately, I would say It’s like a wash, rinse, repeat cycle. You go through the process of something challenging and you finish the cycle, and you come out more resilient.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m an established runway/print model with ten years of professional experience. My journey has been fueled with confidence, grace, and grit. I use creative content to communicate faith concepts with an aim to help women heal from low self-esteem and insecurity. I am personable and aim to create positive connections through my modeling and brand ambassador partnerships.

I enjoy creative collaboration, like creating different poses and emotions in front of the camera and working with a group of people to bring a concept to life. I love the straightforward flexibility of acting on camera. I also have a practical business side and use this part of my personality to create additional income through administrative work and marketing sales events.

I’m excited to share that I will be modeling pieces from the Babbie Lovett Collection during the run of Tennessee Ballet Theatre’s spring performances of the ICON as well as showcasing recycled looks by Mary Sue Ambrose of Siss Viss, so I am looking forward to that.

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?

The three skills most impactful on my journey have been Adaptability, Resilience, and Creativity.

I have had to be flexible with how I get things done to be aligned with the season of life that I’m in. Dreams are like silent whispers that can inspire us when we least expect it. Reality is what we are waking up to everyday. The skill of adaptability is what helps us navigate the terrain of our lives while still honoring the dreams in our hearts. It’s balancing the tension between living in survival mode and learning to fly as we go. To strengthen this skill, I would encourage someone to start writing down the big picture goal but be flexible with the steps they take to achieve it. It’s tempting to get discouraged, but don’t panic if your journey looks different. All journeys blossom and become beautiful in their own time.

Resilience is something we have already talked about, but I have to state its importance again because the creative path is filled with so much rejection. You will need this skill if you plan to have longevity in your career. You can strengthen this skill by focusing on the small wins you are making. Setbacks happen and are frustrating, but they won’t stop you from moving forward when you have a good habit of reflection and appreciation. Write down what went well and let that encourage you for the other wins ahead.

Creativity is important because it can bring strength and fresh vision to a long journey. It’s so important to cultivate the ability to dream or imagine because it is the very skill that life will try to snuff out of us. To strengthen this skill, I would encourage someone to get out of their head (stop over planning) and act (start doing) I think that creativity happens naturally when we are in a flow state of momentum. Get up and dance or go for a walk or listen to music, add some movement to give your brain freedom and space to imagine things in new ways.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Joyce Meyer’s book, “Be Authentically You” played an important role in my development by encouraging me to seek God for the confidence to be myself authentically. It speaks of God having a plan for each one of us, but warns that we have to brave enough to pursue it, because everyone may not understand or receive us at first.

Some of my favorite impactful nuggets of wisdom from the book are:

– We look ahead to things we know we need to do, and instead of believing they can be enjoyable, we believe they will be hard and unpleasant. .. Defeat dread by not giving in to it. Dare to believe, and you too will see the glory of God manifested in your life.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. John 14:1

– This book focuses on being authentically and uniquely you, and doing that requires believing. We need to believe that we can be ourselves and still be accepted. Not everyone will accept us, but it is better to have fewer friends and be your unique self than to have many friends and feel you must alter yourself to do what they demand in order to be accepted.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmekimberlyb
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ModelKimB
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-bowie-128616119

Image Credits

Personal Photo – Art Futur
Image 1 – Phil Lam
Image 2 – Aaron Caleb Fishbein
Image 3 – Kimberly Bowie
Image 4 – Danny Hicks