We recently had the chance to connect with Anastasia Kyprianou and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Anastasia, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Gardening!! I swear I will pick up the most nerdy or granny hobby and fall in love with it. I have had hobbies in the past that ranged from building Legos to sewing. My current obsession? Plants.
If you’ve been feeling very overwhelmed, stressed or disconnected, trust me when I say that gardening is the way to go. I am very fortunate to love wholeheartedly what I do. Still, sometimes sitting for long hours in front of a computer is not the best for neither one’s mental nor physical health. And unfortunately, writing a novel can be detrimental to both. That is why I picked up gardening. There is a grounding and soothing element to it after spending hours and hours in front of a screen stuck on a chair. Being able to tend to flowers, nurture and nourish them is the perfect combination of practicing delayed gratification while doing a labor of love. Plants also happen to be the great teachers of life, death and rebirth. They have a mystic element to them that can serve as inspiration, especially crucial when you’re writing a fantasy novel.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello dear reader! My name is Anastasia Kyprianou. I was born and raised on a small Greek-speaking island, Cyprus. In 2022 I moved to New York in an attempt to follow one of my childhood dreams. To be in and create movies. I learned how to act alongside some soulful professionals and absorbed any information I could about the craft of acting. Acting has the power to teach you the magic of creating in its deepest sense and studying with teachers who understood that made that experience truly monumental.
What really happened though in New York was I got to discover who I am and who I want to be without any criticism, shame or doubt. Throughout this “self-discovery” journey I fell in love with writing and acting became a medium for me to heal and release any past trauma. That right there was the true power of art!
I had one of those “survival” jobs that sucked the light out of me, yet the most magical thing happened one morning on an uptown A train to SoHo at 6am, on my way there. I was listening to a song (Seven Devils by Florence + the Machine) and a scene kept playing over and over in my head. So out of curiosity and a bit of “what do I have to lose” I began writing the scene down. And more songs slowly inspired other scenes, and those scenes came together to form an idea for a novel.
So, what do I have to lose? I began to write an ethereal fantasy novel.
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The First Light.
A novel about war and loss, love and rebirth. It follows the tragic story of Celene, a human that after witnessing the assassination of her parents she fell into a new dimension. Into a world named Serendel. Celene had deliberately tried to hide who she was as its results could be deadly, so her only means of survival was to become glass. One night, after discovering a hidden lake, she accidentally activated an ancient spell which directly connected her to the Queen. Now, Celene was forced to come out of the shadows. As her life became interlinked with the Queen’s, only one could survive and Sybil wasn’t going to let her lifelong friend die because of a human.
Who will it be?
Will Celene be able to escape Sybil’s wrath?
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This story is a mirror of the battles and shadows I had and still are dealing with, with the occasional exaggeration or added element of fantasy to make it fit the world.
I have come to realize that to write means to go within and look for the answer, one that is sitting on ancient wisdom hidden in our bones.
But The First Light isn’t just a book!
The First Light in astronomy is the very first time a telescope is being used. It is also the moment light first appears after the night’s sky. It is dawn. It is the awakening after being lost in the darkness.
The First Light is the era of new stars. It is about discovering your own light and sharing it with the world around you.
The First Light is a mission, it’s my purpose, I guess. It is the first step for a bigger mission, to help artists from around the world, who don’t have the means to follow their dreams and passions, to step into their light and show the world. Art is about speaking your truth. It’s about ARTiculating your truth. It has three main focuses
Number 1: Find out who you are
Number 2: Hone your Craft
Number 3: Let the Light be seen
When I arrived in New York I found out that the apartment I had booked was a fraud and I was left with no place to stay. I was terrified and in shock, but I was lucky. My uncle (who lived few states away) helped me immensely. If it wasn’t for his help and support I wouldn’t be able to stay in nyc. I wouldn’t be able to complete the full two-year program at my school and I wouldn’t be who I am today without him. In a moment of need, he was my guardian angel.
I want to be able to give people the chance to follow their dreams, because those dreams are there for a reason. They have so many things to teach us.
And given that the arts are deeply believed to be linked with struggle and romanticising the idea of a struggling artist, I want to give to the creatives of the world the opportunity to follow their heart’s desire without the fear of not having a place to stay, not having the money to follow their dream, not being given the same opportunities as other people. Share with them necessary tools to make their dreams their reality and share with the world their inner light!
I am here to create an innovative school of arts that focuses on self, environment and craft. Everything I dreamt of being taught in my schools growing up but always felt like the educational system let me down.
I have rambled for quite a bit and this definitely wasn’t a brief introduction.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I often find myself revisiting a very specific memory, because it is full of inspiration.
I grew up knowing that my mum had given up her creative dreams to follow the socially acceptable path and worked as an office secretary at a big company, for over thirty years. When I was probably around the ages of 8 or 9, she signed up at a fashion institute, where she learned about sewing, pattern making etc. I remember very clearly how much I loved to attend those lessons with her because I was able to witness up close a woman, a mother of three, who had been told by society that her dreams wouldn’t pay her bills, following her dreams. Today she has her own atelier, where she gets to do daily what has been on her heart for so many years.
Seeing her pursue her dreams from an early age taught me that no matter what life gives you, you can always make time for what you love. I believe that subconsciously that made me eager to follow my own dreams no matter what and I made a promise to myself that I will accomplish them, one dream at a time.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
This is such a beautiful question!
It taught me everything. Success is the easy part. That’s when you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor, whether that’s in your work or personal development. Suffering, failure are what make success so important.
I heard this the other day.
“You cannot breathe in until you let go of the last breath”
It is like the yin-yang. The good and the bad. After every storm there’s a rainbow, but in order to enjoy the rainbow, you must persevere through the storm.
When suffering, it is easy to give up or avoid it. In fact, that is the easy way out. Yet, if you decide to stay with it a little while, to go through the chaos you will witness a new version of you emerging the other side. Yes, suffering may be uncomfortable, still it is the most rewarding. It is about allowing yourself to let go of beliefs, ideals or ideas that no longer serve. It’s about learning to surrender to whatever happens outside of our control.
So we can make space for what’s new to come.
If we are desperately holding on to our last breath, we will never get a new one. We will suffocate. We let go, exhale, with the belief of abundance. The abundance of air around us, ready to fill our lungs. Inhale.
I guess the most important thing suffering has taught me was its importance. With it there is growth, development. That’s where you must be willing to go in order to make your dreams come true.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
I really hope it is. I always strive to be authentic and show up as who I am. Whenever I notice a shift of character I like to go back and examine it, see if there is something subconscious there that may need attention.
I hid myself for many years beneath the magical cloak of invisibility and I won’t lie to you I still catch myself do it from time to time. But then I like to remind myself, even if it may not be true, that I was placed on earth to share my light, to be my authentic self and everything else is simply not for me.
I do my best to translate the most raw version of me in my craft no matter what. I see life with a different pair of glasses and that is what makes my story, my work and me unique, so to hide it would mean I would have to compromise the exact thing that was made to make me stand out.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What light inside you have you been dimming?
My life force. My vitality. The very light I have created a novel about. The one I still find myself yearn for when I get to talk about The First Light.
The First Light is the blueprint of stepping into your life force energy and sharing your light with everyone around you.
The First Light, the novel, the school and everything in relation to it that I am working on is my personal journey to stepping into my light, to shedding the layers that had been dimming my light for years and embracing it without fear.
I have dealt with severe anxiety and depression for a good chunk of my life, yet when I decided to explore those raw spots those “scars” slowly began to fade. The fire within my soul began to flicker in the distance. The more I got to work on myself, the things I love and my dreams I soon realized that those very things were the kindling needed to get that fire going.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anastasiaxkyp/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anastasiaxkyp
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@anastasiaxkyp
Image Credits
Landscape scene of Crystal Lake was created by the talented @niru.sky (instagram)
Portrait scene of Crystal Lake was created by the amazing @julxluna (instagram)
Portraits of Celene created by @niru.sky (instagram)
All personal pictures were taken by the beloved @pashandasiuk (instagram)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
