Renee’s Story: Owning Who I Am

Renee’s Story:
Owning Who I Am

For Renee, “owning who she is” means owning her own sexiness, owning her own beauty, and owning her talents as a dancer, teacher, wife, and mother.

And she’s loving every second. Watch the video to hear her story.

Video Transcript:

My name is Renee, I am 50 and I feel fabulous.

Well for me, I really feel as though I can be in my own skin and I can be who I am. And I've learned over the years that age is not about a number or how you look on the outside, but how I feel on the inside.

I mean I'm hoping and praying that I'm getting more wisdom as I age, but I'm really just owning who I am.

I feel sexy, I still feel just full of life. The sexiness that I feel and owning my womanhood, it really stems down from who I am deep down inside and how my parents have raised me.

Pro-age to me means that it's okay to continue to age, and to continue to grow, and to continue to learn.

I almost kind of feel like it's like pro as in professional. You know, like professional age, like yes I'm going to age in a way that will bring out whatever is on the inside of me professionally. And personally as well too, especially as a mom.

Being a dancer and professional... Small, tiny, nothing. And, after I had my children in my late 30's all of a sudden, I've got curves and, I'm feeling really good. I'm like yeah I do feel sexy. And so for me, the older that I've gotten and the more that I feel like I'm in my own skin.

Because I think that sexiness—it comes from who you are, and it comes from within and your personality. Not putting on a whole bunch of makeup and hair and nails and all. That's fun, but it's not what true sexy is to me.

I used to do ballet when I was younger, all the way into my 30's. I loved doing musical theater, I tap, I do like a lot of cool stuff. I'm finally learning how to play the cajon.

Okay, we have a piano in our home, a flute, a violin, and I'm like you know what, I need to learn an instrument. So I started picking up percussion within the last year. So I'm just like doing the congas and bass. So I'm still dancing, I'm still doing my jazz. My husband and I will still do our little cha-cha, mambo, and salsa because he's Spanish. So we keep that flavor going on. So I do a lot of different styles of dancing and I love it. I feel like it keeps me fit.

Yeah, what makes me feel alive is just being connected to my husband, my mom, my children, to the community that I serve which I love serving my community, to my younger students that I coach and mentor.

I have a lot of young girls that they're really just worried about their bodies. They’re like: "Oh miss Renee should I be this?" Or "I'm too skinny," or "Too that." I'm like, you know what, I tell them: “Do you, boo. Do you. You don't need to be anyone else, I don't care if you have braces, brown, yellow, freckles, chunky, just be you.”

It has to come from the inside out. And I can really see it when I know that another lady just is happy with who she is in her own skin. And yes can we always take care of ourselves? Yes, you know, I try to eat healthy, I drink a lot of water, I don't wear a lot of makeup, I don't like the thickness and the feel of it, I just don't, I don't like it on my skin. I like to feel smooth and healthy and clean from the inside out and the outside in. So I feel like what makes a woman beautiful is her just owning who she is.

Thinking about the next couple of decades, because I look at my mother and I'm going, “hey okay, in 20 years I'm gonna look like that, okay I'll take it.” And then my Grandmom who just passed away, she was an incredible lady. We called her Mrs. Hospitality. She was the hostess with the mostest. She would do anything for you, she was an amazing cook. She just served whomever was around her. That's what I see myself doing, is if people need me in whatever capacity it is, whether it's the children, teens, my community I wanna be there for them.

I want to just give back, you know. And if it's through cooking, if it's through singing, dancing, having people say, "Renee, you're a mess you have so much energy," then so be it. If I can make somebody laugh at and/or with me, I'm gonna do it because I don't care, that's me.

I believe that that's why I was put here, is to make people have fun and to have a great time and to be thankful for what they have. So if I could follow in my grandmother's and my mother's footsteps as far as that's concerned, that would be amazing.

When I see, you know, as my skin is aging, as I'm aging, I'm thinking: “yeah they're not wrinkles.” I'm like: “those are my wisdom lines.”