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Todra Payne – from Make-Up Artist to Writer

Writing has always been in the back of my mind as something I’d do “one day”. When I was a child I made up stories and friends would gather to read my “novellas”. I’m ashamed to admit they were soap operas on paper with lots of unrealistic passion (what I knew of passion, anyhow, at 13) and totally crazy, unpredictable characters. As a black girl who couldn’t jump Double Dutch – please don’t tell anyone – (this is a form of skipping that uses two ropes and is really popular in the African American community) writing trash teen books was my ticket into the cool crowd.

But as I grew older and told my mom my aspirations towards the arts (I can also paint, draw and act) my mother made it very clear I was going to have a “real” job. So I did what so many people do, I went to college and tried to study business, only to drop out two years later without a degree or my mother’s approval. I wandered around in fashion and advertising for a few years but couldn’t quite find the right fit. Finally, at a point of financial desperation, I took a job as a counter manager for a cosmetic company. To my surprise I flourished in this position and one thing led to another and before I knew what had happened I was getting jobs working with celebrities and national magazines as a makeup artist. It wasn’t quite as simplistic as I’m making it seem, but I can say it wasn’t the outcome of a careful career strategy. I fell into a wonderful job.

After six years in fashion, I took a trip to the Philippines as a short-term missionary. When I came back I didn’t have the heart for working in fashion any longer. It was hard to be around a pair of $1,200 designer jeans when I knew people who didn’t have that much to live on all year. And then the World Trade Center was attacked. I stood on a corner with my neighbors and watched the towers struggle to stand. My husband took pictures of the first tower when it was hit. It’s a haunting black and white photo with a huge cloud of black smoke covering one side. We decided to start over somewhere else.

Pennsylvania was our choice. We both wandered through unfulfilling, low-paying jobs wondering if we’d made the right move. All along, I’d been getting several writers’ news letters, including Jo Parfitt’s but didn’t honestly believe I had the skill to make writing a reality. Another career fluke landed me as a Communications Specialist for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I had absolutely no experience, but when I temped at one of the offices they, strangely enough, offered me a writing position in the press office.

I plowed through uninspiring speeches about economic development, wrote profiles on businesses that exported bull semen and grew more and more depressed with each passing day. But then one day it occurred to me that I was being paid to be a writer. Wait a minute, if I could get a paycheck to write about things I detested, why couldn’t I do it on my own terms? The wheels began turning.

I started reading those writer’s newsletters that came in my e-mail box. And I took a chance by starting a blog. I figured it was a safe place to rant, write and be discovered. It worked. Fabjob saw my site and offered me a job as a contributing writer for their career guide, Fabjob Guide to Become a Makeup Artist. It was exhilarating. They paid me too. I was sneaking in my writing between talking points and press releases at my 9-5. One day I was caught with the contract from my Fabjob assignment and given a stern warning. The exact words were “You need to be very careful”. It was a turning point for me. I realized I had to get out of there. One more Fabjob guide and I had the courage to quit my job. I cut back on my monthly expenses, begged my husband to let us move into a very tiny, inexpensive apartment, and I bought a used laptop. That was exactly eight weeks ago. I have since landed jobs writing two monthly columns for a local lifestyle magazine, an advertorial for a local healthcare provider and several magazine features and website copy jobs. I am finally doing what I dreamed over 20 years ago and I’m making enough to cover my share of the bills and live without a desk job. My first month I landed over $2100 worth of writing assignments. This is as good as it gets.