Tough love unlocks Vanessa’s hidden talents
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Sunday November 12, 2023 06:00
The multi-talented creative vividly remembers how dealing with the frustrations of being forbidden to behave like any ordinary teenage girl, led her to discover her hidden talents. Born to strict and God-fearing parents, Vanessa as Tlhaolang is commonly known in the creative space, says the pressures of being a pastor’s kid weighed down heavily on her as she could not do everything she loved because she had to toe the line. Due to their status, it was evidently difficult for her parents to allow her to do everything she loved. Like any parents who hold significant positions in society, her parents obviously had high expectations of what their daughter had to do to reflect on how they raised her.
According to her, this weighed down heavily on her and caused her frustrations. The Ramotswa native said feeling the pressure, she decided to venture into something that would express her feelings. That is when she realised that she was good at dancing and that it helped her to unwind. She said she started dancing when she was doing Form 3 back in 2011, before joining a Thamaga-based group then called 306. “I loved dancing since I was a kid as it's more of expressing one’s true feelings and making other people happy. For me being a PK (pastor’s kid) it was difficult to convince my parents to allow me to do what I loved, so all the frustrations and overwhelming feelings I would let them out when I am dancing,” Vanessa said in an interview with Arts&Culture.
However, she had to quit the group and her dancing when her parents moved to Ramotswa a few years later. “Then when I finished school, I took a gap year and that’s when I got introduced to a group called 2change which was awesome. After some time, we parted ways and that’s when I went to Ravos to get my beauty therapy and hairdressing certificate,” she added. Venturing into beauty therapy, she says it was mostly influenced by the love to make people happy. “Getting to see people’s reactions after you have done their makeup or given them a massage is like I have lifted that baggage they had on their back and now they feel better because they feel beautiful. I also feel happy to see my clients happy after doing that mascara or massage which takes away their pains and boosts their confidence,” she explained. Vanessa, who is currently a first-year student studying Business Management at Realic Professional & Technical College (REPTEC), said she has become passionate about what she does and wants to keep learning to improve. “I want to grow. They say we never stop learning so I’m gonna keep learning to improve myself and my craft. I am going to keep at it 100%,” she said.
However, she raised concern that people still view professional dancing and beauty therapy as hobbies and not real work. She pleaded for support for the creative industry saying a thriving industry could improve livelihoods. But she said that will start by changing the old cultural mindset of parents and showing them the importance of supporting their children at a young age and not living their lives through their children.