Jess Val Ortiz | Broadway and Breakups!

In a world where you are online, and that is your career, and it is about performing, and it is about numbers, how have you softened through that to now instead of like getting more insecure? Like, what have you done for yourself that it's, it's gotten better and you're in a new era?

Like, okay, I think the influencer world was like very n- it was, it was coming up in 2020, and so like influencers were getting invited to big events, New York Fashion Week, and like I would go to these places and see really cool people and like see you, and I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, like I don't, I don't deserve to like be here.

Like, what? This is crazy.

Like, I have to like prove myself.

I need to prove-

Yeah

... that I'm like worthy to be in this room." And I think it just came with like experience and time and growth and like realizing, oh wait, like I am, like we're all just people, and we're all, we all kinda do the same thing.

Mm-hmm.

And we're all just here to have a good time and to share art or share, you know, something very special.

Like, it's, it's not that deep.

Like, it's not that deep, and like-

Yeah

... just if you just like be yourself, then like it's not going to feel so exhausting and like you have to prove something.

I agree.

The, the exhaustion of trying to prove yourself is something that I've definitely struggled with in my life, and it's just not worth it because I think it's, especially in the world that we're living, I think people see through the performative.

Like, even if you're performing, that still can be authentic to who you're being because that's what you're doing in the moment.

But I'm, I'm talking about like trying to be someone you're not to perform to fit in.

Like, that's the exhausting part.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's a, it's a lot.

It's, it's a lot to think of, and I'm like, I love that you're only 29 turning 30.

Like, if you're already this self-aware and understanding of that world and have gone through the experiences that you have, 'cause that's what I always wanna tell people when they're going through, like, their rock bottoms.