Rising Star Natalie Grace On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Elana Cohen
Don’t worry about what others think because not everyone is going to like you and you need to learn to be okay with that. People are always going to find a reason to not like you. Jesus was literally perfect, and people still hated him.
As a part of my series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Natalie Grace.
Natalie Grace is best known as a Model, Influencer, Content Creator, and aspiring Actress from Dallas, Texas. Starting out in competitive cheer, Natalie wanted to model for cheer brands like her friends, so she started an Instagram account. That account has turned her into an Instagram star with a fan base of over half a million. As a model she has graced the runways of Miami, New York, and Los Angeles as well as working with numerous brands as both a model and brand ambassador. Believing in the importance of giving back to your community, Natalie uses her platform to bring attention to the Salvation Army, St. Jude’s, and Feed My Starving Children. When not creating content, Natalie enjoys traveling, surfing, and painting.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a Christian home in Texas as the youngest of 4 kids and the only girl, so I have 3 older brothers. I started kindergarten in public school then I switched to homeschool for 3rd and 4th grade because my mom wasn’t happy with our public school anymore. In 5th grade I went back to public school because we moved to a different school district. I was a competitive gymnast until I was 11 and then switched to competitive cheer because gymnastics required so many hours in the gym that caused me to miss out on so many other things.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
When I switched from gymnastics to cheer, I had a couple friends that modeled for cheer clothing brands, and I thought it looked like fun and I wanted to do it too. So, I made a public Instagram account and started following and tagging different cheer brands. I started working with some of those brands and growing my account and within a few months my account started growing really fast on its own. More and more brands started to reach out to me, and it just sort of snowballed into what it is now.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your entertainment career?
One time when me and my friend Lily Brooks O’briant were walking out of an event there were a ton of paparazzi standing on the sidewalk that we needed to walk by to get to the car and they all swarmed us asking us to sign pictures of us and take selfies with them and they were actually like grabbing our wrists to pull us into pictures with them, it was actually so scary because we didn’t know these people and there were so many of them talking at once and we were just trying to get by them as quickly as possible and get to my mom’s car. At one point I thought we were going to be taken. So, I don’t know if that’s the most interesting but it was the most terrifying.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
This is kind of just a little thing but one time several years ago I did a Q&A on my Instagram story. A photographer that I was getting ready to shoot with, made a silly comment joking around saying “Can’t wait to shoot with my homie” and I shared it on my story and said “ha-ha see you soon”, but because it used the words “shoot” and “homie” Instagram took it literally and thought it was violent gang behavior, so they shadow banned me for several weeks. So I learned to be careful with how I word things on social media and not to use words that can be taken the wrong way.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I just finished filming a movie about human trafficking called “The 11th Hour”. It’s still in production and should be out early next year. The cast and crew were amazing, and I had so much fun working on this project. And I love that proceeds from the movie will be used to help real victims of human trafficking. It’s such an awful and widespread problem and the things these victims go through are so heartbreaking. There is so much that they need after being rescued and I’m proud to be a part of something that will help provide resources for them.
Most young people your age don’t have to balance work and school. Can you tell us how you manage to balance your schoolwork, auditions, and time on set?
I do online school through a public school system. It makes it so much easier to manage traveling, auditions, and jobs. I can finish my classes at whatever pace I want, which I love because I’m already done with 2 classes!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The person that has helped me the most is without a doubt my amazing mom. She has helped me so much with literally everything. I wouldn’t be where I am today with her. She’s my best friend and my momager. She’s helped me with auditions, social media, events, collabs, travel, etc. She’s helped me achieve every goal I’ve ever reached, and she will continue to help me chase my dreams. She’s literally sacrificed so much in her own life just to help me have the life of my dreams. I’m so blessed to have such a proud, supportive, loving, and caring mom like mine.
Now let’s jump to the main part of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1. Don’t worry about what others think because not everyone is going to like you and you need to learn to be okay with that. People are always going to find a reason to not like you. Jesus was literally perfect, and people still hated him.
2 . You’ll learn who your true friends are. I literally had so many friends before I started this journey but after it started friends slowly started to trickle away for what seemed like no reason. I know so much of it is jealousy, and you just have to remember that it really has nothing to do with you. The fact that people are jealous of you is their own issue. You just have to stick with those that never start treating you differently. It becomes apparent pretty quickly who your true friends are.
3 . Be authentic and don’t lose sight of who you are. I feel like this is hard for some people. I’ve seen it a lot because people want to reach their goals so badly that they are willing to do almost anything or sometimes they just want to make money and they compromise things about themselves in order to do so. You just have to know who you are and what’s important to you and then never be willing to compromise those things. I’ll give an example of this in my life. I’ve never been one to cuss. I just don’t like it. but so many other teenagers have given me a hard time with it. They think I’m lame and so many people have tried to get me to cuss or use the middle finger either in person or on social media and I just won’t. Not because I’m too good or anything but it’s just not me. I know teens think it’s so cool to cuss and I’ve even been told that it would help my social media if I seemed more chill and cussed a little. While that might be true to an extent, it would not be authentic for me to do that and I’m just not going to compromise myself that way just to try and look cool or gain more followers.
4 . Always take time to enjoy being a kid. I think it’s important to take time to just have fun with friends and family or take days here and there to relax and just be a kid. I know a lot of people who work really hard at trying to make it in this industry and they never take time to have fun and not worry about making content or doing auditions or making music or whatever. and while I admired their drive and work ethic, I also know you only get one childhood to make memories and not have a ton of responsibility. I think it’s important for everyone but for kids and teens especially you need to have balance.
5 . Be careful who you let in your circle.
Sadly, not everyone who you think is your friend really wants to see you succeed. This is a very competitive industry and so many people are just out for themselves and only want to be in your life because of what you might be able to do to help them. I’ve seen so many people get used and taken advantage of and I’ve even had a girl and her mom go out of their way to spread very elaborate lies about me and my mom when we thought they were our friends. Fortunately, no one believed them, and they instead only made themselves look bad. Sadly, they do this to lots of people so they already had a reputation in the industry, but it could have turned out differently. On the flip side there are good people out there who will see something special in you and genuinely want to help and see you succeed and it’s not always easy to know the difference. So, just be careful who you trust and let in your inner circle. trust your gut because it is usually right!
If you had the ability to choose to work on any TV show or film, or work alongside any co-star, or with any director, what or who would that be, and why? You never know who might see this article, especially if we tag them. :-)
If I could be on any show it would have to be “Outer Banks”. I just love the vibe of it, the cast seems super nice, it’s got so many elements to it. There’s drama, comedy, action and romance, it’s such a great show. Something like that would be my dream job!
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Instagram — @Natalie_grace_official_3
Tiktok — @Blondeitaly
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
