“My mother was someone I looked up to, her determined expression day after day has given me motivation for where I am today.” LaTrelle Pinkney-Chase’s mother had her at fifteen. Her mom was a single parent would not give up on school. This was the world that LaTrelle grew up in, where working hard as a woman was the only way to succeed. Going to her mother’s classes and watching her work hard forced LaTrelle to see that her mother could have given up school, education, and a career but she did not.
LaTrelle told me the story of her mother willing to bring LaTrelle to school in order to fulfill her education. “She did not always have child care every night when she went to school. I was about eight years old when she took me to a lecture.” Her mother had refused to miss class with the excuse that she had to look after her child. LaTrelle states: “she looked right at me and told me that I was not to make any noise nor move. The lecture started and my mother was focused, focused no longer on me.” This was one of the first memories that allowed LaTrelle to realize that her mother would not miss an opportunity of education. Her mother’s value of education would never be put second.
From a young age, she looked up to her mother. Years later her mom opened her own business as a boutique owner. Her mother was a self-made woman which LaTrelle admired. During the interview, LaTrelle stated, “I would visit my mother’s boutique and watch her fill out paperwork, organize everything just the way she wanted just the way she liked it.” LaTrelle went through high school and middle school, unsure of what she wanted to do, but she kept in the back of her mind that she wanted to own her own business just like her mother had done. LaTrelle decided to pursue the pathway of college to further her education. In 1992 she started college at Tuskegee University, in Alabama, then dropped out in 1995.
LaTrelle decided cosmetology was her life calling. She did not see the need for education in something that she already had skills in. She did not have a cosmetology degree but most salons approved of her self-taught skills. After taking a hiatus from teaching, she was recruited to be an instructor at Blaine, the Beauty Career School for cosmetology. After acquiring the job, she then found that a job had opened up at a vocational school for cosmetology. LaTrelle became content with teaching; being able to teach her passion for cosmetology at a vocational high school. She loved having the ability to be able to talk to young kids and encourage them to pursue their passions.
Soon after becoming a teacher she realized that she wanted to own a business like her mother had. “I had been styling the hair of the neighborhood girls since I was about twelve. I had the dream of a little hair shop. I woke up one day and knew it was time to open the shop that I had dreamed about.” LaTrelle set her mind on opening up a hair salon, with the help of her husband she started the adventure.
LaTrelle said: “What better way than to pursue your passion than opening up your own business?” There were complications such as LaTrelle being a woman of color. LaTrelle and her husband had visited different locations for the shop. “I had found the perfect shop, we were ready to start my business. I had mentioned getting the papers for a property contract to be drawn up. The landlord was appalled, he did not want a contract, he thought that I was going to go along with everything. He assumed that I was uneducated because I was a person of color and a woman.”
LaTrelle today makes it her mission to break the stereotypes of black women. Such as “aggressive, lazy, angry, and ignorant.” She felt like she needed to work harder for the same amount of recognition. LaTrelle mentioned the hardships she went through of finding people to help her get her business started, as she had little to no experience. Richard Eisenberg echoed this in a piece for Forbes Magazine, stating: “One reason more blacks don’t move up the economic ladder, as it is they sometimes have smaller social networks through work than whites do.” This was true as LaTrelle found it difficult to get her business started. She turned to her mother in these situations, as her mother had similar experiences. After hard work, LaTrelle opened her salon, TrelleBlazers International Hairport. A salon that caters to clients of multicultural backgrounds with a first class experience.
At this time LaTrelle was balancing her life as a teacher and a business owner. She would put three days into the salon and the other days into teaching. She decided to finish school at that point. “I would not be a hypocrite, teaching students to stay in school, something that I had not done. How was I going to tell my students that education is everything?” LaTrelle had never thought she would return to school.
Education to LaTrelle is something that she would never stop valuing. So she decided she would go back to school, to further herself in her passion. She describes the hardships of going back to school while teaching in the morning. As well as styling hair in the evening and going to classes at night. For LaTrelle it was hard being a woman and managing her hair salon, her social life, her family and her studies. But she would not give up, she believed in her faith and would chase her dreams. She looked up to her mother anytime she struggled, her mother had not stopped until she had been where she wanted to be. LaTrelle kept going, day after day, until she had completed her undergraduate degree.
LaTrelle continues today in what she found most important to her. She now attends graduate school, and is aiming for her masters in education & administration and plans to pursue a masters in mental health counseling. LaTrelle decided to make a career change to do more than just her passion. She will not drop her passion of cosmetology, but wants to further herself to her “best possible version.” She states: “It’s hard being a woman of color, and moving up in the world.” LaTrelle will not let anything stop her from achieving her dreams, and will continue to pursue her passions.