Joie Monet Johnson-Walker has a pretty good idea of what she wants and how she’s going to get it.
“My dream job is to work for Essence Magazine,” Joie says. On this day, she’s wearing all black everything—a fitted black mini-dress, black opaque stockings and black knee-high boots. Her thick natural hair is pulled back into a kinky puff.
Ms. Johnson Walker wears many hats. On campus, she’s known as an RA in Hardwick’s School of Media and Communication living learning community, vice president for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. (she also holds and has held the step mistress and co-community service chair positions), and is a member of Temple Gospel Ministries, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Council of Negro women and (catch your breath) she works at the Temple Fund. *Exhales.*
“Everything I do is intentional,” Joie says about her rigorous daily activities as she sits at a high, round table in the Annenberg atrium. She seems confident and sure of her own success. This self-awareness is also revealed within the junior’s academic choices. Joie majors in broadcast journalism and recently added a minor in African American studies. Neither of these choices, she says, was arbitrary.
Former BET intern and camp counselor with BET’s Black Girls Rock, Joie is using her speaking skills and African American history contextual knowledge to usher in a new era of empowered young minority women and girls through her brand new foundation, SHADES.
SHADES, which stands for Sisters Healing And Defying Every Stereotype, launched this year on Joie’s birthday, March 24, 2013. Her work with Black Girls Rock inspired the self-described future Oprah/Susan L. Taylor (former editor-in-chief of Essence)/Joie to start her own foundation focusing on uplifting black girls. The foundation’s Facebook page contains a mission statement that reads “SHADES (Sisters Healing And Defying Every Stereotype) aims to empower young women to maximize their potential and surpass society’s expectations.” Its initial launch was geared toward recruitment and Joie says she is focused on finding interested and passionate individuals to join the movement.
“Everything I do,” Joie says of SHADES, “is because at a point in time I was that girl that didn’t feel adequate enough….I suffered with acceptance issues.” Of that time in her life, Joie says, “I don’t wanna say I lost myself. But I was losing myself.” Her own experiences are what have passionately compelled the self-proclaimed socialite into the philanthropic sphere. And even though she has overcome the esteem issues, Joie says dealing with the idea that not everyone will like her still proves to be a road block on her journey.
What you call a hater, Joie calls a misguided individual. “Being a socialite,” she says of learning to deal with these individuals in her life, “comes with social benefits and social problems.” Being her dad’s “mean girl” helps her stay motivated. Being a “mean girl,” Johnson-Walker says, means being a “tough girl.” This motivation from her father is what keeps the aspiring wonder-woman grounded.
Joie puts her heart and soul into each of her endeavors. The importance she places on her inner-being can be described by a quote she says she lives by.
“Be passionate about something,” Joie urges. “Care about something beyond the physical.”
“Appearance is key,” she says, “but character and integrity are essential.”