JMP Fab Grad 2016 Spokesmodel Spotlight… Nola Grace!!

My next beautiful spotlight… Nola Grace Brown from Longleaf School of the Arts Class of 2016! She is a dance endorsement candidate at this new fine arts focused, college preparatory high school downtown. Joining the Longleaf family as a sophomore in the school’s founding year, she will graduate as a part of the school’s first ever graduating class (something she is, understandably, QUITE proud of!!).

After completing a heartfelt application and visiting for a casual interview, Nola Grace was selected without hesitation from the group of applicants received this year, to be a Fab Grad Spokesmodel! In fact, she is so extraordinary and has such a wonderful range of friends, that 2 of the other girls selected this year came to me from her recommendation. She is beyond fabulous and while only having entered my world in March of this year, both she & her family have become such a sweet treasure to myself, my program and my family! Here is just a tiny glimpse into some of what makes her so fabulous and who she is…

Nola Grace describes herself as outgoing, driven and a leader with a bubbly spirit that is noticed by those that meet her. As mentioned, she has a wonderful range of friends. According to her, “they are kind, uplifting, driven, talented people… smart, creative, genuine, sweet and sincere young women of God who can appreciate the little things with her, they are truly beautiful inside and out… people that she wishes to be like”. When it comes to Nola Grace, herself, she LOVES to dance!! Dedicating her life to it, she has been dancing at City Ballet in Raleigh since she was 4, studying Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Jazz, Hip Hop and Modern… even taking the Cecchetti Ballet exam to higher & higher levels. Through City Ballet, she has had the opportunity to perform in both annual spring recitals and 10 Nutcracker productions! In addition to her own classes, she has also volunteered as teachers assistant in preschool level intro-ballet classes. Dance is where she is surrounded by people she loves. Devastated that this will be her last year dancing as a student with her City Ballet family, she plans to embrace everything that this year brings and live it to the fullest!

When asked about her experience with the program so far, here’s what Nola Grace had to say…

• What appeals to her about Jen’s work/style… “I love the empowerment and confidence she gives young women through her photography and I love that she also focuses on building a strong, lasting relationship with her clients.”
  
• Favorite part of our rep session… “Getting all dolled up by Denise and Beccah and just getting to have fun and bond with everyone all day 🙂 I had a blast”
• Favorite part of working with Jen & team… “How she kept the perfect balance of being professional, serious, and efficient while having fun and being herself.”
• Why her peers should come to Jen for their portraits… “She’s amazing at building relationships with her clients to make everything fitting and personal for them.”
• What she’s looking forward to in her upcoming 1:1 session… “Getting more of that personal connection and knowing I’ll get AMAZING pictures with an AMAZING photographer.”

Fun & Fab Scoop on Nola Grace’s FAV things:

• Colors… Blue blue blue blue blue
  
• Music… Acoustic pop, hip hop
  
• Songs… Photograph, This, Kiss Me, Give Me Love, Wake Me Up, Not About Angles, Tee Shirt, Hallelujah, Pretty Hurts, Love on Top, I Was Here, anything from any Disney movie
  
• Musicians… Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Sam Smith, Lena Del Rey, Rihanna, Beyonce
• Book… The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  
• TV Shows… Friends, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, The Bachelor/Bachelorette
• Movies… Any Disney movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service
• Play… Wicked
• Sports… Baseball & Football
  
• Food… Fruits, Veggies, Chinese food, Mediterranean food
  
• Restaurant… Hops Burger Bar, Neomonde, Noodles & Company
  
• Hang Out Spot… The Movies
• Thing to Do with Friends… Just hang out and talk or watch movies
  
• Location… Downtown Holland, Michigan or any beach
• Vacation… Hilton Head Island this past spring break with Audra and parents
  

A few other random but SO fun tidbits 😉

• She wears blue pretty much EVERY day 🙂
• Her dream destination would be a cruise where she could travel and see a lot of new places, including getting to experience extraordinary new things like swimming with dolphins and seeing beautiful sights.
  
•  When not dancing, Nola Grace is very involved in visual art classes, educated by Skippy Clark in her home garage-turned-art-studio for the past 6 years. Painting horses is her most recent love, to the point that she was recognized and asked to donate work to the “Jump for the Children” Duke Children’s Hospital fundraiser. Through this, her art was sold to fellow horse lovers with money raised going to the hospital. 

Upon graduating from Longleaf, Nola Grace hopes to attend either Meredith College or the University of North Carolina Greensboro with a major in kinesiology (study of the body) or sports medicine with a possible double major or minor in dance to pursue Physical Therapy for dancers. This would allow her to combine her love of dance, anatomy, somatics and have opportunity to help others all in one, which would be her absolute dream. In pursuit of this dream, she is now taking personal commission requests to paint horses to save for her college education. She will also be competing in the Distinguished Young Women of Wake County, which awards college scholarships to local young women who have distinguished themselves at school and in their communities. She’ll be performing a contemporary ballet piece that she took part in choreographing herself after having to cancel her originally planned pointe number due to hurting her ankle only 2.5 weeks before competition! She’ll also be enjoying a group opening number, with her “Little Buddy”… my Lizzy! If there could be only one word to describe her, Distinguished would most definitely be high on the list of appropriate options! From the moment I met her just 4.5 months ago to now, she has continued to go out of her way to be proactive, determined, supportive, helpful and simply impress me over & over & over again and always with poise and grace. I hope you’ll join in me in rooting for her on the 8th… I couldn’t imagine anyone making a finer representative of our area!

Time to see this shining personality portrayed visually…

If you see Nola Grace at dance or around town this summer, make sure you take a moment to chat with her… it’ll make your day! Feel free to reach out to her or myself if interested in getting your own Fab Grad (Senior) Portrait Session booked! In fact, drop her a friendly comment here or my Facebook/Instagram post of this spotlight and get your August to October session booked with Jen during Nola Grace’s spotlight week (7/29-8/5/15) to receive an additional 10% off your session fee… BONUS!! 😀

Special Thanks & Credits…
Hair & Make-up: Denise Hutter / Images by Denise and Beccah Thiel
Location: Crosswinds Campground, Jordan Lake
Lake Hairpiece: Jen Mink 😉
Lake Dress: Sew Trendy Accessories
Additional Thanks: Eabby Jacobs / Eabby Verhoeven Photography and Ashley Keefe