Help MissTaylorSaid Continue to Survive
Hi, my name is Taylor Cope. I am a bisexual, mixed Black woman who is 29 years old. I'm known online as MissTaylorSaid. I started a show called Reading with MissTaylorSaid on November 30, 2020. I was able to start that show and give it the full attention it deserves because I was furloughed during the pandemic. I have been out of work for a year and the recent changes with unemployment insurance benefits have delayed my income tremendously. I have been in the workforce since I was 16 years old and when I became unemployed during the pandemic, I had just been promoted for the second time in my career as a travel agent. I anticipated that I would maintain a long-term career as a travel agent however, as the effects of COVID-19 were coming to a head in the travel industry, I was also in the process of confronting upper management due to racial discrimination I had been facing from my regional manager. During my career as a travel agent, I experienced racism from management, sexual harassment from management, (often, racially charged) mistreatment from clients, and unfair wages. My breaking point was on May 21, 2020, when I went to the emergency room because of a panic attack that was related to my stress at work.
I spent so much time working overtime and in my free time to pursue my career as a travel agent, it was beginning to disrupt my health. It was a Godsend that my position was dissolved a few days later due to budget cuts and I could be furloughed. By June, I was no longer a part of the company in any way. This gave me time to try new things and make decisions that I hadn't during my entire 20s. Before I worked as a travel agent, I was in an abusive relationship for 6 years and spent 5 of those years living with my partner in an area where I could not easily commute to jobs that were not retail or food-related. Due to the fact that I did not obtain my degree during my years in college and I have never owned a car, my options were limited. The travel agent job gave me the opportunity to leave my abusive relationship. COVID made it so that I could leave an abusive work environment.
In the time since I've been out of work, I enrolled back in college, however, I could not lock in my financial aid in time to actually study during the fall semester. I have been spending time alone for the first time in my life and doing incredibly painful internal work on my mental health. I have been creating art. I spent a lot of time taking care of plants. I housed my younger sister for a short amount of time last summer. I went out to protest. I was even able to be of service to others through donating to several mutual aids.
The most important thing I've been able to do during the pandemic has been launching MissTaylorSaid. I decided that I was going to pursue my dream of being a speaker in 2020. I have been studying different speakers, poets, and comedians during the pandemic because I want to spend my life, telling my story and helping others. I have an incredible gift of connecting with people through my words and I intend of using MissTaylorSaid to walk in that purpose. On November 30, 2020, I decided I wanted to start by reading books I own online and talking about them:
I started this show to accomplish the goals that I have surrounding my pursuit of a career as a speaker. I wanted to actually read the books that I own, especially because many of them are self-help books that would be beneficial to others and myself. The second goal is to become more comfortable with reading aloud in front of an audience because I plan on reading teleprompters, cue cards, scripts, speeches, and other written works in front of audiences for my career. The third goal is to become more comfortable with speaking aloud in front of an audience while engaging with them because I want to do that for the rest of my life. Starting #ReadingWithMissTaylorSaid afforded me a few opportunities like booking events where I perform poetry, being able to do an interview with a well-known comedian for his podcast and I was even recognized by my biggest influence, KevOnStage!
KEVONSTAGE RESPONDING TO MY VIDEO
There are so many other details to my story and I am excited to continue to share them because I believe that my story has value. I believe that my experiences will allow me to help A LOT of people with their journies while also entertaining them. I am asking for $8,000 right now because I not only need to pay my bills (most urgently my rent) while I continue to fully launch the MissTaylorSaid brand, but I also am in need of a reliable vehicle and money to invest in my brand for things like equipment, a website and paying other artists to help me out with photography and graphic design.
Thank you to anyone who donates!
