While gracing the cover of the January/February edition of Essence, model and entrepreneur Lori Harvey is opening up about where she is in life right now.
“This moment is about me,” Harvey, 25, told the magazine. “I feel like it’s always been [about] me attached to something or someone. This time, it’s about me. Self-love, self-care, self-reflection. I’m being a little selfish right now. It’s my time.”
“I know my worth, and I know my value. I’m not going to compromise that, or settle, or accept anything less than what I know I deserve,” she said on not settling into a relationship. “That’s where I’m at in my life right now. I’m not compromising my peace and happiness for anything or anybody.”
“But what I would love for people to know is that I am a young woman just trying to figure it out, but I’m trying to figure it out in the public eye,” she shared with Essence.
She told the outlet that her only advice for others is: “Love yourself. Put yourself on the highest pedestal, and don’t ever come down.”
“I almost got married very young,” Harvey revealed. “I felt like I hadn’t really experienced anything. I didn’t really know myself, and I didn’t really know what I liked, what I didn’t like. I just feel like I hadn’t really experienced life.”
She said she eventually reached a point where she wanted to “date on my terms.” She added, “However I want to move, whatever I want to do, I’m going to do it. And if it’s no longer serving me, I’m going to move on.”
“Two different mindsets. Like, I don’t even know her anymore,” she said.
“She’s not here anymore,” Harvey said. “This is who we’re dealing with today.”
Styling by Yashua Simmons
Hair by Ray Christopher
Makeup by Leah Darcey Pike
Nails by Chaun Legend
Set Design by Jesse Hoffman
