Interview with Marylyn Brooks — Aquarian ArTist, MoonChild & Musician
Marylyn Brooks is a 23-year old model residing in Los Angeles, California.
How would you introduce yourself to our readers?
I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, in a city called Rowland Heights. I began getting into mischief at a young age and snuck out to pierce my belly button when I was 13. I attended a strict catholic school from kinder garden till 8th grade and then an all girls catholic high school which was much, much worse. Finally, I convinced my parents to let me transfer to an art high school where they played political beatles songs through the loudspeakers at lunch. I fell in love with the school, with art, with music and with myself… and the rest is history!
When, how and why did you first get involved in the modeling industry?
I did a commercial when I was a child and it seemed to flow so naturally to me… but I didn’t start taking it seriously until I was about 16 and I was gogo dancing at all the underground raves. The event photographers began to offer me paid shoots and I really took a liking to it. Soon after, I was picked up by a commercial agency and began booking like crazy.
I was supposed to attend NYU university but the year I graduated my parents got divorced and my father said he wasn’t going to help me like he had promised and so I moved to Hollywood and began taking acting and commercial modeling very seriously because I needed the income while still pursuing my arts.
What are your personal and professional goals? Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?
I plan to continue acting and modeling but I am turning my main focus to my band Bizarra, which I sing and play guitar in. Bizarra is my heart’s truest desire and I shall keep pursuing it until the Lotus flowers blossom. I’m also in the process of publishing two children’s books out of a series of books I have written and illustrated, titled “My Mogwhy and Me”. Aside from that, I create and sell my original paintings under the art name No.Y2K and have exhibits quite often. I also just started a new art collective and record label called The Hissing Cats, so I plan to do more with that as everything gradually progresses.
How often are you modeling and what does it usually consist of?
When I get booked for modeling gigs they’re pretty much always print work because I’m 5’1… 5’2 on a good day, and I don’t fit the norm. I use to book mostly 18 to play younger roles but now that I’ve gotten a lot more tattoos I am booking mostly rocker-type shoots, which I am happy about. I am alwwwaaayyysss late and I always feel horrible about it but there’s just some things you can’t change about life.
Please tell us about the best and/or worst experiences you’ve had so far in modeling.
The best experience was shooting with Leg Avenue because afterwards I got to be a guest on a bunch of cool radio shows and interviews, and at the time, I still went by my rave name Sparkle Sparkle Bang bang, so I landed a lot of additional work from that as well. The worst experience was when I shot this short film, which actually turned out amazing, but during the shooting of it the guy kept making all these weird sexual comments and told me he was “getting aroused and needed to adjust himself”. And then, he had the nerve to ask me to shoot additional footage a week later and for no extra compensation and we ended up getting into a very heated argument, and I never heard from him again.
Have you had anything funny, embarrassing or completely out of the ordinary happen during your modeling career?
In 2011, right after booking a national ESPN SuperBowl commercial, I was hit and run while riding my bike during the middle of the day. The car hit the back of my tire, throwing me from the bike and on to my jaw, breaking my jaw in 4 different places and knocking out 9 of my teeth and splitting several more in half. I remember coming out of my blackout and immediately thinking of the shoot, which was set to take place the same week. While holding up my hanging jaw, I remember thinking “God, please let me be able to ice it and fix it before the shoot”… but after I saw myself in the mirror I knew that wouldn’t be the case. I was so devastated to say the least. My jaw was wired shut for 3 months and I had surgery after surgery for about 2 years. I am still dealing with complications from my accident and they never caught the driver… but everything happens for a reason… even the ugly stuff… because during the time when my jaw was wired shut I began to teach myself guitar and then formed the band Bizarra a year later. I grew up playing the violin and was made Principal Second String Violinist by the Claremont Symphonic Youth Orchestra that I was in for many years but had dropped it all together upon moving to Hollywood. I guess my accident was a blessing in disguise…a horrible… rotten… painful… miserable disguise haha.
Is there anything you would change about the modeling industry if you could?
I would change the current expectations of models. I would do away with paper thin, anorexic models and replace them with healthy, happy, beautiful models that would give young girls more positive body images to look up to. So many young girls develop all sorts of addictions and eating disorders because they want to look like the women in the magazines. But they don’t know that those women struggle and harm themselves continuously to look the way they do.
Do you practice any sports and what do you typically eat? Please elaborate on the importance of nutrition and exercise in your life.
I try to go to the gym as much as possible, probably like 2 to 4 times a week. Sometimes when I miss more than a week of the gym and I’ve been binge eating, I will force myself to stay at the gym at least 3 hours. I try to eat as healthy as possible; all organic, mostly vegetables, and organic meat from time to time. My weakness is cake and candies… most desserts, really. I don’t limit or restrict myself when it comes to food I truly enjoy because it makes me happy to indulge a bit, but I try not to eat past 7:30pm and I stay far away from over processed GMO foods. If you can’t pronounce more than 2 ingredients, don’t eat it. And if any of the first 5 or main ingredients are long chemical names, hydrogenated-anything or colors such as RED-40, avoid it at all costs!
Please share something people don’t know about you.
I have really poor eyesight. It’s gotten so bad, I can’t even see my own tattoos without my glasses. But I still go without them for long periods of time and I just deal with seeing blurry all day. Sometimes friends pass me in the street and think I’m ignoring them or mad at them because I don’t wave back and things like that haha. When I don’t wear my glasses I feel like I’m in my own little world of fuzzy life.
Would you change anything about yourself?
I would remove all judgements from my mind. Judgments against myself and against others. It is so hard not to criticize myself sometimes, but I always try to see myself and those around me through the eyes of the Buddha, free of judgments and from a place of love and appreciation. I feel like we make it a habit to put ourselves down to others, as not to seem full of ourselves or prideful. But there needs to be a happy medium.
What is the longest you have gone without taking a bath?
I went hitchhiking for 3 months last year with some friends that have been living off the grid for a few years and I wanted to see life from that perspective. I wanna say, the longest I went without showering was 7 days… give or take. It was rough and very unpleasant. I would not suggest it to any one unless they really wanted to shake up everything they knew about life and find our very deep truths about themselves. I definitely found myself while on the road… and I found the same person I had left as haha, just dirtier and weathered.
Visit Marylyn Brooks’s website for more photos and information.