Bea lissima

Bea and I met in 2007 when her then-burlesque troop was just getting started in Calgary. She’s gone on to become part of the Burlesque Hall of Fame & has a brilliant weekly IG Story series called Sunday School with Bea, which you should absolutely be following. She’s been an important voice for me in finding vocabulary to discuss allyship with the LGBTQ2IA+ community, racial politics facing Asians and the rights of sex workers. There is a non-zero overlap between the modelling community and sex work and it’s something I’ve always wanted to help de-stigmatize, but lacked a framework to discuss it. 

Bea was one of the first people to make me aware that my studio was seen as a safe space for expressing herself and the different sides of her identity-  with confidence that it would be treated with full respect. Being able to facilitate that safety for my friends and co-creators has been one of the greatest prides of my career.

I have just a ludicrous amount of respect for this woman.