Tessa has never been teased. Not by boys or girls growing up. She is after all from The Bronx. Beautiful inside and out and tough as nails. She had to be. When she was growing up “black” was beautiful to a degree. She makes the point to her friends that if in 2015 we are still chanting “Black Lives Matter” than tell her how beautiful is black. Tessa is not a radical in any capacity. She simply was born with common sense (evidently a rare attribute it seems throughout history.)

In spite of all that she fought hard to complete her education (at Columbia thank you very much) and graduated with honors. She started window display modeling as a means to pay tuition and is proud to say she finished Columbia debt free.

What she admired about this particular Bergdorf’s display was the parallel to her past life emerging into an unknown future. Light & shadows.