Rising Star Spotlight: Belle Ami

Belle
Ami

You are a California girl born and raised – what was it like growing up in California?
Growing up in California in many ways was a dream come true. Blessed with perfect weather, sunny blue skies, white-sand beaches, and hemmed in by deep purple mountains. California was paradise. Being a typical southern Californian I grew up on the beach. But like many other places around the country it was a difficult place to be a teen. I grew up at the tail end of the hippie generation. Drugs and rock and roll were rampant and free love was the soup du jour.
California has always drawn people from every part of the world. I’ve always been curious of other people’s lives. But, my greatest education didn’t come from school, it came from books. I traveled the world via books. I was always a voracious reader, inhaling the classics of literature. I couldn’t get enough. Still can’t.
The trends in California changed so rapidly and I changed with them. My first teenage incarnation was as a lowrider, cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, eating Bob’s Big Boy burgers, and hanging out on Friday night with the car clubs.  Then I was a surfer girl on the beaches of Malibu. Life changed with the Vietnam War and the call of the flower children and their message of peace and love was a mantra I couldn’t ignore. Then came disco, and because I’ve always loved to dance I became a disco queen. I went to Bob Seger’s first concert in California. It was a standing, dancing concert at Royce Hall at UCLA. Who do I end up standing next to and dancing with? Try Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart. Boy did I have fun!  I guess one day I’ll incorporate my California experiences into a book. So far it hasn’t happened.

Read the entire interview in the Dec/Jan. 2017-18 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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