Vegas Native!

Dana is actually a Vegas native (born and raised!) who moved to Los Angeles initially to pursue her love and passion for acting while she continued studying Psychology to complete a Bachelor’s degree. Over the years, she grew tired of taking any roles because of the idea that you had to start somewhere and build your resume as an actress so you couldn’t be too picky about taking whatever roles came your way. “I regretted taking a lot of parts just to work and build a resume because they just weren’t quality roles, good scripts, and a lot of it was low-budget.” She also grew tired of being a broke, struggling artist even with a bachelor’s degree, so she went on to pursue a Master’s degree and currently works full-time in special education as a Speech Language Pathologist.

When she first joined Instagram, she came across fashion bloggers and decided to try it out too, so she set up @23danilla along with her blog 23danillaskies.com “Why not?! Dressing up was instilled in me at a very young age. My dad was very particular about how we looked she laughs. If you weren’t dressed to the nines in your Sunday best on church days, he’d send you right back upstairs to change. It was that serious! The Instagram world steadily started to snowball so I just rolled with it. It was such a breath of fresh air to see positive results from my efforts, unlike acting where you can go from audition and audition and not hear anything back. That really starts to weigh down on your spirits after a while. I also felt so much more empowered being in control of the work and content I put out there! I had all the creative freedom to express and portray myself in the type of quality and light I chose, as opposed to being left to the whims of approval within the acting realm. Don’t get me wrong, acting will always remain my first love and passion, and if a great part ever comes up, hey, I’m right there a hundred percent, but the acting field has also changed a lot in so many ways. Instagram has just become another channel to still express myself creatively and another opportunity to inspire and influence others, hopefully in a positive way!”

In addition to wearing the hats of    t and Fashion Blogger, Dana has recently started a family with the birth of her first-born daughter, Natalia. “It’s been a crazy journey out here in ‘La La Land,’ but I’ve made great memories and friendships! I love the cultural diversity and how eclectic and non cookie-cutter this city is. In LA, you can be who you are or who you want to be. The possibilities to explore and pursue whatever endeavors seem limitless. It’s freeing that way! It feels safe to screw up, get jaded, fail, bounce back, reinvent yourself, and start again. LA is a crazy bitch like that to have a most interesting, tumultuous love/hate relationship with, definitely not for the faint of heart. Despite being a new mom, I still enjoy meeting new people, discovering new places, trying out different things, pursuing creative outlets. I thrive on that energy and I guess that’s just an intrinsic part of me I can’t shake off. I’m from Vegas.” 😉

You can follow more of what Dana’s up to and her work at @23danilla and www.23danillaskies.com