Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha-Jo Vaughn.
Hi Samantha-Jo, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My name is Samantha-Jo Vaughn, I am a 33 year old entrepreneur who is gifted and talented in many areas. I am also a mother to 5 amazing children whom I love deeply. Growing up I always had a passion to be a Nurse, I knew it was what I wanted to do and I knew I would be good at it. I had my oldest son at the age of 16 while in high school but I knew that wouldn’t deter me from what I wanted to do in life which was simply be great. I went to college and became a Nurse and I thought life was going great for me. I had purchased my first home as a single mom and I was doing something I was passionate about but something was missing. In July 2021 I found the thing that was missing, Christ. After finding Christ my purpose was discovered, “Be You Black Girl”.
Be You Black Girl is a mission that was set out to transform the world by changing the people in the world. Growing up as little girl in black culture we weren’t taught to be our true selves. It was okay for you to be yourself as long as it didn’t offend anyone else. You could be bright but not brighter than someone else. Be You Black Girl was created to break the cycle that made you feel like you couldn’t be yourself, that you had to dim your light, and that you had to pretend to be someone you are not. Black women have been conditioned to believe that we have to compete for a spot, even if that means competing with the black girl beside you. We have been taught to pretend to be something we are not because being ourselves just simply isn’t enough. Be You Black Girl breaks the ties with pretending and creates an environment for black women to be the themselves even if it doesn’t make sense to other people. Together we are better and the moment we begin to acknowledge and accept the fact that we all different, unique, and deserving thats when we will impact the world together.
Be You Black Girl started as a clothing brand with the mission to change the minds of black women; letting them know we all have a place. In March 2025 I moved back home after going through a divorce & The Holy Spirit told me it was time to turn the mission into a movement. I started Be You Black Girl Group which is a group of black women who meet weekly in person to be amongst community, the environment creates vulnerability, authenticity, and wholeness. Being in community with other black girls who want to see other black women win has been life changing and it has created healing amongst women individually and within our community.
Be You Black Girl will not only impact my community but it will also impact yours and it will be the change the world so desperately needs.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There was plenty of struggles that led me to this point where I am at, it has been far from easy. Growing up I didn’t have the easiest life, my mother was an addict and she wasn’t stable majority of my life and it was common for me to be bounced around from various family members while my mother tried to find her way. My mother was sentenced to prison for a couple years and her parents (my grand-parents) adopted me and my two siblings and that’s where we resided until our adulthood. I had my oldest son when I was in High School, I was 16 years old and it was my junior year of high school. Even with the seriousness of motherhood I still managed to stay on top of my academics. I graduated High School with Honors, and I graduated a semester early. Life was difficult managing a baby as a single teen mom, all while trying to find my own way in life but God was the reason I made it through. After giving my life to Christ, I walked away cold turkey from Nursing, the one thing I always wanted to be. The Holy Spirit had revealed to me that it had became a form of idolatry for me and that he was no longer using that portion of my story. I left that career almost 5 years ago and have never been back, and I have no plans of going back. Life will present things that you could’ve never imagined but it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After leaving Nursing I went back to school for Massage Therapy as it is under my scope of practice as a Nurse but it was illegal to specialize in it without the license, so I went back to obtain the license. About 3 months after graduating massage school I had decided to open my own Massage practice out of my home where I did Massage Therapy as a therapeutic approach to medicine. We tend to focus on medication more than issue at hand and I wanted to open peoples mind to a new way of thinking. I do believe medicine works and it is beneficial however I do believe that a lot of things we don’t really want to treat, but rather suppress. Massage Therapy is centered around mind, body and spirit. You must believe that healing is your portion before you receive it. People have been limited to treatment that can work for them simply because they won’t allow themselves to shift their perspective. I am in this field to help people see an alternative to healing outside of medication. The Bible saids “People perish for a lack of knowledge”, people can’t get the resources they need if we don’t have people who are passionate enough to expose people to them. What sets me apart from others is that I know the difference between passion and purpose, and people will get caught up on a passion thinking its their purpose when in reality passions are temporary ways to impact the people God has desired for you to impact. Purpose is being able to do what God has called you to do even if he asks you to walk away from something you love. Passions connect us to people, purpose is what we allow God to use us for.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I actually have my own podcast called Naturalies Podcast which is available on most streaming platforms such as apple podcast, Spotify, iheartradio, amazon, etc. My podcast is centered around Christ and it reveals what this true walk with Christ looks like, it reveals the raw authentic things that people don’t talk about when following Christ. The podcast is meant to impact the lives of people who have believed for years that in order for you to pursue Christ you must look, talk and act a certain way when that is nothing but a lie. Naturalies (pronounced Natural Lies) is a podcast where we talk about natural lies that we have been conditioned to believe about Christ which has actually kept us from pursuing him. It shows people that Christ will meet you right where you are in the condition that you are in.
I am also a big reader, I love books. My favorite book that changed my life was “You are a badass, how to stop doubting yourself and start living an awesome life” by Jen Sincero. Please read this book if you are in a place in life where you have simply run out of options, where you’ve put your best foot forward but something is still missing and you don’t know what.
Lastly I am a runner, I ran track in high school and I have loved running since. Long distance running has been something I have been committed to doing for a year now and it’s been a beautiful thing to experience. I sign up for 2-3 5k’s every month as a way to celebrate my hard work but also to be in an environment to meet new people who are in love with something I am in love with; running.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/naturalies/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyoublackgirl.nc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Be-You-Black-Girl/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NaturaliesPodcast
