Meet Julia Flippen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Flippen.

Julia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always been into fashion since I was a little girl; putting outfits together with shoes and accessories before even realizing there were stylists in the world getting paid to do just that. I vividly remember being told by my father on an almost daily basis before leaving for school “not everyday day was a fashion show.”

I was experimenting with the classic raccoon-too-much-eyeliner makeup by 7th grade and constantly pushing the boundaries of fashion, and by wearing one ridiculous outfit I still remember: A fuchsia plaid schoolgirl skirt, with a V-neck, my (super cool at the time) chunky AirWalks and one of my dad’s stolen ties.. and I wore this for a class photo. I had very much been into fashion and modeling as a kid but never had an outlet for that muse.

Early on, I was put into sports and music. I played tennis, soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball very briefly, I even swam competitively on a swim team..! I’ve always been told I’m a Jack-of-all-trades. I started sports as well as piano lessons as early as the 3rd grade, and it quickly became the center of my universe. I was a full-time student/athlete/musician from then all the way until I graduated high school, never taking a break. I found myself engulfed in a lot of things I liked and was truly good at.

I dominated at most sports, I took home first place ribbons and trophies piano competitions, all while maintaining being an A/B student; but I never felt like any of these things were my passion. A couple of times throughout the years I tried to pipe up and tell my parents what I really wanted to do was model or dance, but my voice never carried, and when it did my parents just explained to me that to be a model it was expensive and so was paying for dance lessons.

Growing up in a household where we lived mostly paycheck-to-paycheck, I was lucky enough to even play the sports I did, and take private piano lessons, which my beautiful grandmother paid for along with most of the sporting equipment. As I got older, I took on playing drums in the 5th grade and wound up on the drumline in the marching band by freshman year at Cactus High School in Glendale. I continued to play sports and even finally got my wish – dance class.

This is actually the place I have to thank for three of the four most influential people in this story, three of my best friends – one of which ended up being my fiancé, and one which we’ll get to later on. The first being Kerri Benigar, now otherwise known in the art world as “Poisoned” because of her handle @poisoned_co photography. Okay, so we didn’t really meet in dance class rather science class, however that class was the place where not only our creativity but also our friendship was able to flourish.

We quickly became best friends hanging out all the time, playing video games (another great love of mine), and feeding her real creative habit: photography. Kerri was the first person to put me in front of camera, and together we learned a lot I think. It wasn’t long before we were tearing up my childhood home every other day, moving furniture all over and doing crazy weird things like taking as many light bulbs as we physically could from throughout the house and hanging them by strings from one spot in my mother’s living room, she loved us.

Nowadays, I can still be caught shooting with Kerri over the years doing still crazy things from rolling around in the mud on Thunderbird Mountain or nearly drowning myself in my backyard pool with a sheet and a cinderblock. Dance class also led me to my other best friend and practical other half – Randi England, who can also sometimes be known as her handle @Mozzrati or “Mozz.” She and I instantly had a crazy cool connection, and I just knew from the jump she got me on a level other people just didn’t. She was SUPER into fashion and opened my eyes – and still does every day – to the most amazing, inspiring side of the industry.

We also recently started a clothing/accessory line called Rulia, that’s super edgy and heavily incorporates leather, studs, patches, pins, and denim. You can actually catch a super interesting article about her as well here on Voyage in the Glendale section, and I highly recommend doing so as she is one unique individual. As she has grown further in the industry, only so have I. She has helped me become part of amazing organizations like F.A.B.R.I.C., the fashion incubator out in Tempe, where we even recently held a “Runway Workshop” where we encouraged 20+ strong, beautiful models and perfected their runway walks and confidence.

She also helped me become a part of Fashion Group International, and now even acts as my manager sending me mostly all of my castings, and making sure my forgetful butt gets to where I need to be. She is truly my fairy godmother. A lastly my beautiful fiancé Kyle Cecil, we met freshman year and started to become better friends slowly over the years. We saw 500 Days of Summer together on a date one evening during sophomore year but never went much further. We remained friends until becoming much closer senior year in performance dance class.

After I went through a gruesome breakup of a 1-year relationship and only after we graduated high school did I find myself in the arms of Kyle, and I could just never leave. We will be celebrating our eight year anniversary this year, and he finally purposed!

We are to be married next year on our 9th anniversary, and I genuinely could not have gotten luckier. We now have five fur babies together and are happy as can be with our full furry family. After graduating from high school, the only thing I wanted to do was makeup. Over the years from perfecting my craft, I had gotten particularly good at doing makeup as well as hair. I was doing girls hair and makeup at school for everything from proms and performances to beauty pageants. I was the “go-to” girl. Kerri and I had even attempted to do the Zombie Walk one year, and I managed to fake a bullet hole through one of our heads. I had finally found something I was good at and loved to do.

Although modeling was still a dream, at this point I had “America’s Next Top Model” to keep my one true love at bay. And I at least thought going to school for cosmetology would be attainable, however, Adulting 101 rapidly taught me that you’re not actually an adult when you’re 18, or 21, or 24, or never, and I would need my parents to sign off on things like student loans for cosmetology school. I blinked and found myself enrolled in GCC because from my father’s perspective, “I could be a doctor or a lawyer…”

One semester went by, and after waking myself up for torture every morning, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I dropped out, I moved out, I got a job doing telemarketing, and I stayed stagnant for about five years before deciding to go after another longtime interest, the medical field. I enrolled at Carrington College and became a Dental Assistant.

Being out of school for many years I was refreshed and ready to take on any 40 lbs. textbook a professor could slap me with… and ended up graduating at the top of my class. I did the valedictorian speech at Carrington’s graduation, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mother prouder than that day – which if you knew my mother, my biggest supporter, you would understand what this meant to me.

I felt like I was turning things around from the slow place I was in and was doing something to add value to other people’s lives. I still am a dental assistant to this day while on my road to becoming a full-time model. Fast forward to today, and I have many many people to thank for my journey, but I am even more thankful that I can continue to spend it with the people I’ve loved for years. I’m just a fashion model dental professional dog mama of five waiting for her big break.

Until then, I work full time trying to find every opportunity I can. I’ve walked in several shows around the valley including my biggest being for Project Runway where I walked for the sweetest Emily Payne, and I am working on getting some of my print work published. I finally just landed not one but two of my first big paid runway shows and can feel all the hard work and dedication paying off. I talk to the ones I love daily because life is short and you never know what the next day brings, and I’m just trying to take things one day at a time.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It was never a smooth road. I’ve more recently had to take sandpaper to my life and create my own happiness. I had a rocky childhood with a lot of dark moments. But always having one true light: My mother. My mother, Laura Flippen, is everything to me, and her children were everything to her… and her children spread far and wide.

Between my sister (35), my brother (16) and myself (almost 26), not only have we kept my mother busy but offered her many more young little souls to love along the way. And love she did. My friends to this day mourn her as if she were their own mother. She touched so many hundreds of people I could have never have fathomed it until about and 1/4 of those people were all standing at one gathering for her memorial.

From March of 2017 I lost the grandfather I had been closest to, suddenly without being able to say goodbye, to a second grandfather, two uncles, one being my mother’s special needs brother in a horrible accident, and finally my mother that December from her almost four year battle with breast cancer. Let’s just say 2017 was not one for the books… From the moment each of us was born my mother somehow made each of us feel so special and so loved.

She was my biggest fan. Every softball game, every marching band competition, every dance recital, practice, carwash, rehearse-a-then, it didn’t matter. My mom was there for everything I did. She would even yell “DRUMLINE ROCKSSSS!” in the quietest part as we were out on the field in support. She was crazy, maybe a little psycho really, fun, beautiful, loving, strong and so full of life until that life was taken from her.

To watch the strongest woman I have ever known die is, and will ALWAYS be the hardest thing I will have ever had to do. The second hardest being continuing life without her by my side…

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about your business – what should we know?
More recently I have been doing a lot of runway work, which has been like an actual dream. I’ve perfected my runway walk to the point where I’m teaching it to others. I’ve even recently been booked to walk for some big name brands and am still in some shock. Although I do love the rush of the runway and the opportunities it has brought me, my one true love is print. More specifically dark and creepy print.

I love doing things to provoke emotion or even a little discomfort. I love doing things out of the “norm,” and I think it’s what I do best. Don’t get me wrong, dressing up in a beautiful gown or being styled is so much fun. But there is something about getting into an unsettling character that really makes me thrive. Nothing like getting a little weird and I hope to be bringing much more of that to the table here very soon.

What have been some of the most important lessons you’ve learned over the course of your career?
If I had to start over, I would have realized early on how short life can be. I would have loved harder, stressed less, and fought for me, more often. I would have followed that voice inside me, what I really wanted sooner in life, and made the most with my time with my mother during her short vivacious life with my family and me

On that same note, I am a firm believer that everything does happen for a reason, and all in the right time. I’m just so thankful everyday to be alive and to be given any opportunity to feel like I’m making mama proud. This one’s for you ma. ♡

Pricing:

• Runway: $40/hr (not including travel or if providing own Hair/Makeup)
• Print: $40/hr (not including travel or if providing own Hair/Makeup)
• One-on-One Runway Coaching: $25/hr
• Model Etiquette/Model Kit Start-Up: $10/hr (can be grouped with runway coaching)
• Piano Tutor: $60/hr

Contact Info:

• Email: Julia_Flippen@yahoo.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/JewLeeAhhEff
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JewLeeAhh

Image Credit:
Kerri Benigar – @poisoned_co; Randi England – @mozzerati; Kyle Cecil – @dance_man; In Loving Memory of “Mama Flippen” Laura Flippen; Water photo by @poisoned_co Photography; Headshot by @saltairevisualaz; Doggos from left to right – Bear, Nala, Pierre “P-Dog”, and Kratos, not pictured: Scubert “Scooby”; Cactus High School Drumline 1st Base Player 2008-2011

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.