The Heart Behind the Glow
The Heart Behind the Glow
The Heart Behind the Glow
The Heart Behind the Glow
The Heart Behind the Glow
The Heart Behind the Glow
🌸Girley Bell’s Cosmetics & Spa was inspired by my grandmother, the original Girley Bell — a wise, beautiful, strong woman who never took any mess. 💖 I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, blessed to grow up under her guidance. My grandmother was the epitome of grace and strength, and she was the definition of a Girley girl who loved her makeup. As a child, I spent countless hours watching her get ready at her vanity table. She would carefully line her heart-shaped lips, press them together with that signature smack, and then give me a kiss on the cheek — one I never wanted to wash off.
💋 I remember watching her shape her eyebrows with precision and fill them in with her eyebrow pencil, mesmerized by her routine and the quiet confidence she carried.
When I was just 11 years old, I made the silly mistake of shaving off my eyebrows (oh, the things we do as kids!). From that day forward, I’ve been filling them in — just like Girley Bell taught me. It was more than makeup to her; it was self-expression, ritual, and power. Girley Bell was so much more than her outward beauty. She always reminded me that true beauty comes from within. She would say to me,
“Pretty is as pretty does, April.”
These words have been my guiding light. Girley Bell’s Art of Beauty is my dedication to THEE Girley Bell, a tribute to her legacy, and a reminder to everyone who experiences our brand that makeup and self-care are about confidence, creativity, and inner strength. 🌸✨
Through every product, every spa service, and every detail of this brand, I carry forward my grandmother’s spirit — empowering others to glow from the inside out while embracing the unique beauty that makes them who they are.
~ April B
Founder & CEO, Girley Bell’s Cosmetics & Spa
April was 15 and inseparable with her best friend. Late on February 6, 1997, while having a sleepover, they received a phone call from friends, asking for them to come outside. April and her BFF went to the lobby of the building and saw a girl outside who appeared angry and erratic. “My instinct told me not to go outside,” April began, “but I did because I saw my friend. And then I was attacked from behind.”
She was fighting a girl and she didn’t know why at the moment. She didn’t know she was cut until she saw blood. “I saw myself bleeding because I looked at my reflection through the glass and I thought I was scratched. But then my friend started screaming ‘You’re cut! You’re cut!’”
April received 175 stitches on her face. “The doctor assumed I was cut by a straight razor because of the precision of the lacerations,” she said. Before the attack everyone told April how beautiful she was, with beautiful eyes and high cheekbones. After the attack people called her scarface. Those words wounded her deeply. “It was devastating, traumatizing, ” April remembers. “It was my own friends.”
“I wanted to share this story because in the inner city communities violence and bullying is something that’s prevalent amongst our youth. It needs to stop. This photoshoot is my first step in doing something about it.”Most inspiring of all, April met with her attacker not long after the incident and found the strength to forgive her, when her attacker told her that she attacked April because she was jealous of her beauty. This behavior is the type she wants to see in the inner community prevail over the vicious attack she and other girls have endured due to jealousy and rage. April wrote about her experience in her notebook to prepare for telling her story. April has not only overcome those physical scars, but given back to society by being an EMT paramedic AND started her own make up line - Girley Bell's - named after her Grandmother. April’s grandmother, always told her she was beautiful, but also that beauty is only skin deep, and her attack taught her that. Her favorite quote is “pretty is as pretty does” and she tries to live her life by that. “It’s what’s inside that makes you beautiful on the outside,” April continued, “In today's society, everybody is about wanting to change themselves to fit in, surgery and forgetting about that true beauty is from within.” So she started her own make-up line. Her goal is now to be a multinational reseller retailer of black-owned beauty products that represent living authentically yourself. April has truly found beauty and a purpose from her tragedy.Writing by: @el_de_em. @SHACKDE7 Photography by: @john_mollura #REFiguredproject #ichoosebeauty #speaklife #healingtrauma #survivor #celebrationsofsurvival #scars
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