Speed Dial with Summer Bellessa
One-half of the super girl group The Girls with Glasses, Summer Bellessa started her career in modeling before publishing her own women’s magazine Eliza. Then she met future bestie Brooke on MySpace and the rest is glitter bespeckled herstory. Wife, mother of two, art director, actress, producer, part-time rapper and overall creative badass (love this genius piece), Bellessa does it all, earning her this week’s Woman Crush Wednesday.
Nat: You and Brooke [White] are proof that online relationships can turn into something very successful.
Summer: That’s what’s great about the internet! You can find your tribe. You can tell a lot about someone by their feed, and it can be a great friendship starter.
Nat: Who’s idea was it for the glittery glasses?
Summer: I think Brooke made the first pair. We’d been wearing our regular glasses, and she had the brilliant idea. Glitter perfection!
Nat: When did you first notice a shift? Realize you were on to something and The Girls with Glasses would be a success?
Summer: Brooke and I worked a lot longer on The Girls With Glasses with it not making money then we thought we would. We thought we’d give it a year and then move on if it wasn’t a success. Maybe because of our friendship or because each year we had a bump, that kept us going. But it took three years for us to actually make money and this year till we’re really thriving.
Nat: What are the challenges of working with a friend? The advantages/perks?
Summer: The perks for us, is that we get to kill two birds with one stone: have a business and hang with friends. We have to work crazy hours and schedules, and there aren’t a lot of other friends who understand our lifestyle.
Nat: How many takes do you do of your music videos? Are you constantly cracking up
Summer: Our music videos take a whole day of shooting and multiple takes. Yes, we are known to crack up, especially when we have toys glued to our bottoms and are shaking ’em!
Nat: Biggest challenge of being working mothers?
Summer: Trying to be good moms and good business owners can be a challenge. We’re always busy and we’re always stressed out about doing both well. We get to work around motherhood and include it in our job but sometimes that can make it complicated too.
Nat: Most embarrassing mom moment?
Summer: Here’s an article we did for Babble, about our most embarrassing mom fashion moments!!
Nat: Favorite age/stage of your kids?
Summer: Since the beginning, I’ve loved every stage: The infant stage, the baby phase, the toddler phase. I feel like it just keeps getting better and better. But, if I’m totally honest, I didn’t like the crawling phase, too many dirty floors.
Go-to Outfit
Maxi dress, belt, boots, and hat.
Date Night
Movie Double feature, or triple
Girls Night
Good food, good company
Me Time
Massage or dinner with friends
Guilty Pleasure
Traveling and watching Nashville
Pet Peeve
Gossip and competition between girl friends
Break a Sweat
I hate working out so I have to do something that tricks my brain into thinking I’m doing something else like dancing, martial arts, etc. I also like pilates with loud music.
DVR
What’s in my Hulu Que? Elementary, Younger, The Mindy Project, The Last Man on Earth, Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Goldbergs, Nashville, Who Do You Think You Are? and Shark Tank. Let’s not even start on my Netflix!
App
Instagram and the Disneyland App. It tells you waits for rides, which is awesome.
Magazine
I’m a Vogue girl.
Viral Video
I love the 100 years of style. All those types of videos get me excited.
Quotable Movie
Dumb and Dumber
Current Read
Within by Dr. Habib Sadeghi. Trying to psych myself into losing my last 20 pounds of baby weight.
Mood Music
Beatles, Lana Del Rey, Joni Mitchel, and Florence and the Machine
Workout Music
90’s hip hop
Adult Beverage
We don’t drink but I take my non-adult beverages very serious: Virgin mojitos, Grapefruit Perrier, Diet Dr. Pepper, if I need a pick me up.
Splurge
Good chocolate
Save
Everything else. Ha ha!
Baking or cooking?
I would like to do less baking and more cooking.
Sand or snow?
Sand!
Salty or sweet?
Sweet
Turn On
People who are talented.
Turn Off
People who waste their talents.
Favorite blog or video to date?
Not Fancy, our Iggy parody. We had so much fun and I really like how it turned out.
Dream Guest?
Mindy Kaling, Tina Fey, and Cate Blanchet
What’s The Girls with Glasses next adventure?
Making videos and working on more songs!