Meet Bianca Jean-Pierre | Founder of SHEER

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bianca Jean-Pierre and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bianca, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was born and raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn to Haitian and Ethiopian immigrant parents. I’ve worked in editorial fashion, digital marketing, and tech over the past decade and I remember earlier in my career going from Fashion Week back to East Flatbush – in between two worlds at odds with each other. The deeper I got into my editorial and media career, the more the gap between my career and where I came from and my culture widened. And I wasn’t comfortable with that.

I often felt like an “other” in a lot of these corporate spaces. Also, I felt the pressure of having immigrant parents who wanted me to pursue a more “practical” career as a lawyer to ensure their sacrifices would be worth it. Creative endeavors didn’t feel secure enough to them. I created SHEER to be a media platform for multicultural women and non-binary creatives of color where they wouldn’t feel like “an other” in corporate spaces but also feel like they can successfully pursue creative careers no matter what they looked like or where they came from. You’re free to be unapologetically you in all your nuance, all your complexities, all your contradictions. You’re free to be human and not a label or stereotype but uniquely you. SHEER is a platform that celebrates people for being themselves.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I have have always been drawn to creative storytelling rooted in cultural identity from a very young age. I’m a creative and experienced digital marketer with a decade of career experience spanning the editorial, luxury retail, e-commerce, and tech industries. My previous roles include launching editorials and marketing campaigns at Conde Nast, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Meta.

I am very passionate about diverse and multicultural representation in media and commit to this initiative through my media platform that I founded called SHEER (sheerworldwide.com). SHEER is an NYC-based multicultural media platform centering the stories of creative women and non-binary people of color globally. SHEER holds space for multicultural creatives to explore the intersecting identities that make us who we are in a world with limiting systems that don’t always hold space for our nuance. By sharing real stories and hosting community events, we strongly believe in solidarity, transparency, understanding, and connection among creatives of color.

No one in my immediate family had ever embarked on starting a business so I wasn’t even sure where to start. When I created SHEER it was more of a passion project driven by my desire to share the stories of creatives I respected and admired and using art and creative expression to highlight issues that were important to me like actionable diversity and inclusion in creative spaces, decolonizing beauty standards, and the impact of gentrification in NYC, to name a few. As SHEER gained more traction and interest, I knew it was time to take the business side of things more seriously.

SHEER has now featured over 100 multicultural creatives globally though in-depth interviews across the arts, beauty, fashion, writing, and music industries to highlight their creative journeys and cultural backgrounds and raise awareness around their work. SHEER was one of the first platforms to share Doechii’s story who has now become a global rap superstar. SHEER has also partnered with organizations across arts, culture, fashion, and social justice like The Shed, Chashama, Children of Promise, Roads To Success, and brands like KREWE to highlight the work and businesses of global, emerging BIPOC creatives, share resources, and raise awareness around their work.

SHEER will also be exhibiting a curated selection of women of color artists at the upcoming Spring and Fall 2024 editions of the Affordable Art Fair in NYC!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give a shoutout to the beautiful community of creatives who I’ve had the honor of sharing their stories on SHEER as well as family, friends, and creative collaborators who have supported SHEER over the years. I’m deeply curious about people’s stories and their passions and it’s been such a privilege to learn more about how people explore and navigate their creative journeys and how they got to where they are today. SHEER is about highlighting the people behind the creative work and who they are at their core and the platform wouldn’t be what it is without their vulnerability to share their stories.

The stories I’ve heard and dynamic creatives I’ve met inspire me daily to keep doing this work. There are so many immensely talented creatives of color all over the world who aren’t always given the opportunity to share their stories or showcase their creative work and I believe it’s my responsibility to provide that platform. It’s healing work for me as I navigate my own creative journey and want to share that space with as many other creatives as I can.

Website: https://www.sheerworldwide.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheerworldwide/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-jp/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheerworldwide

Image Credits
1st photo: Niaja Smith 3rd photo (collage): Efiba Kyiamah 4th photo: Natiah Jones 5th photo: Kai Tsehay 6th photo: Briana Moreira