Sometimes we find it hard to peel back a person’s layers and get to know what is really inside, and if many of us would truly look past what’s on the surface of Antonia “Toya” Carter, you may be surprised what is stirring beneath.
Layer 1: The obvious title of Lil’ Wayne’s “Baby Mama”
Keep peeling
Layer 2: Thick Louisiana drawl from what can arguably be called one of the roughest places in the South.
Continue to peel
Layer 3: Long weave hair and curves for days
Finished the peeling? What do you get?
You get a strong, honest, beautiful black woman struggling to raise a child, unite a family and make a way for herself.
Paparazzi, reality TV and yes — bloggers — have made it common practice to jump on bandwagons and tear down a person for the “money shots” or the page views.
But RollingOut.com did a beautiful job of exposing this woman for who she really is. She is an ordinary woman who was dealt an extraordinary set of bad, past circumstances.
It seems Carter’s life was one big statistic after another: a teen mom, product of broken home, child of a drug-addicted mother, daughter to an absentee father, school dropout and her introduction to fame — ‘Baby Mama’ to a superstar.
“Growing up for me, it was pretty tough. I bounced around [to] different relatives. I was really, really young and going through a lot of different things. On top of that, I had a baby at 14. Where [were] we going to go,” Toya said in her interview with Rolling Out. “I was put out of school. My mind was on my problems; trying to be in a relationship and me wanting my mom to get off drugs and where I’m going to lay my head at night.”
She’s taken so many hits and criticisms, but still came out swinging.
Her new BET reality show, “Toya: A Family Affair,” debuted with 1.5 million viewers, setting a record for the station.
The gritty reality show gives an introspective look into the turmoil Carter faces with family, fame and the effects of drugs and the black community.
“It goes deeper than ‘Tiny & Toya.’ You get deeper into my family life. This time, it involves my siblings, my mom and my dad. It’s a family show. It’s emotional,” she revealed to Rolling Out. “A lot of people are going to be able to relate to it. There [are] a lot of things that are going on. We’re struggling to keep our family together because we’ve been separated for so many years. I have a brother who’s been in jail for 10 years. My mother is still battling addictions. My father has been absent for so many years.”
There’s so much more on the rise for this black beauty and she’s proving she’s got the chops by turning herself into a brand.
Carter has written a book, opened a clothing store and is gracing the covers of countless magazines.
Click here to read Carter’s entire interview on Rolling Out.
Photo and video courtesy of Rolling Out.
