Leslie M. Greene, 55, Film + Television Casting Director
@ourkindofwomen : What has blossomed in you that you never saw coming?
@rtsecasting : Me loving myself. Mmmhmm…I never saw that coming. Umm..Wow. I don’t know if I ever said that out loud? But I’ve felt it for a long time. And I say it because I was born on purpose. My mom strategically had me, but I was born to love her.. She had me because she wanted somebody to love her, unconditionally. And of course, we love our parents unconditionally, right? No matter what they do, right, wrong, and indifferent. So my whole life, I just lived loving and taking care of other people. I never thought about me, I just was living, you know. Up until 26..I never did anything for myself. I did everything to help or please, my mother, my family members.
I was living for everybody else, and I was tired, and I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know what color I liked. I didn’t know what food I liked. I didn’t know. I didn’t even know what my sexuality was, if I was happy, if I was just doing it, if I was living things, just to be what everybody wanted, I was doing a career everybody wanted. I went to college ‘cause they wanted me too, and I didn’t know anything about myself.
And I found out I loved myself when I turned 50…I started accepting myself in my 40s, but even in my 20s and 30s, I was living for other people. And then once I started getting closer to 40, I was like, “Wait a minute. Who am I? Like, who am I really? What do I like? Mm hmm. I like men. I really understood that…lol..
And as my grandmother started getting older and I would fly home to Philly more. The more conversations I had with my grandmother who was in her 90s, the more she started making me realize that I’m my only mate. (Not sure what that means) And that this life is for me. I’m going to affect people around me. Good, better, and different, but if I’m broken all the time, it’s doing them no justice. So, yeah, loving Leslie. I didn’t see that coming.
📸
@bessieakuba assisted by
@sheskylaha 
