More Hoops, Please with Darilyss Moreno

We are highlighting a previous episode of the ¿Quién Tú Eres? podcast, where we explore the conflict we often face between "professionalism" & being our authentic selves.

Joining us in this episode is Darilyss Moreno, an Entrepreneur and proud Boricua from the Bronx who is all about inspiring authenticity and confidence through style. She is funny, outspoken, and confident. And she shares with us many of the realizations she had about herself and her perception of her community that led her to learn more and embrace her identity.

These are some of this episode’s highlights:

"When there's no expectation of who you're supposed to be... that's when you're the most authentic." -Darilyss Moreno

Darilyss grew up in South Bronx in the 80s, a fact that she didn’t like to share because people’s idea of what that was like would be far off from what she experienced and then people would expect her to act or be a certain way.

She realized that due to other people's expectations of who we are, what we can do, and who we can be, we can feel pressured to hide parts of ourselves to not confirm an expected behavior that comes from a stereotype. So, we become "someone" that does not feel natural to us but helps us be included, get along, and avoid questions. But when there are no expectations (not even from ourselves) we stop trying to be what we are not, and we are free to be who we truly are.

"I learned that my story is more powerful because of my background... not less." -Darilyss Moreno

Some situations that take place can be offensive to us and can make us feel shame. They can shake us so much that it severs any connection we might have with our culture and community. And as a result, we might not want to be open about our background anymore, out of fear of being judged or not taken seriously.

This happened to Darilyss at a Super Bowl Party, where there was a kid who made a comment that shocked Darilyss so much that, ever since that party, she started to close off. She would only show a 2-dimensional version of herself (what was "acceptable") tuning out everything else that still made her herself. Good thing was, she eventually opened up again as she learned to embrace her multidimensionality.

"In order for me to educate other people on who I am, I needed to educate myself first." -Darilyss Moreno

Darilyss had no idea how disconnected she was from her community, and she realized that part of this disconnection came from her misperception of her community.

She believed that her community was mainly about partying, cousins having babies, and sugar daddies. Plus, she wasn’t born in Puerto Rico, so in her mind, she couldn’t genuinely have a connection with her community. But in her journey of self-discovery, she realized that her perception was at play here and that there was more she didn't know than what she did know.

Realizing how little she knew about herself and her community led her to dig deeper and go through a process where she began to understand herself more and learn about her community.

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Darilyss embraces her community and lives unapologetically as her unique, beautiful, authentic self!

Follow Darilyss on Instagram

Listen to this episode to learn more about her journey: Spotify & Apple Podcasts

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