I am excited to share another Girl Crushin’ profile with you! Today, our subject is the stunning Jenai Dominique. Jenai is an aspiring fashion stylist with big dreams and charisma to spare.

You know when you meet someone for the first time and there is that bubble of nervous expectation present in your spirit? When our natural human insecurity rears its ugly head and silly thoughts start popping up. Your mind starts to worry. Is my outfit okay? Will they find me interesting? I hope the conversation flows easily..

Well, with Jenai, these worries proved to be as pointless as the nutrition facts on a Big Mac. With the first hello, I felt completely at ease. This girl exudes positivity and warmth.  She’s the kind of girl that you can instantly connect with and feel comfortable sharing your whole life story.

I’ve been Facebook friends with Jenai ever since she became a Style Guru for CollegeFashionista (the fashion blog I contributed to throughout college, check it out here). I  always admired her personal style from afar and have recently become a stalker of her styling work on her personal blog. Take a look here: http://jenaidominique.tumblr.com/.

Jenai has some serious talent. I am constantly blown away by how she mixes colors and patterns. Not to mention, she can “over-accessorize” and make it look utterly chic. As any fashionista understands, this is no simple feat.

Please enjoy my photos of this lovely woman and her responses (as told to me) to some of my questions below. (As a side note: I’ve decided to ask many of the same questions to all of my Girl Crushin’ subjects in order to display the diversity and beauty in everyone’s unique lifestyle and personal philosophy.)

You can check out the previous Girl Crushin’ profile here.

How do you start your day?

I pray when I wake up. Well, before my alarm clock goes off, I’m already awake for two hours before it goes off, and I’m already thinking about what to wear for the day, which is kinda crazy. So I’m always thinking about what I wanna wear when I wake up because it only takes me about 30 minutes to get ready in the morning. I start from the feet down. So, usually I start with the shoes. Then I will pick out an outfit, brush my teeth and wash my face. Depending on how early I wake up, I’ll do some yoga and then make breakfast. I just got this thing called a NutriBullet so I like to make fruit smoothies, usually that’s my meal, or I’ll make a kale and cheese omelet and then I get out the door. So yeah, nothing too extreme, nothing too special.

Do you have any mantras or mottos?

Well, I’ve recently been reading this book called The Purpose Driven Life. I’ve basically just been reading about trying to find out what my purpose in life is, and I feel like that it is definitely about helping people. One of the phrases in the book that has been going through my head over the past few weeks is, “there’s no life without meaning.” I feel like in order for me to know exactly what I’m here for, I need to build a foundation with myself and spirituality and a relationship with a higher being. I know everyone has their own things but I really feel like that keeps me motivated every day. Definitely staying true to yourself and just believing in your talent and what you’re blessed with. I always wake up in the morning and pray that God helps me help someone else and uses me to bless someone else’s life and make a difference to other people because I feel like I’m here to serve others. I try to make the most out of everything because we don’t know how long we’re here on Earth, this is just a temporary thing. So, I guess my motto would be to make the most out of everything that you do, make the most out of your life, try to stay positive and do something to help other people.

This brings me to another one of my questions. I noticed that on your blog you have faith-based posts called “Motivational Mondays.” I think this is a unique idea, especially for a fashion blog, and it makes me wonder how your faith affects your approach to your career and following your dreams?

I think it definitely keeps me grounded and humble. Just reading the Bible has definitely helped me because there are a lot of different types of people that you interact with daily and sometimes I feel like we’re not really aware of the things that we say and the things that we do and how it can affect us, or other people, or how it can affect how other people view us.  I think that sticking to my faith keeps me pushing. It keeps me looking for the next day and appreciating being here. Tomorrow’s not promised for anyone and I don’t want to have any bad blood or situation with anyone and wake up the next day and that person is gone or to regret doing something that I did that I won’t be able to take back.

But I definitely think that any type of motivation and spirituality is needed just in the world. I feel like if everyone loved or had that foundation the world would be a different place, a better place. I grew up in the church but it wasn’t until recently that I took it upon myself to learn about these things on my own. You might grow up in it but you definitely have to do it yourself because you could be surrounded by it your entire life and not even care. Once you develop that type of lifestyle it changes how you think and the decisions that you make. It  makes you think about what is really important in life and, for me, trying to be more spiritual and faith-based has helped me grow and mature.

What sparked your interest in styling?

Well, fashion has always been a part of my life, even when I was younger. My best friend and I used to cut up our clothes and try to make ourselves look unique and different everyday at school. I guess getting to college is when I really started to develop my own personal style and started seeing other people express themselves through their wardrobe. Sometimes in high school, everyone dresses the same and shops at the same place and you feel like you have to fit in in order to be accepted by your peers. As I started to grow older, I got more confident with the way that I looked and the type of things that I like to wear and after seeing the reactions to the clothes that I was wearing I thought you know maybe I might be able to do this. Then, I started getting people asking me, “you know hey can you help me go through my closet and find stuff to wear” and it kinda went from there.

What is your dream career?

My dream is to have my own personal styling business/image consulting company. I would love to style a TV show or a commercial, music video, definitely a celebrity, work for movies, XFactor, American Idol…any styling job really. I would love to travel the world. When I get older, I know want to have something that is involved with food, whether it is a restaurant or a food truck, anything. But definitely styling, I’d love to be the next June Ambrose. I love her.

Do you believe in fate?

I’d say yeah. I believe that everything happens for a reason. There’s a reason for everything it just depends on how you take it, how you learn from it and what you do as a result.

What music are you lovin’ right now?

My favorite female artist is Sade. My favorite male artist is Bob Marley. I love Little Dragon, like I love Little Dragon, love her so much. I also love La Roux, Bruno Mars and Carrie Underwood.

Do you have any dating rules or guidelines?

We gotta be friends first.

Interesting, because they say you can’t be friends with guys?

I don’t think that’s true. One of my best friends is a guy. We grew up together and have known each other since we were in diapers and I love him to death.

So, how do you switch from being a friend to more?

Well, when me and my boyfriend met, I didn’t have any plans. I wasn’t attracted to him at the time. I just thought he was a really cool person and we started hanging out for a few months. But it just depends, maybe that was fate. After awhile, you get to know someone but I feel like when you’re friends first you really know and the person is more genuine. When you’re friends and there is no thought of any type of attraction, it is easier to be yourself around the person. I feel like when people go on dates, they are already trying to make more of the situation. Without really knowing the person, you are trying to impress them and you’re embarrassed to really be yourself around them or fart around them or something. I feel like being friends first just makes the situation more comfortable.

You got it from your mama…

I’d say part of my style, the way I carry myself and  a lot of my facial features.

What was your favorite form of play as a child?

I was a tomboy when I was a kid. I did everything. I used to flip off my bed and we broke all of the swings on the swing set when I was a kid. But my favorite one [form of play] was when my grandfather built a tire swing in our backyard for us on one of these huge trees. We played on that all day. That was the best toy. All of the kids in the neighborhood would come over to go on the tire swing which is crazy because it is just some tire and a rope but it was the best thing ever.

What do you think your greatest strength is?

It might sound corny but I feel like I have a lot of love built up inside of me. I love to love people and just express that to others and to let them know that there is someone out there who will talk to them and is interested in being their friend. Because there’s a lot of people in the world today who might have grown up with an angry parent or have never really experienced any type of happiness or been around good company. So, I guess my greatest strength is: I’m a happy person and I love.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?

Sometimes people that you consider your friends, when it comes to business, can be your worst enemies. There’s been a lot of situations with me as far as styling where I’ve felt that the people that I’ve known the longest and have the longest relationships with would be the ones to support me the most or I thought I could come to for anything. Sometimes, those people are the ones that you don’t want to even work with.

Finish this sentence: The world needs_____.

Love!