From journalist to entrepreneur to counselor, Candace Kelley is a woman of many hats. Black Star News observes that it’s her drive and hair that has inspired so many people.
“My parents planted the seed that education was the key, because at the end of the day, if you have the same degree as the next person, you would probably fair very well,” Kelley told Black Star News. A graduate of Howard University and Seton Hall Law School, Kelley was born in a family of three girls and two artistic, educator parents.
After graduating from law school she joined Court TV and has since been involved in the media industry. She is the hostess of the weekly thirty minute radio show “League of the Extraordinary” on 89.7 WGLS-FM. True to its name, the show has had some extraordinary guests on the air. Kelley has had the opportunity to interview stars such as Mary J. Blige and DMX as well as Lexington Steele, a Wall Street broker turned Adult Videos star and Bishop Fred Rubin, a former Orthodox Jew who married an African American woman and now leads a predominately black Pentecostal church.
“We are historically religious people, and when I came across the story of this Jewish man who…I don’t know if inspiring is the word, but it certainly for me was worth looking at in more depth because it really spoke to the opposite of what we are used to hearing,” Kelley said to Black Star News of Bishop Fred Rubin. The story of Bishop Rubin and his wife has been commemorated in a documentary which is currently in post-production.
In addition to the radio station, Kelley is also actively involved in various television recording, shooting, editing and documentary projects. What makes Kelley’s media success inspiring to so many black women is that she’s done it all while sporting her beautiful natural hair on TV.
So many women saw Kelley on TV and contacted her to inquire about her hair that she started Curl Prep Natural Hair Solutions to showcase her product that elongates natural hair. Kelley has been natural all her life except for two years, and has been making her homemade products back in the 80’s before the surge of natural hair products became available on the market. Although it started as simply an informational website, two Whole Foods stores in New Jersey are now carrying her products with two more stores expecting to debut her products soon.
“Once you’re in the system, other stores start to pick you up – it sort of happens in progression,” she said.
But Kelley doesn’t stop with her entertainment or hair product credits. She and her friends are in the midst of putting together a seminar to help guide people in developing their ideas. Among the seminar benefits, they plan to offer copyright procedure assistance and free websites.
