Source: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty
Ashanti‘s baby sister, Kenashia Douglas, otherwise referred to as Shia, celebrated her 31st birthday quarantine style with her mother, big sister and a few loved ones. And while the occasion was joyful and full of smiles, Shia also ended her big day by informing people of the journey she’d been on to make it to 31. She narrated a pretty profound video she shared on Instagram, promoting a new page called Wife of Creation, where images and videos from throughout her childhood and adulthood were showcased. Shockingly, midway through the clip, images of the beauty show her with not only a black eye but also a bloody face with her front teeth broken.
These images follow an abrupt change in the tone in the clip, marked by by how it’s edited. We see a sequence of footage where ultrasounds of a pregnancy, an engagement ring given by a man whose face we can’t see, a growing baby bump and fetus are all presented. It goes from images of a very special time to images of a horrific one in the young woman’s life.
She talks, in those scenes, about how drastically one’s experiences change as they grow older, from the innocent to the heartbreaking.
“Our experiences begin to shape our realities. Here, we learn about pain, isolation, sacrifice and heartache,” she said. “These experiences though, no matter how bad, how painful, how ugly, how dark, how beautiful, are all threads that together wove our story and shape our purpose. They reignite our passion and remind us of who we are divinely meant to be.”
The video was also shared by Ashanti and their mother, Tina Douglas. Ashanti alluded to her sister’s ability to push past dark times in a birthday message to her.
“I am beyond proud of everything that you have overcome… and this is just the beginning…,” she wrote.
“My sister is a F–KIN BEAST! One of the most resilient women I’ve been blessed enough to know,” she wrote as a caption to the video Shia shared. “I’m honored to be your older sister..the blood in these veins will NEVER BETRAY. I love you. I’m with you. Always. Happy 31st Birthday.”
Mom Tina also talked about her daughter’s strength on her own page.
“I watched you in your darkest hour become stronger than I could ever wish to be then come into the light as if your [sic] were rejuvenated by the struggle and pain,” the momager wrote. “You took the bull by the horns and defeated that time to become even MORE resilient!”
She shared Shia’s video, describing it with the caption, “WHEN A WOMAN TAKES YOU ON HER JOURNEY AS SHE SPEAKS HER TRUTH…WHEN HER DARK BECOMES HER LIGHT AND THEN …HER NEW BEGINNING.”
Shia, who describes herself as a creative director and fashion designer, has been pretty low-key despite her sister’s public image. She did have a relationship with a creative/entrepreneur named Slowbucks, whom she was briefly engaged to in 2016, causing people to accuse him of being her abuser. He was quite close it seems with the late Nipsey Hussle.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOd32PcgvX6/?utm_source=ig_embed
It seems the two may have called it quits around 2018, 2019. During a past interview with VLADTV in 2014, she said they were going strong even after industry drama, including a beef he had with 50 Cent a few years back.
“I don’t think that any real woman would let anything hinder their relationship,” she said at the time. “If it’s a real relationship and the love and everything in between is authentic, then nothing can hinder your relationship. Only death.”
