DORIA ROBERTS
If you´re talented, fame can find you anywhere. Doria Roberts´ career began while she was playing guitar as a form of meditation at the University of Pennsylvania. Another student heard her, and that led to her first gig-for 500 people! Invites to a radio station and local venue followed. “It was a classic ´beginner´s luck´ scenario,” she says. “So I said, ´Okay, I got it. I hear you,´ and figured out how to make a living from it. It wound up literally saving my life. That´s why I´ve been so fiercely protective of it.” Roberts has also put together events that have benefitted various causes and started #ThisIsWhatALesbianLooksLike, which took off like wildfire. Still, Roberts admits that being out has sometimes gotten in the way of her career. “I had to navigate waters and negotiate choices that straight artists would never have to consider. Couple that with the fact that I wasn´t afraid to address topical issues like gun control, AIDS and domestic violence in my music, and you´ve got a recipe for the slowest rising star ever! But going back into the closet was never an option for me and I don´t regret it because I´ve been able to be exactly who I am, doing exactly what I love to do for the last 22 years. That´s real success to me.” We couldn´t agree more. -GH
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