Print Exclusive: Author & She's SINGLE Magazine Founder, Lisa K. Stephenson

Jevasia Stephenson, known to many as Lisa K. Stephenson, hails from The Bronx, New York. Her parents migrated to the United States at just eighteen years old from Kingston, Jamaica. As the middle child and the only girl with two brothers—one older and one younger—Lisa knew early on that she wanted to pursue entrepreneurship.

Despite the odds often being against her, Lisa explored various ventures, including singing, modeling, closet styling, and even starting her own Greek organization, Tau Iota Mu Psi, which translates to The Independent Millennial Woman. At nineteen, with the support of her mother, Lisa recorded her first studio single. However, after receiving critical feedback from her siblings, she lost the confidence to continue pursuing music.

She then decided to try modeling but found herself unable to trust the people around her. Despite her mother’s constant support and presence, Lisa felt the pressure to be thin—a standard her naturally voluptuous shape could never meet. “I remember one day lying in my dorm room,” Lisa recalls, “I meant to dial my mother at her job but accidentally dialed the wrong number and ended up speaking to an A&R rep from a major music label,” she laughs.

“I stuttered so much when he introduced himself. By that time, I was almost over the fantasy of being a singer, but I thought it must be fate. So, I just started telling him about my music and the things I wanted to do. Next thing I know, he tells me to send him my demo and some images via email. So, I did.”

Lisa shares that after sending the email, the rep responded, asking her to visit his office in Manhattan. “I was going to school upstate at Utica College, but I was so excited that I booked a train ticket the next day. On my way home to meet with him, he emailed me back saying that I didn’t have the look of a star and that they wouldn’t be able to market me. He mentioned that I was just too thick. After that, I kept calling, but I never got through to him again. I was on the train, heartbroken, and just showed up at home—my mom had no idea I was coming.”

This marked the beginning for Lisa, as she felt destined to venture into the entertainment industry. However, she remained unsure of her exact path. What would prove successful? After some time and completing her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice, Lisa launched her closet styling business, Kombination Kouture. During this period, she transitioned from Jevasia to Lisa, hoping that changing her name would make her more appealing to non-minority clients who might otherwise hesitate to hire her or allow her into their homes to provide a luxury service.

As an African American woman, Lisa has noted the challenges she’s faced while seeking opportunities and breaking through barriers. These difficulties have prompted her to stay out of the spotlight, allowing her work and art to speak for themselves. Kombination Kouture offered wardrobe styling, personal shopping, and fashion styling for photoshoots.

“I love clothes. I’ve always had a great relationship with pieces,” Lisa shares. “When I was younger, I would clip outfits from magazines and tape them onto the back of my bedroom door. My door became this large collage, and I even had pictures taped all over my room—on my mirror, above the TV. My mom can attest to this. I’ve always loved shopping and putting things together, and I would always get compliments on my outfits whenever I went out. So, of course, I thought, let me start a business styling others.”

With a small loan of $2,000 from a close friend, Lisa went to work. She secured her LLC, designed her website, pulled clothing pieces, and reached out to photographers, asking if they needed a stylist for their shoots. A few responded, and the rest was history. Lisa went on to style several photoshoots, from a duo of women to three young boys with a Little Rascals theme. She was confident in her ability to grow her styling business.

“When I did those shoots, I loved it! I was very happy with the outcomes, but I am my biggest critic. At one point, I think I got ahead of myself and spent a large chunk of money—mind you, I was barely making anything. I was fresh out of college, working at CVS and a group home, so I didn’t have much capital to work with. I took this money and bought a vending table for an event with Westchester Magazine. It was then I realized things wouldn’t work out. The cost of travel, food, and buying the pieces—some of which I couldn’t return if the models scuffed the shoes or creased the clothes too much—was an ongoing expense. Then this vending opportunity netted me zero clients. It was a complete waste.”

But Lisa didn’t give up on herself entirely. She left the group home job to focus solely on her role at CVS, where she was promoted to Shift Supervisor. This new role gave her more time to devote to her hobbies, one of which was writing. “How I started writing is really a funny story,” she shares. “In high school, when you take those career tests, mine said ‘journalist.’ I remember it like it was yesterday—I broke down into tears because, at that time, I had my heart set on being a neurologist. Not because I loved picking apart brains, but because I wanted to be rich. I wanted to make money. From early on, I’ve always envisioned myself as successful and taking care of my family. I just didn’t know how I’d get there, and I figured, well, journalists are broke, lol.

Fast forward to college—I’m taking this creative writing class, and the professor tells us to write a short story. I wrote mine about a girl named Niki who lives in Brooklyn with her parents, but she and her father begin having an affair. Once I turned the paper in, my peer graded it an A, which I thought was cool. Then, over the weekend, the professor collected the stories and graded them. When we returned to class on Monday, he gave me an A as well but asked to speak with me afterward.

Of course, I complied. After class, I went up to him, and he said, ‘Is there anything going on at home that you want to talk about? We have really good counselors here.’ I was completely confused, so I just shook my head no. Then he went on to tell me how impressed he was with my writing and storytelling. He even asked if he could use my story as an example for the rest of his classes. I smiled and, of course, agreed.”

Lisa never intended to take her writing seriously until she joined the Army in 2013. In her spare time, she would curate stories on the backs of napkins and scraps of paper meant to be discarded. During this time, she had given up on being an entrepreneur, citing, “It was just too expensive. I would need startup capital, and the idea of having to write a business plan and do thorough research before seeking out investors was just too much for me. I really felt overwhelmed. Plus, there was no one in my family at that time who had ever ventured into business for themselves. I was always just this girl with a dream and no mentor.”

While in the military, Lisa sustained an injury that led to her being medically chaptered out. From there, she focused on her four-year relationship at the time and was fortunate enough to land a career as a paralegal in 2014. Even so, she continued to write occasionally, revisiting the notes she had jotted down during her military service and expanding on some of the stories. In 2014, she self-published her first novel, Borderline, “which no one read,” she laughed. At the end of the book, she included her short story Niki from her time as an undergraduate. Despite this accomplishment, Lisa chose to remain focused on her career and her plans to start a family with her then-boyfriend.

However, heartbreak soon found the Bronx native. Lisa discovered that her boyfriend had fathered a child outside of their relationship. When she confronted him, the revelation escalated into a violent encounter. The ordeal involved a physical altercation, a car chase, damaged property, and Lisa sustaining scratches and bruises all over her body. Inside her vehicle, her ex strangled her, slammed her head repeatedly into the glove compartment, and shoved her face down onto the mat on the passenger side.

“He beat me like I was a man,” Lisa recounts. “All because I found out—from Facebook and one of my exes, who also happened to be in the military with him—that he was having a child with one of the girls from his platoon. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I was at my desk at work and googled his name. When the baby registry popped up, I immediately lost my appetite and couldn’t function. I think I lost about 35 pounds in three months.”

For Lisa, the betrayal was especially jarring because she and her boyfriend had been planning to start their own family. Having given up her entrepreneurial aspirations, she had resolved to focus on climbing the corporate ladder at her job. But after this devastating chapter in her life, Lisa realized it was time to adopt a new perspective on her future.

“It took almost ten years for me to heal from that situation. But I do take accountability because, at the time, I was twenty-six, and my only thought was to have a family and be with this person. I believed he was my best friend, my partner, so this whole thing took me by surprise. I wasn’t wise back then—I was very green and naïve—and wanted to believe I could make things work. At that time, I was holding on to the impossible. But since I didn’t know better, I wanted to help other women learn from my mistakes.”

Once Lisa learned she would be promoted at work, she began working on more books. Next came Covenant, Even My Hair Is Mad, and Late Bloomer, where she used her experiences as inspiration, telling stories through the lens of new characters and making them engaging and relatable. She hired a publicist, toured with her novels, and met a plethora of women who were interested in her journey and her road to recovery. Lisa wore her heartbreak on her sleeve and allowed herself to be vulnerable every step of the way. By 2019, she had written and published nine novels to high praise and even began dating again.

But just before the pandemic, Lisa lost her job at the law firm. “When I got let go, I started to feel the sting because I was riding high on my books. I even wrote three books in one summer because I had this good job—it was paying well, I could hire editors, and so many wonderful things were coming from it. So, when I lost my job, I had to prioritize my bills and other things. But one day, I was home watching the Hugh Hefner documentary on my couch, and that’s when I got the idea to start a magazine.”

The magazine in question is She’s SINGLE Magazine. When asked why she chose that title, Lisa explained, “As a young girl, I was taught to find a man, get married, have kids—the works. No one, and I do mean no one, prepared me for heartbreak. Even when the situation happened, almost all the women in my family—and even a few friends who didn’t seem to care too much—kept telling me to forgive him. They said if I wanted that happy ending, I would just have to accept him and this new baby if he was willing to work things out. Emphasis on if he was willing.

None of that made sense to me. It got me thinking: Is being single so bad that women should be told to settle for all kinds of mistreatment as long as the man is…sorry? In those moments, I started to realize that being single isn’t a bad thing. Being in a relationship and tolerating abuse is ten times worse and should be called out. Men are allowed to have self-respect. Men are expected to leave relationships if the woman cheats. Yet women are encouraged to stay.

I wanted to change that narrative and teach women—young and old—that being single is okay. Having your independence and following your goals is perfectly okay. No one should tolerate abuse for the sake of being in a relationship.”

Once the idea began to take shape, Lisa used a fake account on Facebook to join groups and drop small hints or questions about the publication. This was her way of gauging whether people would be interested in it. “I would go into these Facebook groups and write things like, ‘Y’all, I just read this article in She’s SINGLE Magazine on birth control and which one is better. Have you all read it? What do you think?’ Most of the time, people would ask, ‘Where’s the article? Send it to me so I can read it.’ A few people even wrote, ‘I need that subscription.’ To be honest, the rest was history. I went on Backstage to find a cover girl and got started on putting out my first issue.”

Needless to say, Lisa is a force to be reckoned with—building doors and walking through them. “I can’t sit around and wait for someone to hand me an opportunity on a silver platter. I have to go out and make my own. As a Black woman, the odds are often already stacked against me, and I have to do twice the work for the same or even less praise than my counterparts.

But I want to grow; I want to continue to learn. I see this journey as my Plan A, and there’s no going back. Did I know Covid was going to do a number on my business and make things as crazy as they are today? No. But am I going to give up? No! This is what I dreamed of: having my freedom, achieving success, putting in the hard work, and finding my niche. My dreams are slowly coming true, and there’s no turning back now.”

She’s SINGLE Magazine is, in fact, growing, and so is Lisa’s popularity. But she remains humble, knowing there’s still a long way to go. Humble, kindhearted, creative, and a devoted dog mom, Lisa is redefining and helping reshape the concept of singledom for women, one day at a time.

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by Stephanie E.