Pride Month Series: Grayson Golden
Introduce yourself & your role at Boyfriend
Hi there! My name is Grayson Golden, but feel free to call me Gray! I’m a Digital Manager on the Talent Partnerships Team here at Digital Media Management and I get the awesome opportunity to work closely with some amazing entertainers, such as the one & only Kate Walsh, to help them develop their personal and professional brands on social media.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride to me is something that I think grows and evolves with us throughout our entire lives. It first describes a sense of self-love and the ability to express myself, but it is also equally a feeling of pride to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I think it also means taking pride in my relationships whether that be my family, friends, as well as taking pride in my career and even my mistakes.
The first time I really started to understand what the word meant was when I went to my first Gay Pride parade is Miami, where I can remember finally feeling this overwhelming sense of love and acceptance after years of not really fitting in anywhere. Pride is about the acceptance of not only ourselves, but certainly each other.
Fragrance can be a form of self-expression. What does your signature scent say about you?
I am admittedly a huge perfume addict! I think the best compliment is when someone tells you how great you smell, and I always joke that I want my fragrance to be so strong that it enters the room long before I do and stays long after I’ve left! Now while you may think I may be saying this next part just because I’m part of the Boyfriend team, I must admit that I may actually be one of Boyfriend’s top customers. I have a deep love for fragrances that are warm and comforting and have always mixed both men’s and women’s scents to give a sort of musky meets flowery vibe, so Boyfriend is seriously my #1 go-to. Especially because I really love the idea of having a signature fragrance that people remember you by, and one of my favorite things about Boyfriend is how many products are available with the gorgeous original scent. People recognize my fragrance not only when I’m wearing the perfume or hand crème, but also because that’s how my home and car smell too.
How do you celebrate your identity?
I certainly celebrate my identity by my external self-expression whether that be clothes, makeup, accessories, you name it! Growing up I was incredibly fortunate to have had an open and accepting environment of family and friends around me, and that gave me the freedom to openly express my identity however I chose. So in a way, I’ve only ever known how to be myself. Just like Pride, our identity and self-expression evolves with us as time goes on and we learn more and more about who we are and even who we aren’t. I tend to think of myself as a chameleon who likes to try out different styles and hair colors and crazy looks, but no matter what at the end of the day, you still get the same person underneath it all.
Who is an influential person/figure/icon who has influenced and/or impacted your life, and why?
Since the age of 11 I have been a diehard fan of Cher, and have based so much of how I live my life off of her. I think she is one of the best examples of how to live a life that’s true to who you are, and even when things don’t go right you just have to pick yourself up and keep going. I have two favorite quotes of hers that I live by; the first from when she said that singers never considered her a singer, and same with actors, directors, dancers and writers, yet she has been successful at everything she has ever done. The second is from when her mother told her that she won't be the prettiest, the smartest or the most talented but that she would be special. So no matter what people say, work hard and be true to yourself even if you don’t fully know who that is yet.
Boyfriend is a big proponent of self-care; tell us how you practice self-care.
Self-care is admittedly a hard one for me, but I think it can be achieved in so many ways. I surely love the days where I get to just sit in bed with a facemask while watching some Judge Judy or a good true crime documentary, but I think the most essential piece of self-care is just being a little kinder to myself. Whether that means replacing criticisms with compliments when I catch myself in the mirror, or not losing sleep over a small embarrassment that happened. How we speak to ourselves is so important, and I have found that once I started to see those things in myself, others did too.
