Vanessa Coppes reflects on journey from the Dominican Republic to becoming CEO of Bella Media
NEW YORK (WABC) -- This Hispanic Heritage Month, we're celebrating a woman who came to this country with a dream that she made into reality.
Vanessa Coppes traveled from the Dominican Republic with a single suitcase and a dream, and now runs a media empire.
She began as an intern, and is now the CEO of Bella Media CO.
With every issue of her magazine, she's making sure that everyone feels seen within its pages.
Eyewitness News entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo sat down with Coppes, who describes her inspiring journey.
Joelle Garguilo: 2005, what does your life look like?
Vanessa Coppes: I was in the Dominican Republic. I came here for love and just to pursue of being in this world.
She's now the CEO of a multimedia company that's defining what beauty and fashion magazines can be.
Coppes: Fashion beauty has the ability to change people's perceptions of other people, of other cultures.
Coppes' path to the top started from the ground up, but it was motherhood and a personal struggle that changed everything.
Coppes: Started a blog, an online blog, as a way to deal with postpartum depression. Started on the jewelry line, and that connected me to Bella Magazine. And my jewelry was featured in a magazine, and I developed a relationship with the previous owners. I was writing articles. I was at shoots. I was filming. I was taking pictures. I was doing makeup...I was doing it all because I needed to really understand the industry.
Then in 2019, the owners of Bella decided to sell.
Garguilo: You started as an intern, and then eight years later, you buy the magazine. How did you do that?
Coppes: Delusion. Just see the vision so clearly in your head, and sometimes you're the only one who's seeing it. But I did. I took a leap of faith. I believed in myself enough.
Buying a magazine is one thing, but transforming it... that's another.
Coppes: Bring my take as a Latina woman. Bring some of the flavor into it, and I did.
Garguilo: There's no one type on a cover of Bella Magazine.
Coppes: Because we're not one type. The world does not look like one type. You're going to see people that look and feel like you. That's the goal is that everyone who lands on our pages can find, you know, ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things.
The work for Coppes is about inclusion -- real inclusion.
Coppes: Because I know what it feels like to be not included. In this industry, they need a shot. They need an opportunity to just showcase what they're able to do. I'm definitely building a legacy. What I would like to leave behind is that I did it differently, that we're not just showcasing a lip brand, because it's a new lipstick shade. It's because it was a mom who had this incredible idea.
In an industry many say is dying, Bella thrives.
Coppes: A social media post has a 24, 48-hour lifespan. And then once that's done, you're moving on to the next thing. Yeah. This is tangible. You can hold it. You can read it. You can pass it down, you can gift it.
Coppes described her greatest joy.
Coppes: I did accomplish a vision that I had for myself. Everything that I have worked towards in my life, it all connected. It came to fruition. I can also tell you we've done shoots for women who have undergone chemotherapy, and we gave them makeovers, and we then photographed that entire process. That smile of seeing a woman looking at herself , like 'oh my god, I made a magazine spread,' it's unbelievable. That joy that you can give to someone is truly remarkable.
Garguilo: What would that little girl growing up in the Dominican Republic think about where she is sitting and standing today?
Coppes: Are you trying to make me cry Joelle? I actually did this exercise, a few weeks ago, and it was writing a a letter to that little girl. I think that little girl has now arrived to where she was meant to be, and I would tell her, see, I told you we were gonna get here. I told you so. We did it.
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