Women You Should Know: Meet Melissa Magsaysay

Women You Should Know: Meet Melissa Magsaysay

On what Los Angeles means to her

There are times when finding the right words feels impossible. And that’s been especially true these past weeks. But that’s also when community carries us through.

So we reached out to our friend Melissa Magsaysay, a two-decade LA veteran who is both a journalist covering the fashion and beauty scene, and a female founder (check out her line of dresses, Duster), a founding member of I am a Voter, and co-chair of the Vital Voices Los Angeles Council.

Today we’re featuring a story that initially ran on her Substack, The Drop By

We hope it speaks to your heart the way it did ours.

An LA Story (Still Unfolding) 

Endlessly creative, colorfully complex and always continuing to surprise me. California, I love you.

JAN 13, 2025

I have only just now managed to look away from my phone, specifically Instagram (typical, but through the roof screen time this week) Watch Duty fire tracking app (this is new, but now one I am more familiar with than I’d like), peppered with sporadic texts from neighbors, friends, people I went to college with and had barely heard from since, all popping up like whack a mole spurts of welcome comfort. I feel the need to simultaneously address every breaking news alert, donation request, welfare check-in and shift in wind speed. Regardless of your current situation as an LA resident, it is impossible to know how to be or what to do. How do you feel in a city where optimism and endless possibility are its greatest asset, but the air is literally too thick to see 20 feet ahead? We are all LA right now, whether there has been immediate threat, loss, or you’ve got “level 2” to-go bags waiting by the door. 

What I do know, is that it is a real luxury to be stationary for now, in my home and with power and wifi in tact to have this “problem” of communication coming to and from me at a quicker than usual pace. And now, I am switching platforms over to this one (lucky you) because LA, this place I have called home for nearly 21 years, means something to me. In fact, much more than I had ever realized even though it’s been my “beat”, central to almost every story I’ve written for two decades and as it turns out, very much the center of my story as well.

LA is not somewhere I ever thought I would live. As a Bay Area native, there has always been a friendly, comically tense, rivalry between Northern and Southern California (note: for anyone trying to make the term “Upstate California” happen, I regret to inform you, each one of us in all parts of the state chatted and have voted against it.) In Northern CA we say, “hella” and there’s always a layer of damp cold. In Southern CA we say, “so, what do you do?” and like to take long lunches. Or at least this was my impression for the first, oh, 7 years I lived here. Obviously there is a little truth to that cliché, but the LA I’ve come to know is so much more - so colorful, creative, so complex. It is filled with more “main character” energy and relentless dreamers than anywhere in the world. There is tenacity, there is unorthodox thinking of the most impressive order and there is unbridled ambition to expand and explore ideas and tell stories through, yes, film and TV, but also through amazing entrepreneurship, big swings and putting dreams into action quicker (and some times quirkier) than anyone, anywhere could. My deadpan practical nature and cynical lens are often challenged by this energy, but it has also managed to really curb the curmudgeon in me to stay open to the reasons and romance of those who have sought out the West over so many decades.

Though it was a work assignment (as discussed briefly in the last post) that led me to here, there are also plenty of wonderful reasons I never left. I believe that so many clichés that often borderline misconceptions about LA exist because the city is impossible to harness and people need the big, obvious and very Hollywood moments to cling onto in order to try and connect the dots and figure it out. In many ways, it is still the Wild West. If you’ve got a great idea, people are willing to support, connect and help out. LA is untamable in some ways and accepting in every way. It is the reason there are countless layers not only to the culture but to the topography of beach, canyon, urban sprawl, mountains, cartoonish fountains, parking structures, strip malls and more. It is a melting pot, a clash of non-conformist thinking and people looking to be part of the type of vibrant community that springs from radical and beautiful action.

Yes, it is a lot of the clichés you know. Erewhon really is ridiculous and yet still has half my monthly income. I hike a lot. I like strip mall sushi.

My heart breaks for the communities directly affected by these ongoing fires (some places to donate or get involved below) but the greatest part about LA is that to some degree, to live here is to have hustle, grit and always be seeking the good - the gold that lies beneath for now, and will no doubt be uncovered when the ash settles and the city rebuilds.

Help LA Residents Rebuild:

World Central Kitchen

You know it. You love it. Please continue to support it. WCK is very much here on the ground set up in key disaster areas of LA and first responder commands to help those who need it most. They never cease to amaze. I’ve watched them activate in a moment’s notice in Ukraine, Gaza and now LA. It’s unfathomable and appreciated.

https://wck.org/

This is About Humanity

This organization is dear to my heart. I have gone on several trips to the California/Mexico border with them to stay abreast on what is happening with asylum seeking families and individuals. Their work cuts right to the core. It really is all about humanity and what a relief not just for those they help but for those of us who want a reprieve from politics and a chance to help people who are displaced but definitely not without and very much deserving of their dignity.

They have a $50k matching fund to support frontline essential worker, farmworkers and families impacted by the southern CA wildfires. 

https://www.instagram.com/thisisabouthumanity/?hl=en

Support Alta Dena Families in a Historically Black Neighborhood

The loss in Alta Dena is immeasurable. Alta Dena is a community of multi-generational families of color, elderly people and young families just starting out. It is an area where Black families bought homes in the 1960s when red lining and discriminatory housing practices were in full swing. Today, about 58% of residents are non-white, with one-fourth of them Hispanic and nearly a fifth Black, according to Census data. This is a live document that lists dozens of families and individuals affected by the fires. Please consider donating directly to their Go Fund Me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pK5omSsD4KGhjEHCVgcVw-rd4FZP9haoijEx1mSAm5c/htmlview

 

Leave a comment

All comments are moderated before being published