Welcome, friend,

Thank you for stopping by and spending a few moments with me on my journey — you know, this thing called life. Discover a few of my current curiosities and fragments of my ongoing story. I share my musings with you to ignite connection and joyful conversations around all the creative, juicy possibilities we can dream up.

Welcome, to my home dear friend. And if you'd like to connect,

I'd love to hear from you. ~ ND

DM on Instagram

Let's start my hero's story somewhere at the beginning when things were just a little simpler.

Here’s me and my mom, when nothing was more important in the world than being held in her arms. Major milestones were simple. Like walking to school for the first day of kindergarten (look how iconic my mothers style was back then, wow 🤩). Those early days set the foundation for my creative journey.

While other kids my age were glued to TVs or Nintendo, I was daydreaming of owning a grand, multi-level store on Fifth Avenue, like the Versace storefront that once existed there and that I couldn’t forget. In my imagination, each floor had its own atmosphere: couture fashion shimmering under soft lighting upstairs, high-end makeup displayed like jewels below, and the faint scent of perfume drifting through marble halls. Sounds pretty common today, but back then, to my young brain, revolutionary.

When I wasn’t dreaming of architecture and fashion, I was flipping through wedding and style magazines, not picturing my own fairy tale wedding, but imagining how I might stage extraordinary events for others. Before Pinterest was a thing, I made collages the old-fashioned way with clippings, glue sticks, and samples requested from vendor ads to build out vision boards. I wrote poetry between pages of fabric swatches, drafted short stories beside my sketches, each expression feeding another, forming an ecosystem of creativity I didn’t yet recognize as art.

Looking back, I realize those were my earliest acts of design and storytelling. I was composing experiences before I knew what that meant. Sensing beauty through color, texture, light, and emotion, and finding ways to translate what I felt into something tangible.

I share this because what was true then is true now: I’ve always loved creating and reimagining stories, turning ordinary moments into extraordinary ones, something that makes people feel seen, inspired, and connected.

Back then, I didn’t understand my creative calling. Those childhood creations were far from career-worthy, but there was something there, unpolished talent and a vision for something more. Life, however, had lessons to teach first. I became rational, stopped dreaming about the big, beautiful things I hoped to do someday, and “got real.”

However, in every epic tale, there’s always a chance to turn challenge into opportunity.

At seventeen, an opportunity quite literally opened my world. I was scouted.

Years earlier, at nine years old, I had begged my mom to take me to Barbizon. I did not have the language then for what I wanted, only a feeling. The dream felt unrealistic, distant, and meant for someone else. Looking back now, I realize I was naming something true, imperfectly perhaps, but honestly. I was trying to articulate a calling before I understood what was possible.

So when I was discovered years later, it felt unimaginable. A fairy tale. A dream come true. Almost immediately, a quieter question followed me everywhere. Was I worthy of it?

That question stayed with me for years...

Through many iterations of my modeling career, I walked New York runways, appeared in print magazines, and worked across commercial campaigns and creative projects. Fashion and beauty became industries I loved and learned from deeply. Modeling taught me discipline, collaboration, presence, and how to communicate without words. It showed me how to inhabit a moment fully, how to translate feeling through posture, expression, and stillness.

Even when confidence wavered, modeling remained one of the few constants in my life. It returned again and again, asking to be seen. Ironically, the very dream I once considered unrealistic proved its persistence. Some truths do not disappear when ignored. They wait. They resurface when the timing, the self, and the understanding are ready to meet them.

Over time, life called me elsewhere. I stepped away here and there to raised a family. I explored other professional paths. I built a design career. I reinvented myself again during a major global shift. This is life. And for me, modeling has always been part of that story, not separate from it, but woven through it.

This year marks a new chapter.

Returning now is not about recreating the past. It is about rewriting the narrative with agency, clarity, and self trust. I am re entering the industry as a woman who knows herself, bringing lived experience, creative direction, and a deeper understanding of image, embodiment, and storytelling.

This chapter is actively unfolding. I am refining my presence, rebuilding with intention, and exploring print, editorial, and select commercial work that aligns with who I am now. Modeling today feels less like validation and more like embodiment. Another medium through which I explore identity, timing, and becoming.

Through the years, and alongside modeling...

I kept exploring. I moved through different roles and environments, searching for the place where curiosity and practicality could coexist. Like Goldilocks, I tried on paths that were too rigid, too narrow, or too limiting, learning something from each one. What stayed consistent was my attraction to possibility, to systems, and to how ideas take shape in the real world.

Making websites became a kind of portal... and I was hooked!

Technology felt futuristic and expansive, a place where creativity could scale, connect, and evolve in real time. I began tinkering, building, and teaching myself how digital spaces worked. What started as curiosity turned into fluency. Design became a new canvas, one informed by everything that came before it. Image, story, structure, intuition, and strategy finally had a place to meet.

This is where my work in digital design and branding was born. Not as a departure from creativity, but as another medium for it.

ndny studio: Web Design + Branding

My creative consultancy, is where I curate and build project-based experiences that enhance a client’s brand and digital presence. Drawing on years of professional growth and education, integrated with online business development, brand marketing, and digital design, I deliver lasting and relevant results to the businesses I serve. To learn more about my studio offerings

go here.

As for my passions, I use creative spark as a beacon for guiding the way...

If I listen closely enough, I can hear the call. What comes next is the action I take, and only then am I limited by the narratives of my mind.

I use this mindset to spark the next creative project and love inspiring others to do the same.

Social Content: @TheNiaDaraEdit

Modeling, Life, and Creative Presence

This space was born during the pandemic, when I decided to step out from behind the computer and reconnect. I craved laughter, mine and other people’s. Comedy became my way in. It gave me permission to show up imperfectly, to be playful, and to remember that joy is a powerful form of connection. The digital space allowed me to exist between mom mornings and late night open mics. On social, my comedic curiosities became a place for fashionable shenanigans to roam freely.

What began as comedic relief has grown into a living archive of who I am and what I’m exploring now. It still holds humor, but it has widened into a spacious gallery for personal style, motherhood, identity shifts, and the quiet moments in between. Some days there are shenanigans. Right now, most days reflect the unfolding of my modeling portfolio, layered with reflection and the occasional music throwback for my generation.

All of it is real. It’s me. Unpolished, evolving, and shaped by life as it happens.

I’m following what’s in front of me and letting my real life define the content. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. This channel isn’t a box. It’s a conversation shaped by season, curiosity, and lived experience, and I’m letting it grow the way it wants to.

My creative explorations...

Artistic Works: @art.niadara

Offerings: Objet d’Art by ND

My artistic work explores identity, inner worlds, and the quiet threshold moments where choice, intuition, and becoming intersect. I’m drawn to what lives beneath the surface. The unspoken, the in between, the emotional architectures that shape who we are over time.

This practice takes shape through visual narratives, moving image, story based worlds, and tactile objects. I work intuitively across mediums, allowing atmosphere, symbolism, rhythm, and presence to carry meaning rather than explanation. The work is not meant to instruct. It is meant to be experienced.

Objet d’Art by ND emerged as a natural extension of this inquiry.

What began as visual exploration and narrative world building found its way into physical form through coloring and activity books. These pieces are small, playful portals into my creative universe. They are accessible artifacts of the same artistic current. An invitation to slow down, engage the hands, and reconnect with imagination through repetition, pattern, and play.

Much of this work is shared on my @art.niadara Instagram channel and is deeply influenced by my lifelong love of books, art, and making, as well as the creative energy of my family. Objet d’Art by ND is a space where curiosity is allowed to roam and where art can be both contemplative and joyful.

So there you have it, my life, a life in constant creative evolution. Next up for me is crafting and consciousness. Raising my vibration in the world with arts and crafts. Yup, I said it. You'll just have to stay tuned for that (maybe even join my newsletter🤷‍♀️). I'll end with this, whatever challenges you may face, remember the hero's journey, the lessons, and the victories that await. They're all meant for you. Meant for you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. I hope you continue to overcome the hurdles, seize opportunities, and pursue your dreams. Stride towards your next chapter driven by passion and purpose.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO FOLLOW ALONG MY JOURNEY, YOU CAN FIND LINKS TO MY SOCIALS, STUDIO, BOOKS, AND MORE HERE: LINK IN BIO. THANK YOU FOR STICKING AROUND TILL THE END AND GETTING TO KNOW MY ME. ~ ND

To my beloved little tribe. I orbit you like the Earth to the sun. Without your gravitational pull, I would wander aimlessly through life. Thank you for your love and support. I'm eternally grateful to share each day with you all! With all my 🥰 !