From SNICK to Self-Discovery: Natanya Ross on The Secret World of Alex Mack and Life After Nickelodeon

She is a superwoman fighter who offers again within the kindest approach doable. Who is that this former Nickelodeon teen actress? Take a look at my highly effective interview with Natanya Ross, finest recognized for her function as Robin Russo on The Secret World of Alex Mack. We talk about kindness, the turning level that led to self-growth and a brand new chapter, and the enjoyable legacy the hit Nineteen Nineties present leaves behind on this thrilling interview.

Once I requested Natanya what the present represents to her now as an grownup, she shared, “The Secret World of Alex Mack represents nostalgia at this level, you understand? I feel it was, like, a household present that the household type of watched on SNICK collectively. I feel it brings individuals again to a very particular place. And Robin Russo, I imply, so far as my character goes, she was so particular. She was the primary character on Nickelodeon that was darkish and edgy and goth and emo — all of these issues — and he or she was only a very particular individual. And yeah, so I maintain her very expensive to me nonetheless.”

Ross displays fondly on her time with the Nickelodeon household and the lifelong connection together with her fellow castmates. She says one particular aspect was “the household you create if you’re in a present like that for thus lengthy. That’s undoubtedly essentially the most particular half.”

Natanya additionally shared unique, thrilling life particulars about her tv star mates who proceed to encourage her immediately. “Effectively, my boyfriend is Nate Richert, so there’s one for you. After which, yeah, a few of my finest mates are massive ’90s stars — Marty York from The Sandlot and Danielle Fishel from Boy Meets World, in fact, Marla Sokoloff, and Larisa Oleynik. There’s actually quite a bit, you understand? So positive. Effectively, simply preserve it there.”

Ross and I shared a perception within the significance of kindness, notably on the subject of the messages younger individuals see in media and tv. Though well-known for enjoying Grace within the 1995 movie The Child-Sitters Membership, Natanya emphasised that “there’s nothing cooler than being sort.” She laughed, including, “I ought to trademark that at this level! I imply, nothing’s cooler than being sort, you understand? I feel, as a society, we’ve actually forgotten about empathy — it’s very unhappy.” Along with her signature humor, she joked, “I’d inform these bitches, ‘Shut the fuck up. Don’t you have got one thing higher to do? I’ll offer you one thing higher to do…’”

Natanya has been open on social media and publicly about her previous struggles with sobriety. At one level, she was a younger actress on a household present who was instantly homeless. She shared, “Within the peak of my habit, there have been years the place I lived in a automobile or I used to be homeless, and I by no means forgot that — ever. And as quickly as I used to be capable of, I knew I needed to present again in essentially the most important approach that I might. In order that’s how that concept sprang up.”

After in search of therapy, she turned her experiences right into a constructive mission by educating by means of instance to others — in service to the psychological well being business. “So I based the nonprofit group San Fernando Valley Feed the Homeless. Technically, we’re nonetheless going. I used to be very lively at Hope of the Valley, and we had been capable of increase sufficient funds to get three unhoused individuals off the road and into the shelter of a tiny house, which is unbelievable. And at present, I’m the president of the nonprofit group W.A.A.T. — and it stands for the Ladies’s Affiliation of Dependancy Remedy.”

It was very highly effective to listen to the actress speak about her expertise and the way she felt a calling to assist others by first serving to herself heal from a troublesome course of. She shared, “You recognize, restoration will not be a straight line. It takes kind in many various shapes. I really feel like I’ve been in restoration my complete life — properly, as an grownup — in a technique or one other, actually, with type of breaks in between, like, utilizing the substances.” She additionally opened up about her sobriety: “However, you understand, I haven’t had a drink in 17 years, and I haven’t performed medication in 15 years.”

She additionally mentioned how the psychological well being and repair industries have helped her maintain accountability for her restoration, additional explaining, “I maintain that very close to and expensive to me, and I credit score all of it to being of service. It’s the actually, actually easy considered, ‘The extra I take into consideration you, the much less I take into consideration me.’ In some way that has been a saving grace for me, and sooner or later at a time, I’ve managed to remain in restoration. I type of do it my approach, however that’s what’s labored, proper? Like, I’m the one who has to do it.”

Once I requested Natanya about her work as a model ambassador for Lynk Diagnostics, she eagerly responded, “It’s a toxicology lab that may take a look at for various substances in our purchasers within the totally different therapy services — what they’ve of their system. And it may very well be something from marijuana to the designer medication which can be on the market now.”

As for what comes subsequent for Natanya Ross, she notably shared, “We’re opening a therapy facility as properly.”

Thanks, Natanya Ross, for opening as much as our readers at Social Life-style Journal about such a poignant subject that impacts so many people and their households. If you happen to or somebody you understand is combating habit, please search skilled assist. By tales like Ms. Ross’s, we at Social Life-style Journal hope to assist cut back stigma and encourage understanding.

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