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When Samira Francois and Alyssa Silva graduated from Boston College in 2020, they were navigating postgrad life during one of the most uncertain times imaginable for a college student: the height of the pandemic. Both first-generation graduates — Francois is Haitian American and Silva is Cape Verdean American — they spent their college years following the path their families believed were the safest: Francois in finance and Silva in pre-med. “We kind of felt lost,” Silva tells Her Campus. “We were always told to follow the traditional path. We were told what we should do to achieve success, the way that our parents felt was most safe.”
That “lost in our 20s” feeling ended up bringing them to an unexpected path. Between endless FaceTime calls about jobs, identity, and what it actually means to have it all together, the two realized their conversations could help young women like them who were feeling the same way. That idea became Baddie Besties, a weekly podcast where Francois and Silva talk about adulting, life after being laid off (from personal experience — they were both laid off within a week of each other), relationships, career advice, and everything in between.
Most recently, the duo took their message on the road as hosts for the Her Conference Butterfly Tour, a spin on Her Campus’s annual conference that brought panels, workshops, and opportunities directly to college campuses. “The Butterfly Tour really resonates with us because it’s about being your authentic self and owning who you are,” Francois says. “We were once in those shoes when we were in college — lost, trying to figure it out, and finding our purpose.” Most recently, the pair spoke with Love Island USA season seven finalist Olandria Carthan during the tour’s stop at Texas A&M University on Oct. 6 — an experience they described on Instagram as “two first-gen girlies living out their dreams.”
When you think about it, they’re living out dreams they didn’t even know were possible when they were in college. Here’s how they got here — and where they’re going next.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
How did the idea for Baddie Besties first come about, and what made you two say, “Let’s actually do this?”
AS: We really weren’t sure exactly how to build this dream that we had. So we ended up creating Baddie Besties as a platform, initially for us to share our stories. We’re constantly on FaceTime, trying to figure out life together, and we were like, “We should record these so girls can listen in.” That’s how it started out. During this time, we also ended up starting a series called “Hey, Barbie”.
SF: We created this series to honor Barbies, but also to show other girls that there’s not a linear path to success. We’re working on getting an astronaut on the show right now. How do you even become an astronaut? How do you even start? We weren’t taught these things, but we know there are other women doing it and being successful. It was initially a place for two first-gen girls figuring it out — now it’s a podcast turned community, turned giving back to the community.
After you were both laid off from the corporate world, what did it feel like to walk away from a traditional career path and create something of your own instead?
SF: We both worked in corporate, but it was always a means to an end. We both knew that the traditional path wasn’t for us. And I think that’s what we bonded on, and that’s why we created this podcast.
AS: We’ve always had that intuitive knowledge and that feeling. That makes it a little less scary in the sense that we know we weren’t going to be in corporate the rest of our lives, and it just was not going to happen for either of us, one way, shape, or form, together or not together. I don’t think we felt necessarily scared to take on what eventually was going to lead into something. We didn’t know exactly what that was. And still, I think we’re still seeing it unravel.
Friendship and business can be tricky to balance. How do you keep your bond strong while also running a growing brand together?
AS: It’s like if you get married to somebody — you’re not supposed to just throw your marriage away. I’m not married yet, but that’s how I see it. It’s kind of the same thing with business. This is our baby. We’re not going to abandon our baby.
SF: Also, we’re doing a lot of firsts together. We’re having these wild moments and we’re having these low moments. Again, we’re not going to abandon the baby; this is our baby. Sometimes someone will say our baby’s not ready yet or it’s ugly. We’re experiencing those lows together.
How does hosting the Butterfly Tour compare to your day-to-day of podcasting?
AS: It feels almost the same for us. Whenever we’re behind a mic, it still feels like we have a crowd there, because we have to bring the energy for our listeners anyway. I bring the same energy on the stage regardless of who the audience is. We also have our chemistry together, so no matter where we go, whether we’re even being filmed or not, you’re still getting the same Alyssa and Samira.
What advice would you give to other twentysomethings who might feel lost and uncertain, but want to carve their own path?
SF: My advice would be to feel the fear, do it anyways, and to have the audacity to do it. God has made you beautifully and fiercely you. There’s no replica of you. There’s only one of you on this planet, so feel confident in you and what you have to give to the world.
AS: I would tell them to ground themselves and to try to find that sense of direction from whatever they believe in — whether it’s the universe, whether it’s God. I deeply believe in the breadcrumbs being laid out for you to follow, and it’s normal to be in college and to feel lost. It’s almost a rite of passage to at some point. You don’t really know what you’re doing or you’re trying to figure out what’s next. Maybe your mom is telling you something, your advisor is telling you something else, or your friends are doing something else. There’s a lot of noise in that. My advice would be to find a way to quiet that noise and to hear what your soul is telling you. Drive the car with the light that you see in front of you. And if you can’t see beyond that, it’s fine — as long as you can see just a little bit. Do the next step, and the next step after that, and the next step after that. Just trust that you will be led to where you need to end up.
English (US) ·