2025

Bios are overrated but here’s just a little about me:

hiii. I love the beach, running, reading, and good foods (especially seafood.)
Nigerian New Yorker who travels the world settling where her heart rests. 

Fav book: Rules of Civility
Fav show: Scenes from a Marriage
Fav movie: American Honey
Fav song: .... I have so many but I feel Florence + the Machine in my soul if I had to choose one artist to listen to while stuck at sea. Also an early Zach Bryan stan. I liked Blood Orange before Champagne Coast went viral and he became known to the masses. 
Fav meal: crab, chicken, and shrimp mixed with pasta, parmesan, and mozzarella. omgeeeee. mua
Fav thing to do: pretty much walk around and explore or hot springs/sauna/beachhhhhhh life/cozy movie nights and movie marathon/cycling/artsy girlie stuff/badminton/paddle boarding/running/yoga/road trips/random adventures/travel/anything high adrenaline/taking a random class to learn something...

I am sure you can tell by now, I am Gen Z. 

HoneydewMoo is about me. My thoughts and life through my lens.

It's not for everyone but I really appreciate those of you who appreciate my work. Especially my quotes, I really love seeing which ones you choose. They are emotional and your purchase makes me feel heard, like I found someone in the world to connect with on a mental level. Something to be cherished these days. 

Also hope you like the film and funny postcards too!

The biggest hug ever,

Kim or Kimmy or Kimberly

Substack: https://kimberlyocellastch.substack.com/

2026

I don't like putting my whole story out there. I used to be really secretive and use multiple different aliases. I would say I am still private, but I have a little YouTube channel, my public-facing business Instagram account, and a Substack. The audiences aren't really intertwined, so each gets a different version of me. Not by choice, but you can't really get the instant-gratification Instagram crowd to read long-form entries on Substack, so it seems!

I was born and raised in New York City. My grandparents have always lived in Canarsie. My mom and I first lived in Jamaica, Queens, off Merrick, then Hempstead, then Massapequa, then St. Albans. Finally, in Far Rockaway. First in the bungalows in the 30s, right off the ghetto. Then in the 90s, close to the white people but still not in the nice neighborhood.

Right before my 14th birthday, I went into the system. I went to the hospital one day and never went home. I became a ward of the court, bouncing from group home to RTC to RTF to group home. Most of the people I shuffled around with are dead, in jail, or just around.

I didn't want to go to a foster home because I could get access to the city's purse to pursue extracurricular activities and programs. Like photography classes at the International Center of Photography, summer classes at Harvard Summer School, and weekend classes at New York University Professional Studies. If I went to a home, I would be limited to what the family could afford. If I stayed home, I probably wouldn't have been able to do a lot of things too. Many people pity my childhood, but it didn't get rough for me, or at least, I didn't feel it, until I didn't have the crutch of the system anymore.

At 17 or 18, I signed myself out of the system and got an apartment with the help of the City. In Williamsburg. I only applied to Ivy League schools and didn't get into any of them. So about three months in, I sold all my camera gear, quit my job at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, and went to China for three months to be an au pair. Gave up the apartment but I lasted two weeks as an au pair. So I went to Thailand and switched my visa. Then worked as a teacher in China, backpacking Southeast Asian countries in between to reset my visa limit. I didn't want to return to the United States when I started to feel like I wore my welcome in China. 

I had Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and University of Michigan deferred. So I decided to apply for a visa in New Zealand. I stayed there for 11 months doing many things, most notably, working on a dairy farm, learning how to drive, coming of age, then Australia, working as a telemarketer.

I came back to the States because of the pandemic. Went to New York for a little while, then Providence to RISD because they were the only school that would still accept me. Dropped out mid-semester because I couldn't handle the workload while working to cover what my scholarship and financial aid didn't.

Did vanlife for a few years, making a living gambling SPY options. I traveled all around the States. I went overseas once, to Portugal. I lived in Mebane, NC; Rockwall, Georgetown, and Katy, Texas; Fort Collins, Colorado. The gambling stopped being reliable or I started losing more than I was winning. I faced street homelessness and car living. A brief stint in Seattle as a nanny for four months.

Then, notably, a long-term stint in Montana. Where I learned a little to fly a plane. Worked various blue-collar jobs such as a hot tub technician, landscaper, meter installer, errand girl for rich people's second homes. I was least ambitious and life was most simple in Montana. I was there 14 months.

After Montana, I did a coin toss mentally. Back to Seattle because it was 10 hours away. Or back to New York, the long, grueling 35-hour drive I've done many times before. I decided on Seattle because it was closer and I'd seen some free online nursing programs there. I went and got my CNA, but before starting work, after my clinicals, I decided to go backpacking through Latin America.

I actually just wanted a vacation. Two weeks in Mexico. But I came back from Mexico, swapped my Rimowa for my 70-liter, and resumed in Guatemala all the way down, country by country, bus by bus, with the exception of a flight over Panama for obvious reasons... finishing ultimately in Brazil, which I loved the most.

When I came back to Seattle, I wanted off the merry-go-round. I got an apartment. I got multiple jobs. I started to build a normal life. I built HoneydewMoo. That lasted for two years until life brought me back to New York City. Seattle was good for me and good to me.

By choice, I decided to go to the shelter when I came to NYC. The November prior, 2025, I started paying down 50k in debt. By the time I reached NYC, it was down to 22k, and now, in the month I am transitioning to my new apartment, it is down to 13k. A little over 13k.

When I arrived in NYC, guess who couldn't get an apartment or even a room with a low 500s credit score and no guarantor? This gal! I went to the shelter because I rather have some money in my account than NEED the shelter. And I was going through an intense heartbreak that unlocked a series of traumatized versions of me. Being in the shelter forced me to go out every day and no allow my demons to win. Someone died in my room, an overdose. We were placed in the room at the same time. She was a baby. We were both picked on, and she fought back, got beat up, and died separately shortly after.

It sucked to go from the little life I built in Seattle to being re-institutionalized again. It sucked to be a number again. It was strange having small wins with my business and going back to my assigned bed by 11pm curfew. 

Now I got the apartment. I am not fully moved in yet. I go back and forth until everything is finalized. As much as I wanted to get out of the shelter, I kind of enjoy being around other people.

I am now working on HoneydewMoo Social and HoneydewMoo Art Café.