If one thing is true about Centric TV’s “From the Bottom Up” break-out star Kimberly Smedley, it’s she’s a certified hustler.
Driven by an innate entrepreneurial spirit, the Georgia peach affectionately known as Madam, maintained herself for more than 20 years through an array of street business ventures until she found herself face-to-face with a prison sentence for illegally enhancing customers with silicon butt injections in 2012.
After being sentenced to prison for 3 years in federal business, Smedley candidly opens up about her experience during the ordeal and how she’s rebuilding her life alongside her co-stars on the reality series.
“It was very important to me to let people know that I’m someone who made a mistake, but I’m still human and I’ve paid my debt to society… I felt like I needed to tell my side of story because when I was going through the situation, the media portrayed me a horrible person who had done something so bad. And while I was in midst I was not able to talk because my attorney advised against it,” Smedley explains.
But if you’re expecting Smedley to be a full on diva accompanied with glitz and glam, you’re in for a surprise. Instead she asserts the fame of reality television hasn’t changed much for her. She still drives her 2008 vehicle and lives in a 2-bedroom apartment.
“I’m a regular person. I’m a down-to-earth person. I’m the type of person who so doesn’t like to be called a reality TV star. I still want to be able to walk the streets and see the people and talk to the people,” she said.
Though she made millions from the injections, Smedley says if she had to do it all over again, she would’ve opted out of partaking in the underground industry, and receiving injections herself, claiming the time spent away from her family and friends wasn’t worth it, “I feel like I put my family through a lot.”
Throughout the entire ordeal, humility has been a constant theme, which she shares and more in her new book, “The Backside of the Story.”
Written while in prison, Smedley’s book details her triumphant story of failure, success and self-love, which she hopes will integrate more self-care and positive self-image in the lives of women.
“What I took from this whole experience is that I have the energy to manifest anything in my life that I want…I want people to know that this was a woman that was told all her life would never change. I want people to know even against all odds that I beat all the odds and I did everything that I said I was going to do.”
To learn more about Smedley, visit her website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
