Meet TaWanda Anyiwo, a Licensed Practical Nurse for a little over 8 years who is now a Managed Care Coordinator/Case Manager for a Medicaid MCO (Managed Care Organization) in the ID/DD Department. TaWanda truly enjoys helping families/parents with finding and achieving access to resources that they didn’t know were there. Taking a mother that was once crying on the phone within the first conversation to have additional support for her child and they are excelling in school and the mother is now able to work with less stress and that is whay she enjoys what she does.
Recently TaWanda stepped out on faith, becoming an entrepreneur. This is something she had been wanting to do for over 4 years and this year she decided to stop waiting and do it leading to the establishing of The Loving Me Wellness & Spa in January of 2023. When she is not working or running her business she enjoys participating in pageants, volunteering and dancing. Community service is near and dear to her heart. To date she has recorded over 150 volunteer hours starting from January and will continue.
Her love of dance began in childhood. She stopped and restarted in adulthood and absolutely loves it. She just had a recital this past July. No, she doesn’t teach it but she does enjoy taking the classes. She has taken Ballet, Tap, Modern, Jazz, Hip Hop, and Dunham/Adult African.
TaWanda is a seasoned pageant queen beginning her journey back in 2018 with Miss Full Figured VA pageant winning the title of Miss Fashionista. She took a break for a few years and started again in 2021 and has been competing ever since. Pageantry has been a journey but one that she can say she needed, genuinely enjoyed, and love.
A dream delayed is most certainly not a dream denied. TaWanda has overcame many obstacles and has so much to celebrate. Becoming a nurse is one of her greatest accomplishments. She started the journey to being a nurse in high school and took until she was 32 years old for it to finally manifest. Whether is two letters or three, she is still a nurse.
Challenges come in our lives to make us or break us depending on your point of view. Some of TaWanda’s biggest challenges have been getting past situations that happened in her life and some that are still affecting me to date. Overcoming the need for outside validation, overcompensating, because I feel like I was not enough is a challenge in itself. As much as she tries not to allow those experiences to define her it still shaped the person she is and how she manages situations. Another noteworthy challenges she faces is the fact she desperately wants to be a mother, but PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) has made that difficult for her but she remains resilient and continues to press on.
In the midst of these challenges she has become the 2023/2024 Mrs. American Beauties Plus. Now she has the ability to use her title to bring more awareness to her personal platform which is Infertility awareness with an emphasis on PCOS. The emphasis is on PCOS because it is the leading cause of infertility among women. This allows her to have an even greater voice for those like her who have struggled in silence.
September is PCOS awareness Month. Here just some little known facts about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome:
1. It affect now 1 in 5 women.
2. You can still have regular menstruation and have PCOS
3. It can affect women of any size.
4. PCOS is more than just a hormonal disorder.
For more information about TaWanda please follow her journey on Facebook and IG at TaWanda Anyiwo (personal), and Mrs. American Beauties Plus (pageant). You can also email her at tawandaa@lovingmespa.com
