With no-contract phones and plans, Straight Talk Wireless

empowers customers to live life on their own terms. This is the second episode in a three-part series on trailblazers who live life on their own terms every day.

When Rachel Lindsay was working as a lawyer in Dallas, Texas, becoming a reality TV star was not in her five-year plan. “You know when people used to ask me, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years? What’s your goal, in ten years?’ I used to be able to answer that question, probably cause I was living under a contract. I had a set plan,” Lindsay reflects. That plan changed when her coworkers encouraged Lindsay to attend the auditions for The Bachelor that were happening down the street from their firm.

“I remember laughing and my first thought was, why would I ever go on this show? And then the second thing I thought was, everybody knows Black people don’t go far on the show,” Lindsay recalls. “And they said, ‘No, Rachel, if you do this show, you’ll go far.’” The show’s producers agreed, and invited Lindsay to join the show’s 21st season.

“It was an amazing experience,” she says of her time on the show, “It taught me so much about myself and about what I wanted for myself.”

After becoming a fan favorite as a cast member, Lindsay initially declined the invitation to become the franchise’s first Black Bachelorette. “This was off the beaten path. [My parents] didn’t send their daughter to law school to become a reality TV star,” says Lindsay. But one conversation helped change her mind. “I was actually having a conversation with someone, a mother, and she was like, ‘I’m so happy that someone like you is on the show. My young daughter, who’s a fan of the show, can watch this and be inspired and see someone who looks like her.’”

It was then that Lindsay began to understand the power her voice could bring to the show. “I just thought, this is bigger than me. And I have an opportunity to represent myself, as a Black woman, to an audience who hasn’t seen someone who looks like me in this role. I could possibly be a trailblazer and pave the way for so many other people to have this opportunity, to get this chance, to have their fairy tale ending,” she says.

Not only did Lindsay find her fairy tale ending with her now-husband Bryan Abasolo, she has now also expanded her platform with Higher Learning, the podcast about Black culture, politics, and sports that she co-hosts with media personality Van Lathan. “When May [2020] hit and I was watching what was happening to our country in regards to how it was affecting the Black community, I was in a state of depression,” Lindsay remembers. “I really only left my house to protest and then come back. And it was the podcast actually that lifted me out of it because I had an outlet to express what I was feeling. And then I realized other people needed that too.”

For Lindsay, living life on her own terms isn’t just about taking chances and forging her own path, it’s also about uplifting her community. “I want to do the things that make a difference. I want to continue to represent Black women. I want to continue to represent women. I want to continue to represent the Black community. I want to continue to represent myself. I live life on my own terms by doing what I want to do.”