NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 17: Lori Harvey out and about on November 17, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)
Lori Harvey is a name that stays in the spotlight. And despite her success as a model or her budding entrepreneurship, the conversations are almost exclusively about her latest dating conquest.
The 25-year-old is largely private, as she tells Essence, but over the years, her roster, from Future to Michael B. Jordan and a rumored romance with Damson Idris, is what the innanet loves chatting about.
But Harvey lets it roll off her back–keeping in mind what her mother, Marjorie Harvey, tells her, “For those who know and love you, no answer is needed. But for those who don’t, no answer will do.”
Her first Essence cover is for the ‘Black Love’ issue, but she’s on set by herself–no Hollywood hottie or music icon in tow. And she’s cool with it.
“I feel like it’s always been about me attached to someone,” Harvey said. “This time, it’s about me. Self-love, self-care, self-reflection. I’m being a little selfish right now. It’s my time.”
Her statement is giving single–but again–that’s not the focus of her cover feature. She’s centered on living life her way, regardless of how others attempt to devalue her based on that.
“I think a lot of times, people are projecting,” Harvey said. She added that the people who typically devalue her based on her dating life are men. She said, “…it’s because they know that they can’t meet you at your standards. Which is okay, too. Everything ain’t for everybody.”
Moreover, Lori’s mannerisms are hardly different from what standard dating should be, which is.”keep going until you find your fit.” The difference is Harvey’s choices are in the public eye–paparazzi flashes, trending topics, and gossip headlines included.
“But what I would love for people to know is that I am a young woman just trying to figure it out–but I’m trying to figure it out in the public eye. That magnifies everything. It magnifies your mistakes,” Lori said. “It magnifies the ups and downs of just navigating your life and figuring it out for yourself.”
One thing to note is that despite the critics–and relationships that ran their course–she feels no shame.
“Every decision that I have made has got me to the place that I’m at in my life, as a woman–and that mindset that I’m in, and the growth that I’ve made, and this level of clarity and maturity,” Lori said. “So I don’t think I would say I regret anything.”
And the young star is, as Essence’s writer Tre’vell Anderson puts it, “solidly in her bad b*tch era.”
“It’s not about being arrogant or about feeling like I’m too good, or too this or too that,” Harvey said. “I know my worth, and I know my value. I’m not going to compromise that or settle or accept anything less than what I know I deserve.”
She is putting herself first and encouraging others to do the same. In her words, “put yourself on the highest pedestal, and don’t ever come down.”
And now that we’ve got that out of the way. Let’s remember, Harvey is more than the men she’s graced with her affections. Before becoming an IT girl in the industry, she dreamed of going to the Olympics as a competitive horse rider. So, as a teen, she trained for it. Then, at 18, she suffered injuries to her back and MCL in a riding incident, per Essence.
Unable to continue riding competitively, she took her talents to the fashion and modeling industry. And that’s where Lori Harvey–today’s version–began to thrive and take center stage.
These days Harvey is still modeling and signed with IMG Models and talent agency WME. She is also a businesswoman with the 2021 launch of her skincare line SKN by LH, which she told Essence she was proud to fund 100 percent herself.
Though she says it would’ve been “easy” to have her parents plug her and set up the company while she slapped her name on the label, she much preferred the gritty grind of building it on her own.
“That has arguably been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, but also one of the most rewarding and fulfilling,” Lori told Essence. Adding, “This is the first thing that I’ve really been able to call my own, that I built from the ground up…I wanted to be very hands-on with everything I was doing, and I wanted to make the mistakes so that I could learn from them and really know how to be a businesswoman at the end of the day.”
And while she juggles her career and growing pains in the spotlight, Harvey is steadfast that she’ll continue standing on what she deserves.
“That’s where I’m at in my life right now. I’m not compromising my peace and happiness for anything or anybody. And so if I see any signs of that happening, I’m like, “Got to go.”
Tuh, we know that’s right Lori!
