Finding the Story: How Je’Don Holloway-Talley Turned Her Lifelong Love of Writing into a Life of Purpose

By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times

Long before she became an award-winning journalist, before she penned nationally recognized screenplays or chronicled Birmingham’s most compelling stories, Je’Don Holloway-Talley was a little girl in Southern California who simply couldn’t stop writing.

While her classmates wrote a few sentences during journal time, Je’Don filled pages. When the school day ended, she pulled her notebook back out to complete stories she couldn’t bear to leave unfinished. To her, writing wasn’t an assignment — it was joy.

Her third-grade teacher, Pam Boyer, noticed.

One day, she placed a young Je’Don’s journal beside another student’s, covering the names, and pointed to the difference.

“This,” she told her young student, “Is how much everyone else is writing.”

Je’Don’s stories stretched page after page.

“I just know I’m going to see your name in lights one day,” Boyer told her. “You’re going to write movies. You’re going to be a journalist.”

At the time, little Je’Don was puzzled by the prediction.

“I didn’t even realize movies had to be written first,” she said with a laugh.

More than three decades later, that childhood prophecy has become reality.

Today, Holloway-Talley is known throughout Birmingham as an award-winning journalist, communications strategist, public relations professional, speaker, coach, entrepreneur and, most recently, an acclaimed screenwriter whose feature film Funny Feelings premiered at the American Black Film Festival and earned four nominations, including one recognizing her work as a screenwriter.

Yet despite the accolades, she insists her journey has never been about chasing titles.

“I just wake up and walk the path,” she said. “To God be the glory on all of it.”

A Different Road

Although many know Holloway-Talley as a Birmingham journalist, her story begins nearly 2,000 miles away.

Born and raised in Inglewood, California, she attended Inglewood High School before life redirected her path.

Her family relocated to Birmingham while she was still in school, but because her credits would not transfer, she returned to California to graduate with the Class of 2003. Shortly afterward, she came back to Alabama — not to pursue college or begin a career, but because her family needed her.

The second oldest of seven children and the oldest daughter, Holloway-Talley was raised primarily by her grandmother, affectionately called “Gama,” and her great-aunt, “Nana.”

When her grandmother’s health began to decline, the responsibility of helping raise her younger sisters fell to her.

“I came home and helped raise my little sisters,” she said. “At the time, there were three under me, and I was playing mom.”

Those responsibilities delayed many of the experiences she imagined for herself, but they also shaped the woman she would become.

“My story is complex,” she admitted.

It is also rooted in grace.

Holloway-Talley explained that while she and her siblings were raised by their grandmother and great aunt because their mother dealt with her own struggles, theirs was not a story of abandonment. Their mother remained present in their lives, and Holloway-Talley speaks about their mother with deep respect. Rather than bitterness, she carries gratitude for the women who raised her and admiration for the mother who rebuilt her life.

Journalism Found Her Early

Writing had always been part of who she was.

By fifth grade, another teacher introduced her to television news by requiring the class to watch the evening broadcast and summarize three stories using the classic journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why and how.

A young Je’Don loved every minute of it.

On Fridays, students delivered their reports on camera using a bulky camcorder.

“I ate that assignment up,” she recalled.

By middle school, she was designing magazines from scratch.

For one seventh-grade English assignment, students created a publication complete with advertisements, interviews and layouts. While most of her classmates dreaded the project, she embraced it.

Her great-aunt drove her to Kinko’s every day for nearly a week so she could use the computers to typeset her magazine.

The finished publication became the model that teachers showed future classes.

Even then, storytelling wasn’t simply something she enjoyed — it was how she saw the world.

Church further nurtured that gift.

She wrote speeches, welcome addresses and articles for a youth newsletter, discovering that words could inspire community just as much as they informed it.

Room to Dream Again

When life finally allowed her room to dream again, Holloway-Talley enrolled at Lawson State Community College, where she entered the television production program.

There, she learned scriptwriting, editing, production, location scouting and filmmaking fundamentals.

Although she left just a few credits shy of completing the certificate program, those lessons would quietly prepare her for opportunities decades later.

She also became active in Birmingham’s spoken-word community, performing poetry throughout the city while continuing to write.

Still, traditional journalism seemed out of reach.

Without a journalism degree, she believed newsroom doors were closed.

But following the death of her beloved Nana in 2014, Holloway-Talley felt an urgent need to pursue the creative passions she had put on hold while raising a family and working in retail management.

So she launched a blog.

Initially unsure of what she wanted it to become, Holloway-Talley found clarity in an unexpected place — a gas station.

Standing in line with her young son, she met a man whose face had been permanently disfigured after his mother fed him hydrochloric acid as an infant to collect insurance money.

Instead of turning away, Je’Don listened.

Then she asked if she could tell his story.

Driving home, everything clicked.

“I want to talk about life,” she remembered thinking. “I want to talk about culture. I want to talk about people.”

Life. Culture. People. The title became the name of her blog — and eventually a digital publication celebrating Black stories and perspectives.

“I wanted stories that touched people on a human level.”

Betting on Herself

Through Birmingham’s growing blogging community, Holloway-Talley immersed herself in conferences, workshops and networking opportunities.

One conversation changed everything.

After explaining her dream of creating a publication centered on Black experiences, another creative granted her permission she hadn’t realized she needed.

“You can have a Black publication,” the woman told her. “Nothing anybody creates is for everybody.”

The advice freed Holloway-Talley to build the platform she envisioned.

She recruited writers covering travel, fitness and culture while she focused on deeply reported features exploring humanity.

Then, in 2016, another opportunity appeared.

A post circulated seeking someone to write what was described as “the definitive Beyoncé piece” following the release of Lemonade.

Holloway-Talley submitted her work.

It landed on the desk of veteran editor Barnett Wright of the Birmingham Times.

“He told me I was raw talent,” she said.

When she apologized for not having a journalism degree, Wright dismissed the concern.

“‘That doesn’t matter,'” she recalled him saying. “‘I’ll train you.'”

He compared their future partnership to Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.

“We’re going to make hit after hit.”

That’s exactly what happened.

Wright taught her how to report rather than simply comment, how to let interviews shape stories, how to seek out expert voices and allow facts — not opinions — to guide readers.

“It became an art form,” Holloway-Talley said.

Under his mentorship, she flourished.

She eventually created what she called the newspaper’s “millennial beat,” profiling young entrepreneurs, creatives and changemakers reshaping Birmingham.

She also inherited the beloved “You Had Me at Hello” column, originally created by Chanda Temple, documenting Black love stories throughout the city.

Along the way, her work appeared in multiple regional publications, while her reporting earned statewide recognition.

In 2020, the Alabama Press Association honored her with first place for Best News Feature for a series chronicling the stories of Birmingham women who survived childhood sexual assault.

From Newsprint to the Big Screen

For Holloway-Talley, journalism was never the destination. It was preparation.

She often describes having what she calls “movie dreams” — vivid stories unfolding while she sleeps.

One dream in 2024 refused to leave her.

She woke up and began outlining what would become her first feature-length screenplay.

Initially, she intended only to sell the concept to longtime client, Ron Brown of Pivot Motion Pictures.

Instead, Brown encouraged Holloway-Talley to write it herself.

That script eventually led to the opportunity to help with what would become Funny Feelings.

Through multiple outlines, rewrites and collaborative script sessions, Holloway-Talley refined the screenplay until it became the version audiences would eventually see.

The film premiered at the American Black Film Festival, earning four nominations, including recognition for her screenwriting and will now screen at Essence Film Festival on 4^th of July weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana.

For someone who was once told she lacked the credentials for journalism, the moment felt almost surreal.

Yet even as career milestones accumulated, life delivered unimaginable heartbreak.

Holding Joy and Grief Together

In February, Holloway-Talley’s younger sister, Jayce, died unexpectedly at 26 from a pulmonary embolism.

The loss came just months before one of the biggest professional moments of her career.

“It has made it hard to feel,” she admitted quietly.

Work became both refuge and distraction.

Between journalism, public relations, speaking, coaching and family responsibilities, she rarely stopped long enough to process her grief.

Yet even in mourning, her family leaned into the humor that has long sustained them.

They laughed together through tears because, as Holloway-Talley says, that’s simply who they are.

One day, she hopes to tell their story in a dramedy titled Seven — a tribute to the seven siblings whose shared experiences shaped each of them differently but forever bound them together.

“It’s about how we trauma bond and find laughter in the darkest times.”

Walking the Path

Though Holloway-Talley never forgets where she started, she proudly represents Birmingham.

She credits the Magic City with giving her something Los Angeles never could: room to grow.

“Birmingham is where I became a woman,” she said. “It’s where I spread my wings.”

She believes the city’s smaller creative community allowed relationships to flourish and opportunities to connect in ways larger markets often cannot.

Looking back, she no longer sees detours. Helping raise her sisters. Retail jobs. Blogging. Public relations. Journalism. Screenwriting. Each chapter prepared her for the next.

Her career has never followed a straight line. Instead, it has unfolded like one of the stories she loved writing as a child — full of unexpected turns, deeply human characters and moments that only make sense once the ending begins to reveal itself.

Perhaps that’s why Holloway-Talley remains grounded despite every accomplishment.

She still speaks less about awards than purpose.

Less about success than obedience.

She doesn’t claim to have orchestrated her journey.

“I used to make plans,” she said. “Then I realized I’m just doing whatever God wants me to do.”

For the little girl who once stayed after journal time to finish one more page, the story was always there. She simply had to keep writing until she found it.