02x07 - Death Is In Your Stars

[bunniefuu]

[ominous chord strikes]

Hey, boo!

[Sharonda] Danielle established
MysticxLipstick as one

of the top brands in astrology
on Twitter.

[Twitter notification]

[Danielle] See that light
growing larger and larger.

She started getting a lot more
mainstream attention.

And that's when she created
a witch's coven.

So, let's start class.

But the larger
your following gets...

The haters, they're gonna
come for you.

Her magic starts to really
take a turn toward

the darker side.

[ominous tones building up]

She believed there was
something after her.

[Danielle]
Just imagine someone knowing
exactly how to destroy you.

When you think everyone is out
to get you,

that's when the devil
gets busy.

[theme music playing]

Don't be afraid to take
control of your life.

It's your book.
It's your destiny.

Own it.

[Sharonda]
Danielle's Twitter handle was
@MysticxLipstick.

She wanted to express
her glamorous side,

and she thought MysticxLipstick
had a really good ring to it.

In 2014,
the MysticxLipstick persona

really starts to take off.

This is around the time
astrology really started to

blow up on the internet.

Prior to that, astrology had
been seen as this niche thing.

People would look at
their horoscopes in the paper

or women's magazines.

But with the rise of
social media, there was this

major proliferation of online
astrologers that started

becoming really popular.

Hi, it's your astro bestie.

If you're a Libra,
Taurus, Leo, or Pisces,

this definitely applies to you.

The most intuitive sign
is... Aries.

So there was a huge
built-in audience

for Danielle's content.

Danielle really stood out
because of how

engaging she was.

[Danielle]
I hate when people take
themselves too seriously.

It's like, "Boy, bye."

A lot of astrologers sometimes
inadvertently can become snobs,

but that was never true
for Danielle.

She was conversational.

She would engage her audience.

[Danielle]
I have fun on my Twitter.
Like, I holler all day.

[EJ] She was unfiltered.

She was funny.

People really resonated
with it.

[Danielle]
My authenticity is what really
helped draw that crowd.

[Samuel]
A phrase became associated
with her being,

"read for filth."

When someone says, "Well,
read me for filth,"

what that means is read you to
the point where you expose

their darkest secrets.

She would do that for all
the different signs.

She drags the hell out
of Taurus.

'Cause they sensitive
little sh*t.

[Simoneau]
She was very direct.

It's good because it filters
through all of the BS.

"Leos probably love themselves
more than anyone else could."

My father's a Leo.

I have Leos in my family,
and, um, yeah.

[Samuel] Danielle really became
your homegirl from around

the way who could talk
about astrology

and make it lively and fun.

Drag Libras?

I don't feel like
dragging myself.

I've already been through
enough today.

[Sharonda]
Danielle very quickly
established MysticxLipstick as

one of the top brands
in astrology on Twitter.

She blew up.

She very quickly eclipsed

[Sharonda]
She loved making people feel
good about who they were.

So she wanted to know about
every aspect of healing

and spirituality that she could
get her hands on,

and I think, initially,
in an effort to help heal me.

I raised Danielle as
a single mom.

I was 17 years old.

Danielle's father was not in
the picture at all.

Even though it was hard,
she was joyous and happy.

Danielle is five years older
than me.

She was my older sister.

And we didn't have
the same father.

Growing up, I actually looked
up to her 'cause she was so

different and cool, unique.
Everyone kind of loved her.

[Sharonda] During my childhood,
I didn't get hugs.

No one said, "I love you."
So I wanted to do

everything different.

I wanted to love.
I wanted to kiss.

I wanted to hug.
I wanted to tell her

how amazing she was.

But things got difficult
for me.

I started smoking weed a lot.

It was my coping mechanism.

But I was slipping further into
harder drugs, and that was just

something that I didn't want
her to see.

I was on the phone talking to
my brother, who lives in

Virginia, and he just kind of
offhandedly, like, said,

"Send them to me."

[Corinne] We were both so young.

We're wondering, like,
"Why am I not seeing my mom?"

So it was definitely a difficult
period of time for us.

[Sharonda] From my standpoint,
I was taking Danielle

and putting her someplace safe.

But from her standpoint,
I would rather do drugs than

be her mom.

I was abandoning her.

She held on to a lot of that
pain, afraid that I would

hurt her again.

So I waited for her to let me
back in.

And she let me,

eventually.

She started creating
her healing audios.

They really helped me focus on
the pain I was holding onto.

[Danielle]
See yourself walking down
a hallway until you see a door.

Open the door

and see your inner child

that's waiting to be healed.

Say to your inner child,

"I love you so much.

You're safe now."

[Sharonda]
Danielle became this beacon of
light in my life,

guiding me to not
get high anymore.

And our relationship evolved
into this

new thing that we had never had
between the two of us,

and it was beautiful.

[EJ] This became a revelatory
moment for Danielle,

that she had this gift that
she could help people.

It's also around this time that
Danielle meets

her husband, Cecil.

[Sharonda]
I got to witness her falling
in love with him.

She was just like,
"When I'm not with him,

I wanna be with him.

When I'm with him,
I don't wanna leave him."

He was the first boy

that she actually let me
talk to.

They got married
pretty quickly.

And she moved to Ohio, where
her husband's parents lived.

And then she got pregnant.

And it was just kind of
like, "Whoa.

How am I gonna do this?"

[Corinne]
She had to learn as she went,

trying to raise
her own daughter.

So she became very
spiritually connected.

[Sharonda] She did her research
on astrology,

deeper into the field.

She started looking up
her own birth chart.

[Samuel]
Your birth chart really is
a snapshot of the heavens

when you were born.

That snapshot would reveal how
those planets are interacting

in a correlation to how
it might manifest in your life.

[Sharonda]
She wanted to do something

that spoke to where
her mind was.

[EJ] Danielle started making
content on social media,

using astrology to help inform
how she parents.

By the end of 2016,

Danielle started getting
a lot more

mainstream attention.

But with attention,
obviously, comes controversy.

[Sharonda]
Danielle started getting

criticism from accounts
on Twitter.

Astrologers being like,
"Who is this person?

Why is she speaking
with such authority?"

Getting territorial.

Asking each other, how does
she get so many followers

so quickly?
-Watch who you follow.

There are so many scammers on
this TikTok and Twitter that

don't know what the [bleep]
they're talking about.

[Sharonda]
The larger your following gets,

the haters, they're gonna
come for you.

When y'all [bleep] attack me
on [bleep] Twitter?

I don't think so.

[Sharonda] And so she got into
protection magic,

protecting her brand,
protecting her Twitter account.

This particular spell is
entitled, "k*ll a b*tch Career."

And it has jagged lines made
into a face

with eyes and a mouth.

This is the kind of magic

that gets you in trouble.