IVY MAE ANDERSON, a New Zealand-born, Australia-raised model and actress, rose to fame through early talent discovery and international modeling success. Known for roles like Amelia in Netflix’s To The Beat! Back 2 School, she’s also a travel-focused influencer and mental health advocate. Trained in acting, she now mentors young women, promotes authenticity, and challenges societal expectations. Ivy is currently writing a book on anxiety and pursuing neuroscience coaching to further empower and inspire others.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Ivy Mae Anderson was raised in Australia. Ivy entered a state-wide talent search contest where she was initially discovered at the age of six. The model-turned-actress experienced international recognition as her modeling and cheerleading work began to overlap, bringing with it a variety of opportunities for career and creative growth. Working with brands like Rebel Athletic and Tourism Australia, she also has previously walked at New York fashion week. Working on Netflix’s 2020 show To The Beat! Back 2 School, she experienced her first acting role as Amelia. Ivy is well known across social channels as a travel-focused internet personality (@ivymaemae). Her young and expansive career is backed by training with Australia’s prestigious NIDA and Marnie Cooper School of Acting. Lately, Ivy has honed her focus on travel, where she shares cultural insights and perspectives when visiting popular international destinations. Some of her most palpable work centers around her efforts to inspire young women to grow into their confidence, pushing for more substantial and ongoing ways to manage anxiety. She also is working on her first book which aims to tackle this very topic, hoping to influence the next generation of young women to be braver, stronger, and more self-assured. In addition, she is currently working on her international qualification as a neuroscience coach with the ICAHP & IPHM—organizations focused on holistic health.
Ivy in the Emirates and Türkiye, working in collaboration with the Shanghai La hotel chain and Go Türkiye tourism. PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MORETTI & DUBAIIEYE
Social media can be a very difficult space to navigate for aspiring women and their peers. Ivy offers a unique perspective as someone who not only has a large presence online, but utilizes it to expand her career prospects, which just so happen to focus on uplifting other women. As many young women with large platforms online tend to experience, Ivy can be misinterpreted and underestimated due to her occupation. When reflecting on this phenomenon she says, “What pushes me to be better, the most, is being underestimated—the opportunity to surprise others with my knowledge and experience.” Expanding on this she adds, “Because of my early success in social media I am quite often stereotyped and I enjoy that I can prove these assumptions wrong.” Based on her life of international travel and awe-striking modeling opportunities many may not realize that Ivy came from “humble beginnings.” Ivy says, “I’m not from a wealthy family, but I was dedicated at a young age to succeed in what interested me, which was modeling and acting.” She continues, “The success in my career has afforded me the opportunities to work and relate to many remarkable women from all ages and walks of life.” These relationships not only offered invaluable insights into the different lived experiences of other women, but allowed her to effectively learn how to support her peers and seek guidance from those who inspire her.
As women we are always in a state of constant perception. Whether you venture into your city and meet people in real life, or expand your communities online, there will rarely be moments of being able to merely exist. Especially with the advancements of social media, it is increasingly harder to avoid the infringement of society’s proclivity for restraining women and their sense of selfworth. From a very young age, external beauty is taught as an invaluable characteristic, above intelligence or innovation. The aspiring women of ELYSIAN’s tomorrow routinely prove that they can exist between realities. Achievements and success continually arrive to them and their individual practices. Embodying grace and quick wit, there is something to be said about being able to turn false perceptions on their head. “A lot of people say they stand for something but rarely do they take action. What I admire about Karen is that she uses her platform to spread positive messages of hope and courage which uplifts not only women but everyone around her.”
When it comes to community and building meaningful relationships, Ivy shares that her greatest inspiration comes from witnessing transformation. “It’s is an invaluable skill, rising a level above give-and-take affiliations,” she says. “I f ind joy in helping others overcome obstacles.” Navigating connections from a position of authenticity creates avenues of opportunity. The energy you put into the community and mentor-style connections, comes back tenfold. The inclination to hold opportunities to oneself, in Ivy’s words, is “a common problem, it’s human instinct to gatekeep when you have fear that you will lose something.” Though we can make sense of the reasons which preclude this behavior—she instead objects, “I have always found that an outlook of abundance results in more opportunities and a mindset of fear and scarcity results in loss, not gains.” The idea that sharing opportunities is a risk, often comes from a scarcity mindset and personal insecurities—be it a result of betrayal, imposter syndrome, or previous failures.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MORETTI & DUBAIIEYE
Ivy tells ELYSIAN about her upcoming book which is designed to help young women overcome anxiety. “I aim to inspire others by being a relatable role model who embodies resilience and authenticity.” With the book, she hopes that the younger generation will be able to look to her as a beacon of insight into what it means to follow your aspirations to the fullest extent. Pushing past fears of not being good enough to see what lies on the other side of “what if” is the only way to avoid stagnancy and lost opportunity. Ivy says, “My hope is to foster a positive exchange where the next generation feels empowered to trust in knowing that women, like myself, are future innovators and leaders that are worth mentoring and investing in.” One’s youth does not negate their valuable insights about life, she continues “I am often presumed not to be capable due to my young age. I don’t believe any age should be a barrier. It is about mindset,“the ability to remain consistent in effort but open enough to pivot quickly when needed has always helped me succeed.” This sentiment harkens back to comments by Haley and Sarah, further cementing that learning how to accept failure, but always looking for ways to innovate around these circumstances, is what will ultimately create pathways toward success.
Despite having many meaningful relationships with very inspiration-worthy women throughout her life, Ivy says, “The first woman that comes to mind is my mother. If I could have half her wisdom in my life I will be very happy.” The relationships that aspirational and inspirational women are building become the guiding light away from these otherwise turbulent dynamics. Those whose insecurity overtakes better judgement and the unsavory impulse to degrade other women out of fear or scarcity mindset, appear. Instead, Ivy thinks “Building community is all about showing up authentically and offering opportunities for growth, a value I try to embody in both my personal and professional life.” As she began to see the ways the interweaving components of who she was could positively impact her surrounding community, she realized, “I create connection by sharing my knowledge, experience, and support. I invest time mentoring aspiring women in my industry, offering insights from my studies to help others navigate challenges.” This kind of unabashed shedding of ego in order to allow vulnerability to come to the fore of our connections is necessary on both sides. It is how aspiring women of the next generation will continue to learn their capacities for success, and do the same for others.
When we are able to shed the falsities of a culture that aims to keep women quiet, to themselves, and only looking out for those with their immediate understanding of the world, we reach previously unforeseen destinations in both our personal and professional lives. The biggest hurdle one must overcome is the arbitrary self-rejection that so many of us struggle with and never get the chance to name—as few talk about it. Often, before we receive an answer at all, many tell themselves “no” as a subconscious self-preservation impulse. This happens when the fear of rejection or failure becomes too great. Depriving oneself of opportunities in this way could not be more of a disservice to the upward trajectory of one’s goals. These levels of human connection which, yes, include rejection are what help us ultimately determine where we want to focus our energy and how we learn to lead our lives. It is necessary that we break past barriers to information and knowledge as a result of mentorships with those older than us. Ivy says the generation above should, “Spend as much time as you can with the younger generations. There are so many mixed messages out there for young women. Current successful women need to share their wisdom. The flip side to that is young women offer new fresh perspectives to modern issues.” Regardless of personal experience, background, or age, we individually come to the table with different types of experiences and knowledge to share.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MORETTI & DUBAIIEYE
When talking specifically about community, Ivy shares her thoughts on what it takes to grow and create impactful professional relationships. She says, “For me, community is a cycle of inspiration by uplifting others. I’m continually inspired to grow, learn and give back.” You cannot have community in absence of circular relationships, with not at least one that is rooted in authenticity. In order to maintain reciprocal ties, a lot of this comes down to one’s ability to uplift others in moments of singular achievement, even when they are not celebrating anything. Watching others excel can feel like a personal affront. Suddenly, it’s easy to perceive yourself as sitting still, in opposition to someone else’s achievement. This again, is a natural inclination, we compare ourselves to others inherently and constantly. Though this is common, part of the personal development that is necessary in achieving authentic connection is not only acknowledging this—but in some cases sharing it. The ability to break down one’s own difficult emotions allows others to do the same, as a lot of these negatively charged reactions are not inherently bad. It, of course, is human to feel jealous, to feel left behind. The important particularity here lies within one’s ability to healthily process it and not deflect onto other people.
This comes down to a process of re-training the brain to not see other women as inherent competition. Rather, if we learn to understand any achievement across the community as positive, the whole network is suddenly better for it. In order to ensure that her community is tended to, “I show up for my community by listening, sharing my own journey and creating a safe space where others feel comfortable to communicate.” This connection is not limited to in-person interactions. When speaking about her online presence, Ivy says “I engage with my followers by sharing inspiration and beauty, sparking meaningful conversations.” When you uplift others in moments of growth, the same will boomerang back in your direction when your inevitable achievements arrive. In moments of self-doubt, will we let this consume us and negatively impact our actions toward others, or will we take responsibility for how we feel and shift away from it— choosing a more positive reaction instead? This process of self- reflection is integral toward getting closer to achieving one’s goals while emboldening others to do the same. In reality, we are all on individual paths toward success and no one journey looks the same. Growth is not parallel despite the prevailing narrative. The younger generation comes from a perspective of inherent innovation, where the “way we always do things” meets immediate questioning. The aspirational women of today hold an innate desire to grow and expand, merely maintaining is no longer good enough, and we can all learn from them.