With so many artists out there who can be filed into categories, it's always intriguing to discover the ones who can't.
Start with an unusual name like St. James. Rid your mind of any and all expectations. Then, picture a slender, bronzed woman with defined cheekbones and dark, soulful, Egyptian-looking eyes. Not quite what you anticipated? Try tacking on that she's Russian, Polish, Jewish and East/West Indian. Then, for the final spices to her sauce: She can sing, act, dance and model.
While St. James certainly contains multitudes, she's far from confused. She's had focus and a vision since a young age. When she was only 12, she traveled to her mother's homeland, Russia, with the organization Peace Child. She paid her own way there, wrote and performed shows with several other child activists for poverty-stricken locals, and wrote letters pledging for peace.
"What I'm really here to do is to try and make positive changes," she says in her low, syrupy-smooth voice.
When asked what she hopes to achieve in her career, she refers to Angelina Jolie — she would like to use her fame to contribute to bettering the world.
"I'd love to build schools, and inspire people inside and outside the U.S," she says in a determined voice.
St. James attributes her ambition and idealistic nature to her parents being foreigners. The two of them originally met in Israel.
"[My parents] came to America with nothing," she explains. "The stories and values they instilled in me made me strong as a person."
Her mother fled Russia when she was 12 years old, and her grandmother is a survivor of the Holocaust. These stories have shown her that people can achieve great things.
"Anything you put your mind to you can make happen," she says. "We're here to do something bigger."
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