@jane
Hello Jane! Nice to meet you!
My name is AngeLee and I hope you could read this long message I wrote to you and Lily hahaha 🙂

I do not know if I will be lucky enough to get read by you but, out of all the things that I have tried this year and failed completely to make it through (I must include myself on the list), I think trying this one might be worthy.
Basically, I just want to tell you a little bit about me and let you know why and how much you have inspired me after I found you through watching Grace and Frankie, a show that has made me feel better and saved me from my depression this year. I have been under treatment for post traumatic depression and anxiety and Grace and Frankie have made me laugh and feel better about my life, specially on this year…

First of all, I want to introduce myself in a more detailed way.

I am AngeLee Cuello. I am from Uruguay and I am 22 years old. I will turn 23 on October 30th.
Anyway, I am a singer, songwriter, rapper, producer and dancer. Moreover, I am a holistic therapist: I am a Tarotist and a Reiki Master. Also, I am bigender (nonbinary) and a LGBT activist.

On the other hand, I used to work as an English teacher at both, private and public schools, but I quit that in 2018 because of my depression, after I almost committed suicide.

I decided to quit my job as a teacher because it consumed most of my time and energy and I just wanted to get the money to make a basic living from it and earn enough to afford resources to finally follow my dreams and try to produce my music by myself. I’ve come from a very humble family and so even now I do not really have money to afford professional resources yet…
Back to the topic, I must say somehow the plan of working as a teacher worked for me because I bought the computer I am writing to you through by expending my last salary as a teacher on it.
And on this computer, I produced my own music album. I have learned how to produce music by myself and so I have produced a music album by myself, which I named “ALone” for pretty evident reasons (I made it on my own and by myself hahaha) but also because there is a deep meaning behind it. It is about me fighting my depression and trying to overcome and cope with the trauma of abuses and violence I had to go through from a young age.
So, I produced this first album by myself while I living and working as holistic therapists with my older sister, Melisa, with whom I lived from July 2017 to July of this year.
Anyway, I recorded my first album with my sister’s phone and somehow managed to make it sound reasonably well (I worked hard on the mixing in order to achieve that).
Moreover, I got to afford getting it copyrighted by working and also with the help of one of my most beloved friends, Melina, which is also the graphic designer that helped me turn and put my idea for my own logo and the album cover into reality.

Well, I do not want to get you bored (I hope you are not bored by this point) because the interesting part is coming (finally).

On November of last year, right after I released the album, I had the chance (and somehow the curse) to audition for Got Talent Uruguay TV show. And I did. My episode has not aired on Uruguay TV yet but I made it to TV (even though I have not in the physical sense of it). But I promise to share it with you once is out 🙂
Anyway, the thing is, I auditioned because it was the only chance that life has ever given me to show my talent as an artist and share myself too. I did not want to compete, I hate talent contents to be honest… They gave me so much anxiety since I do not want to compete as an artist to prove I have a worth as an artist (which is somehow what these contents do).

On the other hand, as I have mentioned, I auditioned and made it to the TV audition.
But it did not go well. I knew I could have chosen to sing a cover of someone else’s show and I probably would have made it to the next step, but I did not want to sing someone else’s song or show my skills a singer (even though I humbly must say I have). Actually, all I wanted to do was showing my own art, sharing my own music, singing my own song… I did not want to compete or get committed to doing that. I did not want to go to the next step if it was not through my own art and even if I did, I probably would have quitted right after because I do not like contests.
Anyway, I performed “Sound of Coups”, which is the fourth song of my album. It is a song about me believing and hoping I could make it through and succeed even after working for a long time and seeing no results and getting no rewards. The name of the song was inspired by the leader of the K-pop group, Seventeen. His name is Seungcheol and his artist name is SCoups. I love revolution and everything related to protesting, making revolution, making a change, and this artist personality and his artist name brought that to my mind and inspired me to name the song “Sound of Coups”.

Okay, sorry for writing that much, I am just trying to explain things in a very detailed way…

Well, back to Got Talent Uruguay, basically, and somehow quite obviously, the jury did not like my song. They liked my rap but they did not understand my song (I knew that would happen anyway because it always happens to me in my own country, my style just does not fit the art here). But I got compared to Bjork (I always do even though I did not get inspired by her to do what I do, I have been thinking of my music like this even before I knew she did it in a similar way). Well, being compared to BJork all the time makes me actually believe we could be somehow related by this point hahaha.

All in all, I did not make it through and also I got judged and got asked uncomfortable questions on TV about my gender identity. So I noticed they focused more on that than on my music… I will be allowed to talk more about it after my episode airs, anyway.

Well, joining Got Talent was a traumatic experience for me and it basically ruined my 2020 more than anything else because I have not gotten any reward from forcing myself to join it yet (I believe showing on TV can maybe bring some positive things to me, but honestly, I do not know yet).

You know how “failures” can make us feel…
I have been feeling hopeless and even lonelier than I have already felt until now after that experience. Also, this year has been terrible for me, and not only because of the COVID situation…

I got back to living with my parents and I am getting some little money from working as a teacher online (I have one student) and teaching hip hop dance.

BUT the thing is… I found your show.
I remember I ran into it back in 2018, when I was depressed on bed and working on the beats and lyrics for some songs that ended up later on my first album. I think I watched only 3 episodes until I did not have access to internet anymore and basically after that I focused on other stuff and did not catch up with it until now…

I want to be very specific here (as you might have already noticed, I like explaining myself a lot), and I want to tell you how much you made me laugh these days, when I do not really feel like laughing. Seeing your characters move forward from hard times and getting motivated enough to make a business idea work… That has made me the happiest person on earth. Also, I had a hard time making things work between my sister and I and it just reminded me of Grace and Frankie relationship. I may be a Frankie inside of a Grace. Or something like that.
Anyway, the show has brought hope back to me. It has made me believe that I am still able to make something work… To make my life work. My career work.

Also, your acting skills and the fact that both of you have done so much at your age already… I have no words.

So Jane… You are such an inspirational woman. Your activism and the way you are active at your age makes me want to grow like that. You are beautiful inside out and your acting skills have made my days better. You made me laugh a lot on Grace and Frankie and I saw my mom, my sister and somehow me in your character at some times (I am a Scorpio hehehe).
Well, Jane… The fact that you have given us the chance to reach you through this blog means so much because honestly, being from a small country, a small town and not being famous, I did not know if I could ever let you know how much I appreciated your working at the show and everything you do.
You are such a wonderful woman and I am sure many women are as motivated by you as I am now.

Lastly but not last…
I want to ask you for a favor.
In an interview, I heard you say that you could deliver our messages to Lily. Honestly, I have no clue on how to reach out to her if it is not through you. So thank you so much for giving me a chance. I hope you could deliver this message to Lily too because is very important to me.

Well… Lily.
Lily, I was in love with Frankie before I even knew in depth that you were actually part of our community (LGBT). I was shocked when I found out. It blew my mind and made me love you even more hahaha. You are such an inspiration and you and your wife are not only lovely but also a wonderful inspiration. When I look at you two, it seems to me you are twin flames haha.
On the other hand, I ran into a video of an interview you were in and I heard you mention how once the Time Magazine wanted you to be on the cover if you came out and it somehow reminded me of my experience on Got Talent Uruguay. I did not want people to focus on the fact that I was bigender, I wanted people to actually focus on my art, but the production focused on my gender identity instead…
Well, to sum up…
Thank you so much for being out there inspiring people of all ages, and young people like me, who live in a small country named Uruguay and in a small town named Carmelo. I was so shocked and surprised when I was watching the last season of Grace and Frankie few days ago and I saw Grace was getting told that her toilet was being sold to Uruguay LOL I simply could not believe our country got named. I got so happy. Although of course, I do not want to think of me now as the fan from the toilet country hahaha!

To sum up, Jane and Lily, you two and the whole show got to make me feel better and watching you talk on few words interviews and awards ceremonies has really made me happy. Especially when I heard you, Lilly, talk at an award ceremony (lifetime award) about failure and opportunities. Thank you so much for doing that. You are amazing. Thank you for being there. You have no idea how much I appreciate your inspiring words.

Woah… I think that was all I had to say now… I have many thoughts but this is what I want to say to begin with…
I could tell you much more about me, like that one time I got kidnapped (gosh I wish that was actually a joke but it is not lol). Anyway, I just want to say my life has been pretty hard even though I am 22 years old only.
Oh! And I forgot to mention this but I love acting too and I want to do it someday. I am actually more into stand-up I think. My doctor has suggested that I should try that out and the fact that everyone has done it included my doctor says something to me about it hahaha.

Well, I wish I could meet you both someday.
Thank you so much for reading this (if you did – which I really hope and would mean a lot -).
I appreciate you two. Let me know if you ever want a tarot reading someday haha 🙂
I would love to deliver any message to you.
Also, here is my music and my social media in case you want to check them out.

Here is my album:
“ALone” by AngeLee:

(I PROMISE THE LINK IS NOT A VIRUS, WE HAD ENOUGH OF THAT ALREADY THIS YEAR I THINK LOL)

Here is my social media:
▶Instagram: angelee_official
▶Twitter: AngeLee_Cuello
▶Facebook: AngeLee Cuello.
▶TikTok: angelee_cuello

Thank you for everything.
Much love,
AngeLee.