An Elgin artist is empowering others by helping them fulfill their dreams while at the same time educating the community about her culture — one that she didn’t learn about until she was an adult.
Niphaphone Laura Robertson is the founder of Beautiful Potential Consulting LLC, an author, consultant and so much more. Her family is from Laos, a country in Southeast Asia. They came to the United States with $40 and a bag of clothes. That was in the late 1970’s when she was a toddler. She was too young to remember why her parents, along with her two brothers, left their home country.
“I never knew about my history,” she explained. “I just knew that we were poor, and we came here for a better life, and that's all I knew. My dad never really spoke about it.”
Robertson’s earliest memories start in a small Elgin apartment. Other refugees from her country also lived in the building. She said when relatives came to the U.S., they would find each other, so the area was full of refugees. Her childhood seemed normal.
But the good times faded when Robertson started school.
“I hated recess," she said, "because every time I went outside, I got bullied for being Asian, and it was like Chinese, Japanese. Look at these; they'll pull their eyes back.”
It didn’t stop with the children. She said a fourth-grade teacher told her she didn’t belong in this country. Robertson let the school’s principal know and a couple of weeks later, the teacher wasn’t there anymore. Robertson wasn’t sure why.
Things started to change. Robertson became friends another Lao girl and made more friends. But then her days got dim again.
“I was too Asian for the Americans,” she said, “and then as I got older, I was too American for my own culture. So, I was in this really dark period of my life as a teenager and hung out with the wrong crowd and stuff.”
This caused an issue with her family. They wanted her to display more of her Lao culture, but she didn’t know how. She decided to go live with family in Kansas City but that didn’t work out.
She was dating a guy and ended up moving in with his mother, a Black woman who she affectionately calls “Mama Sonya.”
Robertson went to high school there and was immersed in Black culture.
“I was one of the only Asians there," she added, "but people didn't mess with me because they thought I was Black. They thought I was a light-skinned Black girl. The way Mama Sonya did my hair and everything, I look like a little Black girl, like a mixed girl.”
She found her way back to Elgin and graduated high school. Even after that, she went back to Kansas City to live with Mama Sonya for a bit before she came back home.
“Mama Sonya, she taught me to have a voice,” Robertson added, “to speak up for myself, to love myself, and I believe everything that she taught me in my teenage years was right on time and right what I needed to carry me on through my corporate career because my first book also shares the struggles I had as an Asian American in the corporate world.”
Her first book is called “Forty Dollars and a Dream: Breaking Through the Bamboo Ceiling.” It details her family’s history, their journey to the U.S., her father’s story and other moments in her life.
Her late husband, who died of Stage IV lung cancer last year, had a college assignment where he had to write about someone who came from another country. He wanted to do it on her, but she had no clue about her history.
She called her dad. He referred her to Jane Scott who was a part of the refugee committee at First Presbyterian Church of Kingsport, Tennessee. They'd sponsored her family when they came to the United States. Scott sent Robertson information that she had. Some included a newspaper clipping about her family. It didn’t give Robertson the full picture, so she reached out to her father. He agreed to tell her what she wanted to know. Robertson recorded their two-hour conversation.
“He told me that the reason he kept it, like, for so long, is because of the fear of the communists coming after him,” Roberston explained, “because he did escape, and so he was scared of them finding out because you're not supposed to talk about it. That's why it was such a secret.”
Robertson has written a few more books.
“No, Cancer! He’s Taken” was co-authored with her late husband Marcello. The book was written while he was dealing with the disease. At first, the couple was told he had a sinus infection. This was in 2024. He was not diagnosed with cancer until months later.
“They weren't taking him seriously,” Robertson said. “They just kept sending him back home. And this time, I became that voice, and I spoke up, and I'm like, ‘no.’ So they agreed to keep him.”
A scan was done and that’s when they said it could potentially be lung cancer, but a biopsy didn’t confirm that. That October Marcello had a seizure. That’s the day they found it was stage IV lung cancer that had metabolized to his brain. He died last year.
Robertson manages a few beauty and creative spaces in Elgin.
Two young entrepreneurs recently agreed to rent out one of the spaces. Teni Ajayi and her business partner Zatoriya Averhart will house a Black-owned beauty supply store in one of the suites. The store will be called Muskata Beauty Hub.
Averhart said because of Robertson’s support, other children in the community will see that they can do anything they want.
“We don't have to wait till we're 30, 40 years old, she said. "We can do this while we're 20 years old and make it happen as long as we have that plan to do so and the support as well.”
Ajayi said Robertson makes her feel encouraged and empowered.
“I want other people to feel that way," she said. "And we really plan on having a lot of events here, and just kind of building another community here for the people in this area as well as teens growing up and children that kind of can see, like, you can make your life whatever you want it to be, and there's people that will support you.”
Some services in the suites include hair braiding, barber, microblading, spa services, along with other businesses.
Robertson said she has projects coming up that will expand her brand outside of Elgin. One includes Rap Music Hall of Fame International.
She said her struggles are not in vain.
"I have 10 people here,” she said, “and they're all living and fulfilling their dreams. And it's just another reminder that when I left that job in 2019, when God told me to go, and I, I was obedient. This is just another reminder that God is like, you're in the right steps.”
And with that in mind, she plans to continue to use her platforms to help elevate others.