Vanessa and Angela Simmons show off Pastry Shoes. (Pastry)When you're a part of the family that spawned entrepreneurial brothers Run-DMC rapper and reality star Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and hip-hop mogul and Phat Farm founder Russell Simmons, ambition is instilled in you at an early age. At just 28 and 24, two of the Rev's daughters, Vanessa and Angela, who appeared on the shows "Run's House" and "Daddy's Girls," have been running their own brand of shoes since 2007, a fun, colorful brand of sneakers called Pastry Shoes, a brand now working with celebs like teen singers Cody Simpson and Jessica Jarrell as spokespeople.
In an interview with omg!, Vanessa — who, along with her sister, has appeared on the shows "Run's House" and "Daddy's Girls," — gave her famous relatives all the credit for making her and Angela the savvy business women that they are. "[Our family] makes us so ambitious and persistent in what we do and they lead by example," she revealed. "My dad always says 'Do your best and forget the rest,' and that's what we aim to do, just do the best that we can."
When they do run into problems, Angela revealed that the sisters still turn to their fam. "We go to them for advice because obviously they've been in this industry for a long time so they know everything there is to pretty much know about it."
The girls pose with dad Rev Run and stepmother Justine.
Pastry has become the gals' main focus since leaving reality TV in 2009. And, unlike other celebrities who simply stamp their names on anything, Vanessa and Angela insisted they're hands-on at the shoe brand. "We're pretty involved," Angela said. "We do a lot of the design -- actually we have a design team -- and we constantly call them with new ideas we think of and things that we're seeing trending. Lots of conference calls, [and] when we're in New York, we're in the office and all that."
The ladies clown around.
For now, neither woman's plans involve returning to the familiar terrain of reality TV. Up-and-coming actress Vanessa just appeared in the ensemble comedy film "Dysfunctional Friends" with Stacy Keibler, while Angela is creating a line of hair extensions -- an endeavor that makes sense given the fact she changes up the look of her locks frequently.
Angela and Vanessa promote Pastry.Still, Angela says she'd definitely consider another reality show in the future. Vanessa, however, would rather stick to the scripted space. "It was definitely a fun experience having [the cameras] around, and it's one that not a lot of people get to do, and especially for such a long period of time," Vanessa noted. "And now I have these things that I'm going to be able to show my kids one day. I'm going to be like, 'Hey, sit down. Look: there's your family.' [I have] family albums forever, and I'm pretty proud of how it all came out."
Keep up with Vanessa and Angela at the Pastry website or via Twitter.
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