Tamara Wills
Tamara Taneca Wills was born in Portsmouth, VA to Grant Gyland and Gwendolyn Odom in 1975…the year that drugs really impacted the community. Growing up, she saw so many reasons why the culture was changed. Tamara never planned to have children early in life, but being a product of the environment, she had her first child, Marqui Wills, at 18 years old…a week before she graduated from high school. However, Tamara made sure to walk across that stage to get her high school diploma, despite so many reasons not to and no one to pushing her to do so. She lived in her own apartment by that time, and was raising her two sisters. Tamara married her son’s father and decided that she needed a trade. She knew school was not for her as she had too many responsibilities. She decided to enroll in the Virginia School of Hair Design, and there, she received her cosmetology license. Tamara knew she wanted to help make people feel good about themselves, but just didn’t know it wasn’t doing hair. After moving through life and many different jobs, she found herself not having any real help or outlets as a single moms. While working for people for so many years, helping to grow their businesses, and after having her second child, Richean Hamlet, she wanted to give her daughter everything she didn’t have when she was growing up. Tamara decided that if she continued working for other people, it was going to be impossible. Her daughter pushed her to want more, so she set her mind to being an entrepreneur . After opening numerous businesses, she discovered that entertainment was for her. From there, Exquisite Entertainment was created. Through this company, Tamara and her colleagues have enabled people to live their dreams…putting 50 artists on 103Jamz and iHeart Radio and opening performances with national artists like French Montana, Bobby V, Herman Herstan, and many more. Bringing artists, models, and businesses together and promoting people’s talents allowed Tamara to discover her niche. She saw how it changed lives and helped get them closer to their dreams. Realizing how our community needed help uplifting youth, how our youth were slowly becoming at risk, being killed, and not living out their dreams, made Tamara want to stop youth violence. She set out to help them live their dreams by using her skills. This is how Bridging The Gap Youth Program was born…a nonprofit organization to help prevent youth violence and to bring families together. “I’m one women with a dream to stop generational poverty and educate people on how to use our skills to help our people.” Please visit https://www.btgyp.org and see how you can help Bridging The Gap Youth Program Inc HELP SAVE OUR YOUTH and BRING FAMILIES TOGETHER!