Stylist Tameka Foster Raymond made a recent on-screen appearance to talk about her new book “Here I Stand in a Beautiful State,” and talked to the ladies of “The Real” about the inspiration behind it.

Raymond has worked with celebrities ranging from Mary J. Blige to Jay-Z and revealed that her aunt was her source of inspiration when it came to fashion.

“I have an aunt that is 97.5 years old right now, my aunt Sadie,” said Raymond to Jennie Mai Jenkins. “Sadie was into fashion her entire life. I worked for her when I was like five in her boutique and I learned. She had a consignment shop so I would learn fabrics, and this is silk this is polyester like I learned a lot from her.”

Raymond talked about the changes in the styling industry and said, “I think everybody is a stylist now.”

“You can do two days of retail and now you’re a stylist or you’re a designer. Then we had to really learn about the marketing aspects of it. It was a little more technical then,” she said.

She also added that stylists are now seen as celebrities and make more money than she did in her days of styling.

In her book, Raymond opens up about her marriage and divorce from popular singer Usher and even talks about how they co-parent.

During the time of their marriage, Raymond received lots of negative comments from the media and Usher’s fans.

“They had it all wrong. They just didn’t know who I was,” she said.

She revealed that her biggest critics at the time were other women of color.

“They should have been rooting me on and saying okay she worked in fashion, she’s a mom, she’s a regular girl from Oakland, she’s from the town right? They didn’t celebrate any of that,” she said.

Despite having a quiet divorce, Raymond and Usher did go through a very public custody battle, another topic she talked about in her book.

“We went through a custody battle which ended up being very public. It just turned into a whole fiasco, but we’re very good now, we’re in a good space we co-parent our kids,” said Raymond.

“You put the kids first and that’s what we’re supposed to do as adults, that’s all that matters,” she added.

Raymond told “The Real” that the title of her book had many meanings and inspirations behind it.

” I’ve been through a lot, you know, I’ve lost my son, I lost my mother, I’ve lost a lot of close relatives and here I stand it’s like through it all, through the scrutiny, through all the pain here I stand. I’m still alive, I’m still making it,” she said.

After mentioning the loss of her son Kyle, Raymond spoke about the many ways she’s keeping his legacy alive which includes starting a non-profit organization and an animated show.

“I’m trying to keep his legacy alive. I have an animated project I’m working on it’s called the odd life of Kyle Isles,” said Raymond

As for the non-profit Raymond said, “It’s kylesworld.org. We do all kinds of beautiful things for children. We love helping the youth. We started out doing all performing arts because Kyle was really big into the arts,” she said.

Raymond’s book has been published and can be found on tamekaraymond.com.

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