LeeAnne Locken at NYLO Dallas South Side: Danny Fulgencio

LeeAnne Locken at NYLO Dallas South Side: Danny Fulgencio

If you watch television, chances are, you’ve seen Preston Hollow’s LeeAnne Locken grace the screen. The outspoken and energetic actress has appeared in commercials and television shows, including “GCB,” and “Big Rich Texas.” Locken has seen success as a model and actress, but says she aspires to do more than entertain: She wants to make the needs of nonprofits heard.

[quote align=”right” color=”#000000″]“Never let the sadness of your past or the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.”[/quote]

“I think every charity that I’ve been involved with appreciates the fact that I’m loud,” she says, “and I don’t make any apologies for it. If I have the voice, and I have the platform to use that voice, then let me be the voice for people who need it.”

Now, Locken is speaking up as honorary chair for the No Tie Dinner Party benefiting AIDS Services of Dallas on April 12 at The Frontiers of Flight Museum. Locken says that when she recently visited the ASD facilities, she was touched by the dignity that exists there.

“ASD embraces and serves people living with AIDS. When you go to ASD it reminds you to get to the core of life, which is that we are put on earth to help one another.”

Much of her drive toward philanthropy originated from surviving her own traumatic childhood, one that involved being abandoned by her mother and sexually molested. As an adult, Locken was physically abused by her fiancé.

“I was hospitalized and almost killed. I learned that if we can overcome and survive, we should do something with our life,” she says.

She found the strength to endure hard times from watching her grandmother, who raised Locken. She says that her grandmother provided stability, serving as an example for how to treat others by constantly looking for ways to help.

Now, Locken is taking that example to the next level by sharing her grandmother’s sayings and other motivational ideas via social media. On Twitter Locken has more than 58,000 followers, many of whom regularly respond to her motivational tweets. She even published her first book this year, “What’s Your Status?” a compilation of her tweets, one of which reads: “Never let the sadness of your past or the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.”

For more about
LeeAnne Locken, visit inspirationbyleeannelocken.com.

To learn more about
the No Tie Dinner benefiting AIDS Services of Dallas, visit notiedinner.org.