Meo was born into a family of seven siblings, with her dad as the sole income earner, inspiring her entrepreneurial spirit today.

Meo was born in Calgary, Alberta, moving to Vancouver when she was only nine years old. Reflecting on her childhood, she says “While it’s always been important for me to prove to myself what I’m capable of, it’s equally important to honour my parents’ sacrifices. They left everything behind to create better opportunities for our family and I want to ensure those sacrifices were not in vain.”

Meo has worked in downtown Vancouver for over two decades, including 10 years in hairstyling. Nowadays, she is the owner of Level Headed Salon & Wellness in downtown Vancouver. For Meo, hairstyling is about more than helping someone look and feel their best. She says the most rewarding part of her work is being a “trusted sounding board and a safe space where people can simply be themselves.” Another highlight is “the salon environment itself”, which Meo says has been designed using Feng Shui principles to create a harmonious, calming atmosphere.

Her passion for helping others extends well beyond the salon. She believes that “if we’re not here to help one another, then why are we here?” This belief inspired her to volunteer in Cambodia with an organization that rescues women and provides them with hair styling education as a pathway to independence.

Through her experience there, Meo realized that a program like this was also needed in Canada. She went on to found the Level Headed Empowerment Program, a salon-based education program designed to provide marginalized and underprivileged individuals with the training, mentorship and opportunities to pursue careers as hairstylists.

For Meo, the work she is doing today is deeply connected to her family’s own journey to Canada. “This work represents a full-circle moment”, Meo shares, because her parents came to Canada in search of opportunity and now she has the privilege of creating opportunities for others. Her ultimate goal, however, is to build Vancouver’s first recruitment agency dedicated to connecting talented hairstylists from underprivileged backgrounds with meaningful careers. Through this, she hopes to create a more inclusive industry where success is defined not by where you come from, but by your potential.

You can visit Meo at Level Headed Salon & Wellness at 520-736 Granville Street or click to learn more about the Level Headed Empowerment Program.