Taylor had to travel a few roads before she realized the important work she was meant to do. Although she may have made mistakes, she thinks "every experience we have in life influences how we see the world and how we present ourselves in it."

She was raised by Caribbean parents in East Harlem who were entrepreneurs. It was rare to find African Americans who owned businesses, but many of her relatives did and it was assumed that when she finished high school, she’d find a good job and start her own. However, Taylor pursued an acting career at which she was mildly successful. She was a working actress in small roles but felt uneasy and soon pursued another interest. "I wasn’t a gifted actress," she says. "I needed to do something that wouldn’t give me the kind of pit, nervousness that I had every time I had to perform."

When she left acting she obtained a cosmetology license and developed a line of custom-blend make-up. Her products were targeted to African-American women because she realized there was "a gap in the marketplace." She knew it was hard for them to find cosmetics which blended with their skin. The products were sold through a beauty salon she operated with her former husband in the Bronx, NY.

Four years later, Taylor performed a very courageous act by stepping on a leap of faith – she returned to school. Although she had a glamorous job and there was little need for change except for her to continue as she’d been doing, she wasn’t satisfied and wanted more. Throughout her time at Essence she was shadowed by a lack of confidence in her educational abilities. People around her didn’t understand why she needed to go to school. They’d say "you’ve got it all, you’re getting paid, you’ve got high profile, you’ve got the job and title, just read some books, you don’t need to go to school," she recalls. But she only listened to her voice/her spirit inside which told her to return. "That’s why it’s important not to listen to the vision that other people might have for you but to be in touch with your deepest feelings, even the ones that are painful and shameful," she says. "Pain is information and the pain of not being able to write as well as I knew I could, of not having read all the books I felt I should, of not being aware of our history in ways I knew I needed to be aware; these were the uncomfortable feelings that made me feel insecure."

The reason for her return to school was to represent herself and Essence with the brightest light. She was taking classes as a non-matriculated student at Fordham University, College at Lincoln Center, until an academic adviser showed her the amount of credits she was gathering. She enrolled in the school and they planned her classes that revealed she was heading towards a sociology major. "I didn’t go back to school to gain a degree. That was never my motivation," she says. "I went to school to take courses that I felt were important to my understanding of myself and my understanding of African-American and African-Caribbean people."

But Taylor was no ordinary student. School was one aspect of a busy schedule she’d have to juggle. As an adult student in the undergraduate program at Fordham University in New York City, she’d often be mistaken for the professor by students who’d later sit next to her in classrooms.

In 1991 she graduated from Fordham with a sociology degree and in 1997 entered the master’s program at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Everything revolves around spirituality for Taylor. In her pursuit of a graduate degree in divinity, she hopes to understand the "deeper meanings" of Christianity and the Bible. She was raised as a Catholic yet feels she didn’t learn much about the Bible. "I really want to study the roots of Christianity," she says, "since so much of what I do and write about has to do with spirituality."

School is one of the ways she expresses her self-love and concern for the African-American community. She is the author and co-author of four books and Essence Television Productions produces the annual Essence Awards show that acknowledges distinguished African Americans. For the last five years, New Orleans has hosted the Essence Music Festival. It’s an event that celebrates the rich contributions of African-American musicians and leaders. Past guests have included Patti LaBelle, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly and Lauryn Hill. Taylor views the festival as "a gathering of a tribe." Perhaps the purest essence of the festival is that it’s a "safe place." Taylor is proud that though demonized by popular culture – the festival is a place where Black men are welcomed. "The best thing for me is that I get to see the faces of thousands of smiling brothers," she says. "I think it’s all too rare these days that we see images of smiling Black men."