My Story
Gemima Canga is a Mother, an Early Childhood Educator, Author, Hospitality Manager, CEO of Grow Mi hair growth products. She was born in Port-Au-Prince Haiti in 1990, which is the capital of Haiti. Her parents brought her to the U.S. at a very young age, where she completed all of her schoolings from elementary to college. She has lived between New York and Florida since coming to the U.S. as a young child. She now currently resides in Orlando, Florida.
From a very young age, Gemima had a passion for life. She was extremely quiet and reserved as a child, which drew her to her first love, children’s literature. She created a safe place in her childhood closet, in the room that she shared with her younger sister Ketsia, where she would hide and read books after school. Her favorite author growing up was Judy Blume. Naturally, her favorite book was “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
She went on to become an Early Childhood Educator, inspired by her childhood friend and tutor Jennifer. Her absolute favorite part of the day was storytime. There was something special about the way Mrs. Mima was able to bring a story to life. The students could never get enough of it.
In September of 2013, Gemima became a mother, to an amazing little boy by the name of A. Malachi Canga. Soon after having their one and only child. She and her husband divorced and decided to parent from different states. Gemima and her small child, who was 1 at the time moved in with family in Queens NY, where she was faced with a lot of stressful days and hard times. She decided to go back to school to pursue a Master’s in English Education. As a single mother, she soon discovered that was hard to do. There were days when she would take her son to school with her in the snow because she had no one to watch him. Around 2 ½ years old her son was diagnosed with autism. This on top of everything else caused more stress on her already stressful life. As one would already know stress is one of the major causes of hair loss. In 2015 after losing an excessive amount of hair she decided to cut all of her hair off. She was known for having long, thick, and beautiful hair and now she no longer had that.
The turning point was during a parent-teacher conference, when a parent noticed Gemima’s inviting, and charismatic personality, and invited her to apply to a position at a hotel. Gemima took on the task of juggling 2 jobs and being a single mother until the end of the school year when she decided to fully pursue a career in hospitality.
Gemima moved to Orlando Florida end of 2017, in search of a better environment to nurture and be fully involved in her son’s life. With the encouragement of her sisters, she was able to do that. There she also thrived in her career as a hospitality manager for both Hilton and a franchise hotel brand called B Resorts.
As things began to pick back up for Gemima, she once again came face to face with her first love, children’s literature. Imagine that! Doing the thing she loved most, with the person she loved most. She picked up her pen and started writing, and wrote about Malachi. She soon meets William who after hearing her idea to publishing the book, offered to illustrate the book. One of her closest friend’s Denise proofed the book. There it was, everything came together for her to become a published author. And she did just that. She published her first book “I am Malachi” in April of 2021.
