PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — You might find the Philly Candy Lady on 52nd Street, by the Walmart on Roosevelt Boulevard in Lawncrest, on South Street — or just about anywhere in the city.
Each day, she decides where she feels like going and heads out with her peanut M&Ms box filled with assorted candy.
She balances the box on her head while singing, dancing and joking with everyone she meets.
“My goal is just to make people smile,” she said. “It’s to make people laugh.”
She certainly succeeds at that. You can’t help but laugh and smile when she sings rewritten pop songs to you — “Buy my funky candy, white boy,” or “Does my candy cross your mind?”
The joy she exudes is all the more impressive when you discover her life hasn’t always been so sweet.
The Candy Lady, who goes by Candyianna, was raised by her godmother. Her biological mother died soon after she was born from complications with Alexander disease, a neurological condition that affects the nervous system and can cause speech problems, poor coordination and delayed intellectual and physical development.
“My godmom taught me,” Candyianna said. “She put the hustle in me.”
Candyianna started selling snacks at her house as a kid. When she noticed her high school, Hope Charter, didn’t have vending machines, she brought her snacks and candy sales there.
She kept that hustle mindset into adulthood. She’s worked various jobs — at Olive Garden, a seafood restaurant, Prepaid Legal and as a nanny — but kept selling candy and pursuing her own ventures on the side.
She had a business partner once. They tried to develop an advertising agency for local businesses, but she said that relationship became toxic and he started abusing her.
“The first time he hit me, I thought it was out of passion,” she said. “But now I understand that it wasn’t that at all. He was trying to control me.”
In 2020, she left the situation — with the help of a pandemic that kept her in lockdown away from him. She wants to share her story now to help others who might be going through the same thing.
“If I can help somebody in some way, that’s the whole point,” she said. “My story is not about me. It really isn’t.”
After all she’s been through, Candyianna still sells her candy with a big smile and infectious energy. She has sold her candy at protests, bringing with her a “Black Candy Matters” sign. She’s even sold some at a strip club — she danced on the pole while balancing her iconic candy box.
In any times of doubt, she turns to her faith.
“God says, ‘Write your vision and make it plain,’ ” she said. “And so God has showed me how to write my vision through him and make it plain.”
Candyianna shares her adventures on Instagram and TikTok.
Hear more about what makes the Philly Candy Lady who she is, what inspired her to balance a box of candy on her head, and her dreams for the future on The Jawncast in the player below or wherever you listen to podcasts.