Lately, I’ve been seriously considering the merits of setting up a personal brand.
Playing the game. Packaging my story. Slicing myself up into neat little Instagram squares. You know.
And then I read this essay by Sabrina Ourania, and it helped me articulate my resistance on taking the leap perfectly…
Why do we need to hawk our stories as wares to the public? I want a soft life, an unhurried life. A life that mirrors my creative rhythms.
But then today, an idea that I’ve put on the back burner of my mind came rushing back to life.
I sat my ass down and drafted 10 episodes. Not one. Not five. Ten.
I’ve never committed to a creative project like this before.
With shaky hands, I shared the idea with my family and witchy sisters.
They all said the same thing: “This is the most you thing ever. Do it.”
Today is the Full Moon in Aquarius.
Aquarius, the weird one. The outsider. The misfit.
I spent years on the outside looking in, wondering if anyone could spot the stench of Other-ness within me. I listened to Justin Bieber in public but alt-rock in private. Read Sarah Dessen in the day but scoured the trenches of tumblr and reddit at night. I was the perfect prep kid who wore glasses and never dyed my hair, but on the inside, I was a devilish, horny, messy, intellectual mess.
I have a rich, writhing, uncensored mind, full of Big Ideas and even bigger purpose. I have lived things and experienced things that few others my age, maybe ever, have: divorce and estrangement, ADHD and PCOS, astrology and creativity, heartbreak and belonging, spiritual awakening, and choosing to build my own entrepreneurial path. I’ve reversed my hormonal imbalance and taught myself empathy and healed my relationship with my mom. I’ve spent a decade building a creative, revolutionary career without ever having a 9-5 job. I walked away from a 8 year relationship when I turned 30, when every woman in their right mind was settling down and getting married.
By all accounts, I have lived a colorful, unconventional life.
But I’ve never once told my story. Not its in entirety. Certainly not to the level of detail that would bring shame upon my ancestors.
But when I look around me, and ask myself, why do I want to be visible? Why do I want to build a personal brand? It’s this —
So a little girl, somewhat like me, 14 years old with glasses on her nose and a writhing mess of a mind, can stumble across my work decades in the future, and say: “Wow. I’m not alone.”
Just wait, little girl. I’m coming for you.
I’m going to learn to tell my story.
Starting with this.
Thoughts on the name and color scheme? You get first glimpse!! Let’s go.
In this episode, I share the idea I've been searching for over the past nine months, why I think Gwen Gets Weird might be the most important thing I've ever created, the difference between creating content and building a body of work, and the terrifying realization that nobody is going to tell my story for me — so I might as well learn how.
In case you missed it… EP. 02 ↓
