Been sitting on this idea for a long time
Years ago, when Worthfull Project was a new podcast and I was exploring what I wanted it to be about, I remember thinking a lot about beauty. I dubbed the year I turned 30 as the “year of beauty.” I invested in my appearance, my study of beauty, and the idea that beauty was a good thing, separate from vanity or commercialization.
One of the ideas that came to me during that time was a simple phrase that popped out while journaling. “It’s safe to be beautiful here.” I imagined it written out in gorgeous hand lettering, mural-style on a wall, at some future event I would host as the welcome to guests when they arrived. It started in my journal, then appeared in a note in my phone, transferred onto my big ideas list, and it keeps re-surfacing into my life every few months.
On a past episode of the Worthfull Project podcast, I asked my friend Jenna, a renowned make-up artist and enchanting soul, what that phrase meant to her. We had a fascinating conversation about it that only seemed to scratch the surface of what this idea really holds.
The idea of safety in beauty runs as far back as fifth grade for me. I remember the transition I subconsciously made between 5th and 6th grade, when I picked up on the social construct that I could either be seen as smart or as pretty, but not both. I chose to go for smart since I was confident in my intellect, and I started dressing and acting quite differently from that point on. My fifth grade school picture shows a sweet little girl with curly long hair, a headband, and a dress. My sixth grade school picture shows a shy smartie with short hair and a navy blue sweater vest with khakis.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of infrastructure work on my business, diving deep into my core values and what kind of future I want to create with this career. As I’ve been peeling back the layers and doing edit after edit on my plans, I’ve discovered 3 through lines that run between all of my work, passions, and values. I think these are the foundational values of my company, Worthfull Media, and consequently, all of my work.
- Create before you consume.
- It’s safe to be beautiful here.
- You are already, always full of worth.
I’m not completely sure yet how this idea will manifest in my life, or my business, or my work, but I’m starting realize a few things. If it’s not safe to be beautiful in a space, dynamic, relationship, or project, I’m not interested in being a part of it. For a lot of my life, it hasn’t felt safe to be beautiful, especially at work, so this is a big change.
It took a couple of decades for me to unpack the effect of feeling unsafe to be beautiful in the world I was living in. It’s been a profound journey that I’m still on. But here’s what I know so far: when we feel safe to be beautiful, we create our most magical work and we own our worth without apology. It’s the only way we really can rise to the occasion that our lives call us to. And that’s what I’m committed to from here on out.
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