video library.

This is a HUGE project I’m working on, but for now I will share pieces of my life from the below. The full story will be available in a 📖

• My story, intersections & code-switching

• Feeling different in every sense

• Identity, belonging, origins, ethnicity, nationality & race

• Growing up in a multicultural home shaped by food, music, traditions & every skin shade, from pale white to dark skin Black

• Family history: the slave trade, Scotland, Jamaican plantations, sexual violence, genetics & ancestry research/testing

• Black Latino communities, segregation & “Little Jamaica” in Central/Latin America

• Parental Poverty, low-income upbringings & sugar addiction • Why I changed my last name

• My grandfather’s murder

• Christian & Catholic exposure

• Being AuDHD across cultures, burnout, chronic illness & invisible disabilities

• Culture shocks across white, Black, mixed & Hispanic communities

• Being the first mixed child on both sides of my family

• Learning about racism & colorism

• My parents testing racial bias in prices, rentals & treatment across Europe and the U.S., before cell phones

• How my family used racial + cultural privilege to protect each other

• My white mother’s racial & disability protection, and my dependence on it into adulthood

• Racial medical/dental trauma

• Horses in the mid-Southwest, the U.S. South, NY/MD & military-child life in Europe

• Moving 20+ times & having exactly 29 jobs (yes, there’s a list 😂) 

• My parents’ devastating divorce when I was 17

• Losing my dad & sister through ambiguous loss

• An abusive relationship, lifelong trauma & wanting to end my life

• A business dream turned nightmare: a major lawsuit & years fighting for justice

• Healing + therapy in: MD → Hawaii → Germany …and MORE.

About Intersections:

Intersections are important for identity because no one experiences the world through just one aspect of who they are. Our identities are made up of different characteristics, such as race, gender, sexuality, social class, religion, culture, and disability. These aspects overlap and interact with one another, shaping how we understand ourselves and how others perceive and treat us.

This concept is known as intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. It explains how different forms of privilege and discrimination can overlap, creating experiences that cannot be understood by looking at each identity separately.

Intersectionality helps us recognise that everyone's experiences are unique. It encourages us to look beyond single aspects of identity, understand inequalities more deeply, and build a more inclusive and empathetic society 🌍

#autism #adhd #neurodivergent #audhd #intersectionality #disability #mixed #multicultural #culture

🎵 Copyrighted music licensed from Lickd. https://lickd.co Make That Move (Single Version) by Shalamar, https://t.lickd.co/l/M624EeYPvD8

hello! bonjour! ciao! hola! hallo! aloha! A little about me & why I share. Welcome and enjoy your visit!

Values & rules for my creative space.

This topic always gets people talking, so here are my honest thoughts. In this video, I explain why I personally prefer male friendships, what I value in those relationships, and how my own experiences have shaped my perspective.

This is not about saying one type of friendship is better than another. It is about sharing my truth. I’ve had incredible friendships with both men and women. Whether you agree or see things differently, I appreciate hearing different viewpoints.

Share your thoughts in the comments, and let's keep the conversation thoughtful and respectful. If you enjoy content like this, be sure to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you don't miss future videos. Let's Chat!

#friendship #education #mindset #mentalhealth

Recap! It was meant to be a 'short', but was a bit more than 3 minutes. Enjoy

#cars #retro #retrocars #nostalgia #70s #80s

This is Still Happening!

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a ballerina. I loved my tutu and the ballet bag my mom bought me. I would dress up at home, practice my pliés and relevés, and imagine myself becoming a ballerina one day.

**In the audio format, you will hear me say "swipe for next page," but disregard it, as you can just listen without doing anything :)

Then I finally got the chance to take ballet lessons. But when I walked into that classroom, I noticed immediately that no one looked like me. Then another little girl looked at my brown skin, called it “poop,” and wiped her arm after accidentally touching mine, as if I had a contagious disease.

I was just a child, but I remember the feeling. The embarrassment, the hurt, and the feeling that something about me was wrong.

I didn’t stop loving ballet. I stopped feeling safe enough to pursue it outside of home. And unfortunately, this happened with many other things I wanted to do.

Looking back as an adult, I understand that this experience was about more than one hurtful comment. It became part of a much larger pattern of racial experiences that shaped how I saw myself, how I moved through the world, and how often I felt safe enough to be fully myself.

For years, I thought I was simply “shy.” It wasn’t until much later, through therapy, that I began to understand myself differently. I wasn’t a different person at home and outside of home. I was the same playful, expressive, creative little girl. I had simply learned where it was safe to be her.

This is one of many childhood memories I carry, and I’m sharing it because I know I’m not the only one. Children absorb far more than we realize. They notice who is included, who is celebrated, who is considered beautiful, and who is treated as different. They can begin internalizing those messages long before they have the words to explain what they are experiencing.

And something happened just a few years ago that brought this childhood memory right back to me:

When I lived in Hawaii, a white American girl who was my neighbor came to me crying after school. Other white children had told her that her skin was “poop” and asked her why she was so dark because she happened to have a beautiful, naturally tan, olive complexion. She told me sadly that she didn’t want to be brown and asked why her skin had to be brown. I talked with her about it and shared my own story of experiencing something very similar around the same age, when I was five/six.

And I’ll say this plainly: from the late 80s and early 90s to today, we need to do better. Parents, society, systems, all of us. Because there are children who never make remarks like this about someone else’s skin color. So the question is, why are some children learning, at such a young age, to belittle another child for having brown skin? Where are they learning that?

Children are not born believing that one skin color is better than another. They learn these ideas. And that means we have a responsibility to be intentional about what we teach, what we model, what we normalize, and what we challenge.

Every child deserves to feel safe being exactly who they are. Different skin shades. Different hair textures. Different cultures. Different bodies. Different ways of communicating and expressing themselves. Different ways of experiencing the world.

None of these differences are wrong, and no child should have to shrink themselves because of them.

This is why I share my stories. To remember the little girl I was. To honor what she experienced. To continue healing and unlearning, and to look at how far I’ve come. 🩰🤎

And hopefully, to help someone else feel a little less alone.

If you’ve experienced something similar, I hope you know there was never anything wrong with you.

#ballet #education #family #children #kids #marriage #couples #racism #decolonization

Sleeping separately often leads people to jump to negative conclusions, ones that usually say more about their assumptions or insecurities than about the relationship itself. “Something must be wrong.”

What if sleeping in separate bedrooms is actually a sign that something is working?

In this episode of ‘Eff' Norms, we're questioning the relationship "rules" we've been taught to accept without ever asking whether they actually make our lives better. For us, separate bedrooms mean better sleep, more peace, and a stronger, happier relationship, not less love.

You don't need a traditional relationship. You need one that works for you. What's one relationship "rule" you've challenged or let go of? Share it in the comments.

We made cannelloni for Mother's Day! Enjoy some special moments with my mom as we make one of the traditional recipes I grew up eating on special occasions. I originally learned to make dishes from my Italian grandmother.

We made things like lasagna, pasta from scratch, Italian ring cookies, plus more. Cannelloni is a long process, and normally, you make everything from scratch. The tomato sauce, the minced meat stuffing, the béchamel sauce, and the pasta, which you would make the dough, then roll the sheets in the machine, and cut to size.

Okay, so here we made everything except the pasta sheets this time around to save some time; we purchased them from a local Italian store. We bought the refrigerated kinds, but you could also buy the dry ones. Either way, you have to cook them first. My mom came for a swift stopover visit, and we made the most of our time together.

Thanks for tuning in & remember:

L i v e o u t l o u d

An introvert's dream, no annoying crowds! Enjoy as I play & spend a fun day at the beach. I lived in Hawaii for several years and was known for knowing the best beaches to go to for low to no crowds :). Visuals only, no narration. #hawaii #introvert #solitude #nature #dance

Empty House Tour. Enjoy!