For years, I believed body acceptance and weight loss couldn't coexist—that I had to choose between loving my body and changing it. I thought those were my only two options. They weren't.

The decision isn't whether we'll belong. It's where. We can keep belonging to everyone else. Or we can begin belonging to ourselves. We stop waiting for permission. We become the ones who grant it.

What's happening here, Suzanne? you may be asking. Aren't you anti-diet? Aren't you all about loving your body as it is? Don't you have a history of disordered eating? ARE YOU OKAY? All excellent questions—ones I have been asking myself for weeks. (The answers, by the way, are yes, yes, yes, and no.)

Being unseen and feeling unseen are not the same thing. If the story is 'I'm unseen,' no amount of recognition will ever feel like enough. Because the mind will simply dismiss it and keep searching for evidence that confirms what it already believes.

We don't usually think of people-pleasing, perfectionism, or self-doubt as safety strategies. But look closer. Underneath those behaviors is often an attempt to avoid something: rejection, criticism, exclusion, conflict, failure, disapproval. Somewhere along the way many of us learned that those experiences weren't merely uncomfortable. They felt unsafe. The problem isn't that we want safety. Of course we do. The problem is that many of us have learned to find it outside ours

All I wanted was to be chosen. As a date for the homecoming dance of 10th grade. By my top choice college. By that guy and then that girl. By that employer. By that agent, publisher, reader. By that client. By the speaking booking agent. But not just them. I wanted it all. I wanted to be chosen by the scrolling Instagramer, that recalcitrant Amazon reviewer, that stranger who didn’t return my greeting. By my cat who spins away when I call her name. Here’s the dirty truth: I e

Unworthiness is a narcissist in disguise—a self-absorbed lie that convinces us we’re in control. If we believe we’re the problem, at least we know the rules. But certainty isn’t truth. Overcoming unworthiness means fixing the hole in our worth from the inside—with self-trust, self-permission, and the courage to claim our value, even when doubt roars like a bear.

Should I give up now? What if this dream is not meant for me? Is this pursuit causing me more harm than good?

Healing isn't all candles and crying. It's about breaking down the walls that separate us from ourselves. It requires cracking.

Humans are funny creatures. We equally crave novelty and fear the unknown. We get bored easily but don’t like change. We are designed to exp

I've always fought for liberation. But what if I've had it backwards? What if liberation isn't about opposing but about opening?

Humans are built for connection; we cannot sustain this division without serious consequences.