The Beautifull Project

We can't have a season about coming back to our bodies without having a little talk about trauma, can we? Absolutely not!

While trauma seems to be a trending topic these days, the truth is that we're only beginning to understand the impact of trauma on our bodies. But while we may not know everything there is to know, we know enough to start taking on our trauma and carving out a path back to ourselves, directly through the experie...

If there's one place where diet culture runs deep, it's definitely in our relationship with food. From counting points to tracking macros, there is no shortage of suggestions out there that will continually remind us that we can't possibly be trusted to know how to nourish ourselves.

But Michelle Russell has a different idea. As a certified Intuitive Eating Registered Dietitian, Michelle knows that food doesn't have to be this way....

This episode is a how-to for healing your relationship with moving your body.

Kali Eastin, owner of the Kalioke Movement Lounge, brings a bit of her own story to the mic, but also grounds this whole conversation in solid science about what it means for us to move our bodies. She provides a path back to ourselves, using movement to get there, and ditching diet culture along the way.

If you want to believe movement is meant for you, ...

"If I'd been in a car accident and had a bone sticking out of my leg, would I get to the ER and have them refuse to fix my broken leg because I'm fat? Would they wait until I lost weight to pursue treatment? No. Of course not. This isn't different, but I still can't get what I need."

Teri was one of our favorite storytellers in Season One, and she's back to talk about all things medicine and marginalized bodies by sharing her own...

"I thought I lived a life where people saw me, and they don't.

Because I didn't even see myself.

And by "saw me," I mean people saw me as a black woman. I didn't see myself as a black woman. I thought I did. But I didn't."

Delia is a woman, a wife, a mother, and a force of a human bein...

"I just want to go back. To a time when we don't have fear. When we're not so sheltered from each other, from the external relationships with each other. I just want to go back.

Welcome to the first interview of The Spilling Stories, a special series dedicated to abandoning the idea that we need to hold it all together and showcasing the grit it takes to allow ourselves to spill over.

These are stories of resilience, of ordinary wo...

"It doesn't do me any good to try to struggle to the surface until I've touched the bottom. If you don't let yourself go to the bottom where you can actually find your feet, it's hard to know which way is up.

So, part of it for me is allowing myself the full sink, allowing myself to fall apart."

Welcome to the first interview of The Spilling Stories, a special series dedicated to abandoning the idea that we need to hold it all toge...

"Maybe I don't need to hold it all together. Maybe I really need to just let myself spill over."

The Beautifull Project podcast is interrupting its regularly scheduled programming for a series of special episodes aimed directly at what it means to take up space in a world flipped upside down.

In this first special episode, Sarah unpacks her own reaction, explains some of the silence on The Project's platform, and shares a small shi...

"A lot of our conversations are filled with smile emojis, but at the end of the day it's leaving us empty. Just because we're more doesn't mean we're more connected... we need community."

In episode 4, we sat down with Haley DeGreve, college senior, marketing and communications major, and co-founder of The Gray Matters.

The Gray Matters is a mental health campaign that seeks to initiate conversation around the gray area between men...

"I don't really now how this big, black lesbian got accepted into so many circles, but it happened for me. Since they let me in the door, I'm going to always have something to say."

In this episode, we welcome Brandy Donaldson - author, speaker, and activist - to the microphone. 

Brandy began her journey into social advocacy and activism shortly after moving to Illinois. Her volunteerism has included Big Brothers Big Sisters of the...

"It doesn't matter who tells you that you can't have access. You go and you see... 'Can I get in here?'. And maybe not today, but tomorrow you can try again. I think it's important for women to give themselves permission."

Welcome to Episode 2 of Season Three: The Mamas and the Makers. In this episode, we sat down with Gaye Shannon Burnett. 

Gaye has been active in the local community with art and drama programs for young people fo...

Welcome to Season Three: The Mamas and the Makers! In this first episode, we welcome Sara Dean, the original Shameless Mom, to the mic for an incredible conversation about what it takes to make something you love.

Sara is the creator and host of the Shameless Mom Academy Podcast, a top rated podcast with over 2 million downloads. Her biggest passion is helping women own their space.  After enduring her own identity crisis following...

+Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault+

"When the truth gets stuck in us, it crowds out the space that could be used for love and connection. Telling the story is a way to get the truth outside of me." 

In this final episode of the Season of Survivors, Sarah sits down with her wife, Becky... not to interview her, but to BE interviewed by her, and to share a part of her own survival story she has not shared before. Sarah tells the story o...

+ Trigger Warning: Miscarriage +

In this episode, we sat down with Katie, a survivor of miscarriage. Katie unpacks her story delicately, the way you unpack some little treasure you've stored away for safekeeping. And in many ways, that's what Katie had done with this memory up until this point. She had kept the memory of "Baby T" alive inside of her, and wanted to share that memory with all of you. She hones in on the importance of...

+Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Spiritualized Trauma +

"And then one day, I sat up in bed, and said, 'I'm whole again.'"

In this episode, we sat down with Rachel, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and later, a survivor of an abusive marriage. Rachel grew up in a deeply religious context, and when her abuse was disclosed, she was silenced and told to believe that what happened to her was her fault. This belief took root in her...

 + Trigger Warning: Eating Disorders, Miscarriage +

"I believe in the power of community, in surrounding yourself with people who can believe things for you that you can’t believe for yourself when you’re in pain. And I’m a big believer in hope. Hold on to hope. Hold on to hope that you will come out of this stronger.”

In this episode, we sat down with Liv, a survivor of an eating disorder, multiple miscarriages and the grief of ho...