03/06/2026
For the longest time, I think I misunderstood visibility as something someone else had to grant me, perhaps because I had spent so many years in mainstream media being trained, rewarded, and very comfortably protected by the authority of a legacy title, where my voice could exist through a publicationās tone, a magazineās reputation, and someone elseās idea of what credibility was supposed to sound and look like.
So when it came to showing up on social media as myself, without the armour of a masthead, without the borrowed permission of an institution, and without being able to hide behind the polished distance of āthe brandā, I realised that what I was resisting was not the platform itself, but the terrifying unfamiliarity of being visible on my own terms.
In the pilot episode of Awenessly Speaking, and I talk about success, permission, public perception, fear, and the strange shift that happens when we stop waiting for someone else to tell us we are allowed to take up space, have a voice, change our minds, be misunderstood, make mistakes, amend ourselves, and still keep going.
Because maybe self-permission does not mean we suddenly become immune to criticism, cancellation, judgement, or someone out there deciding they donāt like us.
Maybe it simply means we become clear enough within ourselves that other peopleās reactions no longer get to be the highest authority in our lives.
And honestly, what a strange and liberating thing it is to realise that we do not need to perform being a perfect role model in order to become a real one for the people who need to see us live, speak, try, fail, change, and show up anyway.
The full pilot episode of is now live on YouTube and Spotify.
