You don’t need more talent. You need to believe you’re allowed to try :)

Have you ever seen a woman in a sari included in the “that girl” aesthetic? For many women of color, believing in ourselves is harder because we rarely see ourselves reflected as beautiful, aspirational, creative, or mainstream. We are taught that our clothes are “ethnic,” our skin is a “tan,” and our stories belong somewhere outside the centre. After hearing those messages for long enough, we may start believing that our voices, aesthetics, and abilities are not valuable enough to build something with. In this episode, I explore why believing in yourself is really about feeling good enough to begin. I talk about growing up around extraordinarily talented, funny, intelligent people who never did anything with their gifts, not because they lacked ability, but because they believed a conventional life was the only story available to them. But having an ability is only the beginning. The other part is practicing, creating, and giving yourself permission to try. Your childhood home, your accent, your brown skin, your sari, your family stories, and the life you came from are not less aesthetic or less worthy of being documented. Everything is made up. You are allowed to believe a bigger story about yourself and then repeat it enough times to make something real 0:00 Introduction – The "That Girl" Aesthetic Problem 0:31 Kids Believe What They're Told 1:14 The Indian 9-to-5 Mold 2:14 AI Is Taking Our Jobs — Now What? 3:15 We All Want to Tell a Story 3:28 Extraordinary Talent Around Me 4:21 Why Talented People Do Nothing With Their Gift 5:45 Two Parts of Being Extraordinary 7:21 Believing in Yourself = Feeling Good About Yourself 7:54 How Society Tells Women of Color They're Not Enough 8:31 My Skin Is Not a Tan 9:53 "Ethnic" Is Not a Compliment 14:00 Starting Is the Only Thing That Matters 16:57 Immigration Limbo & Making Money 20:28 Don't Believe the Limited Story You Were Told