627: Laurel Handfield: From Low Self-Worth And Self-Harm To Creating Books For Girls Of Color

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Education, Management, How To, Business, Self-improvement

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Laurel Handfield began her writing career years ago in a small, suburban town outside of Philadelphia, PA. In college, she majored in business marketing and after graduation, she worked in sales, marketing, and advertising. However, a trip to the Bahamas led to a shift in focus and a rediscovery of her true passion: writing. Her vacation to the islands turned into an unexpected romance when she met and fell in love with her now-husband. After two years in a long-distance relationship, she decided to move to the Bahamas permanently. While life in the Bahamas was slower and more relaxed, she also discovered that her marketing career didn’t hold quite as much opportunity on the islands as it did in the United States, so she went back to creating. She wrote and ghostwrote over five full-length novels, including a fictional tale about the only Black family on the Titanic. Today, Laurel creates coloring/activity books for young girls of color. She still calls the Bahamas home and enjoys the laid-back island life with her husband, three children, and two dogs. Listen in to hear Laurel share: Her journey of building her self esteem as a young Black girl and then a Black woman The impact of being teased for her looks and physical attributes as a young girl How the impact of her low self-worth led to self-harm in the form of an eating disorder How she healed from her low self-esteem and eating disorder - and recognized what an epidemic there was around the struggles she was facing What inspired her work to create books and coloring books for girls of color How moms can affirm their daughter’s worth in different ways Her advice to moms who might want to write a book Links mentioned: Join me in Jen Lumanlan’s 10 week Taming Your Triggers workshop: shamelessmom.com/taming Connect with Laurel: www.happyislandpress.com Laurel’s Books on Amazon: Happy Island Press Laurel on FB Laurel on IG Laurel on TikTok Please find our sponsor information here: shamelessmom.com/sponsor/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Shameless Mom Academy episode 627 with Laurel Handfield.
0:05.2	Show notes for this episode, including any links mentioned in the episode, can be found by going to
0:09.0	shameless mom.com and clicking on episode 627.
0:16.9	Welcome to the Shameless Mom Academy.
0:19.1	I'm your host, Sarah Dean.
0:22.5	I'm here to give you and other passionate, driven, unapologetic moms, tools, resources, and a little bit of humor to help you
0:28.3	lead more positive, powerful, and purposeful lives every damn day. One of the best things about
0:33.9	the Shameless Mom Academy is our community. So be sure to join us in our free
0:37.5	private Facebook group to connect with other shameless moms just like you. You can find us over
0:42.5	at shamelessomom.com forward slash Facebook. All right, let's dive into today's episode.
0:52.8	Laurel Hanfield began her writing career years ago in a small suburban town outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
0:58.7	In college, she majored in business marketing, and after graduation, she worked in sales, marketing, and advertising.
1:04.2	However, a trip to the Bahamas led to a shift in focus and a rediscovery of her true passion, writing.
1:09.6	Her vacation to the islands turned into an
1:11.7	unexpected romance when she met and fell in love with her now husband. After two years in a long
1:16.5	distance relationship, she decided to move to the Bahamas permanently. While life in the Bahamas was
1:20.9	slower and more relaxed, she also discovered that her marketing career didn't hold quite as much
1:25.2	opportunity on the islands as it did in the U.S.
1:29.2	So she went back to creating.
1:34.4	She wrote and ghost wrote over five full-length novels, including a fictional tale about the only black family on the Titanic.
1:36.8	Today, Laurel creates coloring books and activity books for young girls of color.
1:40.8	She still calls the Bahamas home and enjoys the laid-back island life with her
	...

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