I thought I invented hiding. I didn’t have language for it. I just had strategies. Tucking part of me away. Blending in. Overcompensating. And I honestly thought I was alone. The only one hiding anything. Then, in a random Walgreens in New York City, I met a woman with the same little hand. We talked…
Hiding is how many of us learned to survive. Unhiding is how we learn to thrive without doing it all alone. Recently, a friend told me about the anxiety they felt around hosting people for the holidays. Not panic. Not drama. Just the constant mental math. Is it enough? Is it too much? Will…
A Moment You Might Recognize Last month, I sat in a meeting and felt that little push. You know the one. You feel the nudge. You know you should speak. And then you don’t. That old voice showed up for me. What if it sounds stupid? What if I am wrong? What if they judge…
Have you ever told someone something real, something you thought was safe, and then watched them share it, twist it, or use it against you? It stings. It makes you want to crawl back into hiding. And it makes you wonder if it’s safer not to share at all. This question has been coming up…
This summer, I started painting—with the hand I hid for 25 years. Because sometimes the things we’ve hidden the longest have the most to teach us. Facing the Doubts Truth? I wasn’t sure what would happen. Maybe something beautiful, maybe something that looked like a preschool finger-painting. (Spoiler: some of it did.) And underneath it…
Lately, I’ve been noticing hiding everywhere, at a dinner with TIME, splashed across a full-page ad in The New York Times, and in a candid conversation on Mel Robbins’ podcast. You’ve been spotting it too, sending me articles, podcasts, and movie scenes (keep them coming). Hiding—and unhiding—are everywhere. Once you start noticing it, you can’t…
