Hello kind curious cuties! I’m thrilled to begin a new season with you! Welcome to the first episode of season 2! I got to interview Bryana Kappadakunnel this month, the first person to ever come to me, which was a huge deal for this project! She has an organization called Conscious Mommy in which she helps people parent themselves, which in turn helps them parent their children. 😇 She’s a licensed therapist, and wrote a book that comes out on January 28th called Parent Yourself First!

We both have acting backgrounds, went to college in New York (she to NYU and I to Sarah Lawrence), worked in preschools, and have directly experienced the therapeutic power of performing arts. I was fascinated to speak with someone I connect with in so many ways, who is incredibly knowledgeable, capable, compassionate, and accomplished! I loved learning together and bonding as always, which I’m elated to include you in now too! 💞✨

One funny behind the scenes tidbit is that we were both coughing throughout the interview, which I edited out, but at one point, my voice sounds a little wonky, almost as if I’m going to cry as I talk about perfectionism and gifted child syndrome. As emotional as these topics can be, I wasn’t in that state during our conversation. lol What I wish I could’ve left in was us supporting each other through the experience, because that was honestly so sweet: such beautiful empathy and solidarity between us in those moments. 🥹

I was bummed we didn’t have time to discuss all my questions, so just to let you know, the ones we had to skip were about how her performing artist self manifests in her parenting and her work, and the relationship between Acting and Therapy. I was going to share my perspective on all that too, so hopefully I’ll have another opportunity in the future. 🎭🎬🎤

You can explore more of her work at consciousmommy.com and you can pre-order her book here: https://www.consciousmommy.com/book. She’s even going on tour! On January 29th, 6:30pm, she’ll be at “{pages} a bookstore” in Los Angeles and on January 30th, 7pm, she’ll be at “A Great Good Place for Books” in Oakland! I hope you’ll be able to meet her if you’re in California like us, and that you enjoy listening to our talk! 🥰💫🫧🪻🦋

Until next time SweetSmarties!

Love your founder, T.J. 🦄❄️🐚💎🍓👑