Molly-Ann Leikin came to California from Canada with her baritone ukulele to become a songwriter in Hollywood at a time when women were rare in the
field. She was told that nobody listens to lyrics. She was told she wasn’t beautiful, so no one would want her. But she refused to leave. Her determination led her to life as an award-winning songwriter for pop and country music stars, TV, and film. Her determination story is about always singing to her own tune.
E.B. Wexler has been a clinical social worker for nearly 30 years. She has recently started sharing publicly about living with Complex PTSD, from her early childhood. Her mission and purpose in going public is to use both her own story and her professional experience to help shape a new conversation about trauma in our society, where it carries a great stigma.
When Jo Ivester and her husband learned that one of their four beloved children identified as trans, they knew they needed to use that love to and to expand their understanding of what their son would face. Jeremy Ivester kept a video journal for much of his transition. Those recordings became the basis for the book his mother wrote: Once a Girl, Always a Boy.
Coming from the business and nonprofit world, Donna Cameron found herself awed by kindness and its power to transform. In her book award-winning memoir, A Year of Living Kindly, she chronicles her experience of that transformation and shares the discoveries she made—lessons in patience, understanding, and humor.
Michael Lazarin never set out to be an advocate and activist. But when he became an “erased” alienated father of his beloved daughter, Audrie Pott, when she was seven years old, he had no choice but to fight for his child, and later in her memory. How has he found joy and happiness alongside this fight? That’s the story he shares with us.
At age twenty-six, Anne Reeder Heck was brutally raped by a stranger. Years later, still seeking to heal from this trauma, Anne stands alone in her living room and claims her desired belief aloud: “This is my year of strength.” Her clear intention results in a phone call notifying her that her rapist has been identified—fourteen years after the crime. Anne’s gripping and uplifting story is one that has sparked national interest, has been shared on the TEDx stage, and is told in her memoir A Fierce Belief in Miracles.
