Jena Covello, founder of Agent Nateur. (Courtesy of Agent Nateur)
A diagnosis of endometriosis and adenomyosis at age 23 was the catalyst that prompted Jena Covello to research holistic approaches to heal these estrogen-dominant autoimmune conditions.
Wary of hormone-disrupting chemicals in everyday products, she began experimenting with natural solutions, starting with a luxurious deodorant she crafted in her West Hollywood apartment. “I wanted to create something that was equally beautiful as it was healthy and effective,” she said.
Eventually, that led her to found Agent Nateur, a luxury wellness brand offering skincare, supplements, and beauty essentials with nourishing ingredients that are free from GMOs, soy, parabens, sulfates, aluminum, and petroleum. Over the years, Covello has continued to share her tips and insights on her blog and social media.
Here, she shares her morning routine, the ingredients she loves, and the places where she finds inspiration and renewal.
(Courtesy of Agent Nateur)
AE: What’s your morning routine like?
Jena Covello: Every morning is different, but I always maintain my non-negotiables: a workout—virtual or in-person—with my trainer Rob Parr, time for my skin care routine, and my morning holi (mane) matcha latte with almond milk, maple syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt.
I don’t wash my skin in the morning with anything except water. I apply Agent Nateur rose and hyaluronic essence with a dash of holi c and holi oil. Then I apply our new tinted SPF, holi (sun), non-nano zinc-based tinted protecting drops! I like matte lipstick and lipliner, but aside from that I don’t wear much makeup.
AE: What hero ingredients do you swear by?
Ms. Covello: Cucumber water is one favorite. It is bursting with flavonoids and antioxidants that promote youthful-looking skin, and is shown to alleviate swelling and soothe redness. It also smells so incredible. Another favorite in many Agent products is sodium ascorbyl phosphate. It is the best derivative of vitamin C for cosmetics due to its natural SPF of 8, its stability, and its bioavailability. It protects against environmental stressors that lead to fine lines and wrinkles. Spermidine is an incredibly powerful cell-renewing active, both topically and orally. It is a key ingredient in our new calm (beauty) supplement and in our new topical scalp growth spray!
AE: What are the most important things you’ve learned on your health and wellness journey?
Ms. Covello: The brand’s existence is truly because of this journey! I have a history with endometriosis and adenomyosis and many years ago began taking a holistic approach to my health to heal both estrogen dominant autoimmune conditions. Many doctors began telling me to avoid using aluminum antiperspirant because it mimics estrogen. I couldn’t find a natural deodorant that worked so I began making my own. I wanted to create something that was equally beautiful as it was healthy and effective. At the time nothing existed. I poured and packaged the deodorants myself in my West Hollywood apartment! Over the years, I have gotten access to the most incredible holistic doctors and healers from around the world. I created our blog to share all this knowledge that has changed my life. We have endless expert interviews, deep-dives on specific topics, and holistic tips for everything from hair shedding to manifesting techniques.
(Courtesy of Agent Nateur)
AE: What makes Agent Nateur unique?
Ms. Covello: We are truly category agnostic. Our customer trusts us to create the best, most effective and beautiful skincare, supplements, makeup, hair care and body care. The common denominator for every product is a relentless commitment to quality and efficacy. I formulate in the south of France and Los Angeles, focusing on ingredients that are healing, nourishing, as well as free from GMO’s, soy, parabens, sulfates, aluminum and petroleum. Our products do not disturb hormones and are safe when pregnant and breastfeeding. This standard is what our customer deeply trusts in and is incredibly important for me to uphold!
AE: What’s your favorite beauty product, currently?
Ms. Covello: It is so hard to choose just one! Holi (water), our high-molecular weight, pearl and rose hyaluronic essence. It is such a light but deeply hydrating essence, and applying it is a lovely daily ritual, it smells incredible. Mixed with holi (c), our dry vitamin c and calcium powder, it instantly brightens your complexion while working hard on discoloration, texture, and firmness long-term. Lately, I am especially obsessed with our newest supplement launch calm (beauty) a relaxing, longevity and beauty supplement with taurine and spermidine–I love to mix it into a nighttime mocktail.
Pro-tip: Holi (glow) gives the most incredible brightening effect under the eyes, no makeup necessary! I also love to tap it on my cheekbones as a natural highlight. I use holi (bright) as an overnight mask for transformed skin by morning! I also love to add epsom salt to my shampoo twice a month to really clean and clarify the hair.
AE: Where do you find inspiration?
Ms. Covello: I am inspired by my own healing journey, but also the people around me! My mom is such a skincare aficionado with incredibly high standards, and she has inspired so many products, including holi (mane) our best-selling marine collagen and pearl powder supplement.
AE: Where’s your happy place?
Ms. Covello: LA and Miami are special to me for different reasons. I’m surrounded by constant creativity in LA. I’m so lucky to have amazing friends, a support system and team that inspires me. Nowhere in the world compares. What I love most is how original and forward everyone is creative-wise. Within five seconds I can recommend the best hair stylist, makeup artist, functional medical doctor, nutritionist, facial, nail salon, photographer, influencer, set designer, creator, calligraphy writer, painter, etc.
Miami is the place I escape to when I’m burnt out and need alone time, or the perfect place between LA and Europe. I mostly just hang out with my boyfriend and dogs, and feel a great sense of relief listening to the ocean from my bedroom. For sure that sound partially healed me. It’s clean, safe, and nothing is as magnificent as winter in Miami.
AE: What new project are you excited about?
Ms. Covello: Our upcoming magnesium supplement. It is a blend of six premium forms of magnesium for unparalleled bioavailability, efficacy, and results. Each form is intentionally selected to target mind, body, and cellular health, delivering the ultimate solution for energy, relaxation, cognitive clarity, and restful sleep.
Dr. Jingduan Yang is an integrative neurologist, psychiatrist, and acupuncturist, board certified in psychiatry, specializing in integrative mental health and Chinese medicine. (Samira Bouaou for American Essence)
When Jingduan Yang was just a boy, his father asked him: “You like to eat meat?”
Yang nodded.
“Well, then,” his father replied flatly, “you’d better learn medicine—or you’re going to go hungry.”
Born in Hefei, Anhui province, in 1962 as the youngest of eight siblings, Yang grew up under the weight of family tradition and the turbulence of a changing China.
His ancestry traces back to renowned Chinese doctors, including a royal physician to the Qing Dynasty emperor. His father, a fourth-generation practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), expected to pass down this legacy to his firstborn son.
However, in Yang’s case, tradition allowed for an exception. With his eldest brother sent for “re-education” in the countryside during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the duty of upholding the family’s inheritance fell to Yang.
At 13, Yang began shadowing his father, learning the ancient art of Chinese medicine. His father hoped that, at the very least, he could become a “barefoot doctor”—a physician who travels through villages to treat farmers in need, usually carrying a simple toolbox of acupuncture needles and herbs. Most importantly, this way, he could ensure he never went hungry.
In 1977, China reinstated its national college exam system. Yang took the exam and scored high enough to choose his field of study. The opportunities were numerous, but undoubtedly, medicine was his destiny. “I never questioned that,” he said.
Following his father’s advice that “Traditional Chinese medicine is best learned at home” and believing combining it with Western medicine would make him a more capable doctor, Yang enrolled in the prestigious Fourth Military Medical University.
This choice of school, while seemingly straightforward, was discreetly influenced by his family’s troubled political past.
Yang’s father was a former resistance fighter against the Japanese during World War II. Due to his outspoken temperament, he had been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, he changed the family name from Tao to Yang to conceal his identity. Now, he urged his children to attend military universities, believing that the trust the communist leadership placed in military graduates would grant a protective veil over the family.
Unbeknownst to young Yang, as he left home for medical school, he embarked upon a journey that would take him from the constraints of communist China to the freedom of the West and from the wisdom of the past to the frontiers of modern medicine.
A Foot in Two Worlds
Once in medical school, Yang found himself straddling two worlds—one rooted in empirical science, the other in millennia-old philosophy. “That’s where the confusion started,” he said.
During summer breaks, he regularly engaged in spirited debates with his father about the discrepancies between the two medical systems.
“In medical school,” he recalled, “we learned blood is produced in the bone marrow. But Chinese medicine says it’s produced by the kidneys—I couldn’t reconcile these two.”
The answer would elude Yang for a decade, the contradiction lingering in his mind. “I couldn’t convince [my father] … and he couldn’t convince me.”
These discussions, at times muddling and frustrating, sowed the seeds for what would become Yang’s lifelong quest: to harmonize the wisdom of the East with the rigor of the West.
By his fourth year, Yang’s exceptional performance earned him a scholarship to study abroad in Sydney. At 21, he was wide-eyed and unaware of the revelations that awaited him.
In Australia, Yang experienced the Western world’s cultural and academic openness. He lived in a seaside cottage under the wing of professor Thomas Stapleton, a stern but warm-hearted mentor. Every morning, the professor made him and his cohort to run along the beach before plunging into the frigid ocean. The training was intensive yet liberating.
Back in China, his curriculum was conventional and rigid—anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry—psychology wasn’t included. In Australia, he had room to breathe, to ask questions, to probe the meaning of life itself.
Dr. Yang is reimagining the role of a doctor—one who can not only address diseases, but also treat patients holistically and shape public policy. (Samira Bouaou for American Essence)
On one occasion, a fellow medical student asked Yang about the Daoist philosopher Lao Zi. Yang was surprised by his interest, as he had been taught that Lao Zi was a bad person, “feudalist” and “backward.”
“That was embarrassing,” Yang remembered. “It made me aware of the deficit of my own education for my own culture.” But Yang didn’t know better. He had been, in his own words, “brainwashed by communism”—fed a distorted reality.
Academically, his days were filled with discussions of medicine but with an unfamiliar approach.
Once, Stapleton tested Yang with a question about a baby afflicted with diarrhea. Yang confidently listed medical interventions: rehydration, treating infections, and managing symptoms. But Stapleton pressed him further: “What else? What was the mother doing? Where was the father?” This moment taught Yang to think beyond biology and seek other causes—a lesson that would become a cornerstone of his medical philosophy.
“Most doctors focus on fixing symptoms,” Yang reflected, “but we have to dig for the root causes, both direct and indirect.”
Recognizing his passion and aptitude, Stapleton urged him, “You must come to Oxford.”
An Awakening in the West
At Oxford University, as a research fellow in clinical psychopharmacology, Yang made a startling discovery—a group of scientists found that red blood cell formation in the bone marrow was stimulated by a hormone called erythropoietin.
He was stunned to learn this hormone was produced in the kidneys—just as his father had taught.
“I wish he had still been alive when I discovered [this],” Yang said. The discrepancy that long troubled him began to resolve.
Reminiscing on those summer arguments with his father, he recalled how his father also taught him that mood disorders and blood pressure were linked and both could be traced to the liver. At that time, Yang disagreed, “One is a cardiovascular problem, and the other is a problem for the psychiatric department.”
As a fellow, Yang studied how serotonin and dopamine receptors affect mood disorders. While reviewing the scientific literature, he discovered that the majority of the research wasn’t published in a psychological journal, but rather in the journal Hypertension. He realized that blood pressure and mood disorders were both tied to serotonin. Yang then wondered, “Where is serotonin metabolized?” Surprise—in the liver.
“I smiled in my heart,” Yang said. Western medicine, it seemed, was validating ancient Chinese wisdom.
On another occasion, Michael Gilda, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, took Yang out for lunch and invited him to visit Merton College’s library. There, surrounded by volumes upon volumes of medical botanicals, Yang realized that Western herbal medicine had origins in practices akin to those of
Chinese medicine.
These revelations in Oxford marked a turning point for Yang. The two worlds he had straddled began to converge, the wisdom of the past illuminating the path forward.
An Unpredicted Homecoming
Invigorated by his experience abroad, Yang returned to China in 1989, motivated to transform medicine. “I wanted to change China,” he said, brimming with idealism.
However, his homecoming coincided with the Tiananmen Square protests. Many of Yang’s peers marched—yet he chose to keep his head down. He was mindful that as a military officer, he was under tighter scrutiny and could endanger his family and career. He decided to remain on the sidelines, but the anxiety settled in his heart.
Despite the turmoil, his academic career soared rapidly. By 1992, he was the youngest attending physician and assistant professor at the Fourth Military Medical University, poised to lead the neurology and psychiatry departments. Accolades poured in—by all accounts, he was a rising star.
But beneath the veneer of success, he glimpsed a troubling future. He observed that his supervisor, despite his grand achievements, lived in constant fear. The supervisor was very careful about what he said, or even what he thought, constantly self-censoring, said Yang.
Seeing a reflection of his own inevitable path, he thought, “I don’t want to live that life.”
Yang felt the suffocating weight of compromise. He witnessed doctors taking bribes, forming political alliances to secure grants, and navigating the corrupt system. The rigid hierarchy stifled innovation and integrity.
Yang’s mind drifted back to Oxford, where he had tasted true freedom. “I felt I really had human dignity and identity.”
“I wasn’t changing China. China was changing me.”
Yang made up his mind. He would leave for the United States.
His colleagues and family questioned his choice with disapproval, “Why leave when you can be anything you want here?” Yang answered them sternly, “You don’t know what I want—what I want is freedom.”
Yang uses acupuncture, one of the many integrative treatments, to treat patients at Northern Medical Center in the United States. (Samira Bouaou for American Essence)
Facing West and Starting Over
In 1998, Yang landed in snowy Minnesota with a mere $6,000 in his pocket. His medical credentials were worthless in America. Now, with a wife and a young son, he was forced to start anew. Freedom, he learned, came at a cost.
His wife suggested washing dishes at a local restaurant. But fate intervened, granting Yang a teaching position at a community college. There, he taught Westerners about acupuncture and herbal medicine.
It was a transformative period, forcing him to articulate how Eastern and Western medicine could coexist—not to mention in a language not entirely familiar. “I had to bridge the gap. I had to make sense of it myself before I could make sense to them,” he recalled.
Step by step, Yang rebuilt his career. He completed his psychiatry residency at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona.
Recognizing a void in Chinese medicine education in the United States, Yang channeled his expertise to co-author a comprehensive TCM textbook for Oxford University Press. He founded the American Institute for Clinical Acupuncture, dedicated to educating and training physicians in clinical acupuncture. If he couldn’t change China, he would bring the best of his heritage to his adopted home.
As his reputation grew, so did invitations to speak at conferences and treat high-profile clients. Yang’s integrative model—a blend of modern science and ancient wisdom—began to take shape.
A New Paradigm
Yang observed the high demand for integrative health solutions that address both mind and body, the former stressed in traditional Chinese medicine and the latter highlighted in Western medicine. This led him to establish his own paradigm, which integrates and balances the two.
His guiding principle was straightforward. The human body is multi-dimensional, and each dimension must be accounted for in true healing. By his account, these dimensions are anatomy, biochemistry, energy, and spirit.
In Yang’s view, modern medicine often focuses narrowly on anatomy and biochemistry while neglecting the crucial roles of energy and spirit. This imbalance, he believes, lies at the root of many of the chronic illnesses and mental health challenges people face today.
He often brings up the imagery of a car as an example. Even though it has a body structure, oil, water, electrical circuits, and an engine—it still cannot move. It needs a driver to get it going. The same is true for human beings, he suggests, who need the soul, or consciousness, to direct the human body.
“Fundamentally, we are spiritual beings having a human experience,” Yang likes to say. In his practice, he asks patients about their sense of purpose, their relationship to themselves, and their understanding of spirituality and mortality. He sees these questions as inseparable from the pursuit of physical health and well-being.
“We have to define what health really is,” Yang insists. Rather than merely the absence of disease, he sees true health as “the result of physical integrity, biochemical abundance, energetic balance, and spiritual peace.” It’s a lofty ideal, he admits, but one worth striving for.
After years of polishing and practicing his approach, he faces not East nor West but toward the future.
His next goal is to reshape the future of medicine in the United States, and the best way to inspire change is by leading through example.
A New Medical Center
Today, Yang is the CEO of Northern Medical Center in Middletown, New York—a medical center designed to combine ancient and modern wisdom to treat each patient as a whole person. The center brings his vision to life by offering integrative care that blends standard medical treatments, acupuncture, and herbal therapies all under one roof. Currently, it serves more than 1,000 patients a month.
Rather than offering traditional Chinese medicine as an add-on, Northern Medical Center designs its treatments on the anatomy, biochemistry, energy, and spirit model, giving each of the four dimensions the same weight.
Traditional Chinese medicine should not be seen as “complementary” or “alternative” but “essential,” says Yang.
For instance, Yang employs a technique called neuro-emotional technique (NET). While using traditional Chinese medicine’s understanding of energy meridians and emotional blockages, NET introduces a systematic Western approach to identify where unresolved emotions are stored in the body.
Yang uses neuro-emotional technique to treat patients. (Samira Bouaou for American Essence)
The technique can pinpoint energetic blockages and release them. He recalls a patient named Rob, whose smoking habit persisted despite numerous attempts to quit. Using NET, Yang helped Rob discover that his habit was rooted in academic pressure from his father years ago. Once this emotional block was identified and released, he quit smoking and remained tobacco-free.
Another key emphasis of the center is caring for patients with humanity and compassion.
The staff notes that Yang personally spends substantial time with each patient. “They’re more like dialogues than consultations,” said Qinyang Jiang, his medical assistant. Yang wants to understand the context of the patients’ lives, not just their lab numbers.
This focus has led many patients to experience breakthroughs after years of ineffective treatments elsewhere, said Yang. For instance, one veteran with severe PTSD and chronic depression sought care at multiple hospitals to no avail. After receiving integrative treatments, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, acupuncture, and trauma-focused therapy, the patient achieved long-term relief and returned to meaningful daily life.
The Triple Doctor
For Yang, transforming health care begins with reimagining the role of the physician.
“If your doctor is paid only to prescribe medicine, to talk to patients for 15 minutes, and to perform surgeries, they’re not motivated to do anything else,” he said.
“Imagine a system where primary care physicians are paid equally for preventing illness as they are for treating it. That would fundamentally change our approach to health.”
Yang’s vision for this new kind of physician draws from the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine. He recounts the story of Bian Que, a legendary doctor who, when asked by the emperor if he was the best, replied, “No, I’m not. I only treat sickness. The best doctor is one who can prevent people from getting sick.”
Bian Que went on to say, “The best doctor is one who can heal the nation. The second best heals people. The third merely treats diseases.”
If you look at our American system today, Yang points out, most doctors are dealing with diseases, but not the root cause. Therein lies both the problem and the opportunity.
He wants to educate the next generation of health care leaders to be “triple doctors”—“those who can shape public health policy, treat patients holistically, and address diseases effectively.”
A Vision for a Healthier America
Northern Medical Center is just the beginning. Having spent over four decades studying wide-ranging disciplines across four continents, Yang believes the American health care system needs an overhaul.
Despite a $4.5 trillion budget, the current system prioritizes intervention over prevention and disease over health. Yang believes integrative medicine is the missing piece. Without it, “we’re not going to make America healthy again.”
He believes that, given just 0.0046 percent of the health care budget, he could demonstrate what a health care system looks like, with Northern Medical Center leading as an example.
Yang has a grand plan—to build a local system that demonstrates how integrative health care can cost less, work better, and be replicated globally.
Yang is working to create a model that includes a medical school, hospital, and research institute. In this system, doctors are educated to see patients as whole beings, and health is defined not by the absence of disease but by the presence of balance.
It’s an ambitious vision, but one already taking shape at Northern Medical Center.
“Knowing the type of person he is, Dr. Yang is well-suited to a task like this,” said Robert Backer, a psychologist and former colleague. Yang can galvanize people and inspire them to share in his vision. More people are joining the team, convinced by his ideas and convictions.
Yang’s demeanor is calm and thoughtful, yet shifts when it’s time to get things done—perhaps a remnant of his military training. “He sets a goal and makes it happen,” said his medical assistant.
For Yang, it’s not about personal legacy. “What we do in this lifetime will contribute to the future,” he said. “I want our children and grandchildren to live in a better, healthier, more beautiful world.”
Jingduan Yang is, by his own admission, a dreamer, but he’s not waiting for that world to arrive.
Eating more real, whole foods changed Hari's health and life. She hopes to help others experience the same transformation. (Adhiraj Chakrabarti for American Essence)
When Vani Hari’s mother joined her father in America, the first food he introduced her to was a McDonald’s hamburger.
“He said, ‘If we’re going to live in America, we’re going to eat like Americans.’ And so that’s how we grew up,” Hari said.
Her father had left India to study in the United States, returned home for an arranged marriage, and then settled with his new bride in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hari and her older brother grew up on a blend of cultural fare and “American” food, as their parents tried to give them the best of both worlds.
“My mom knew how to make Indian food, but she didn’t have handed-down recipes from an American mother,” Hari said. So she relied on pre-made and packaged foods. Hari remembers Thanksgiving dinners from boxes and cans, and years of the same frozen Pepperidge Farm cake for her birthday. She gorged on candy, earning her the nickname “candy queen.” As she grew older, she shunned her mother’s homemade Indian meals, opting for junk food and Burger King.
Hari also grew up struggling with common health issues—severe eczema, asthma, and allergies. By her 20s, she was on eight prescription medications. Fueling a high-pressure corporate job with fast food sandwiches and sugary snacks, she was overweight and wore exhaustion on a puffy face.
Now, Hari knows better. Her younger self is unrecognizable from the powerhouse she is today: an investigative food activist, cookbook writer, and fit mom of two, dedicated to bringing healthy change and transparency to the American food industry. Her high-energy presence attracts supporters to rallies just as her popular Food Babe blog has been gaining ardent followers since 2011. Lately, she’s emerged as a powerful voice of the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by former presidential candidate and now Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) head Robert F. Kennedy.
Hari’s mission is inspiring a revolution of Americans with the food knowledge to take back control of their health—just as she did.
Vani Hari whips up one of her favorite green smoothies at her home in Charlotte, N.C. (Adhiraj Chakrabarti for American Essence)
A Health Scare Turned Into Hope
Hari’s transformative journey to vibrant health began on a hospital bed: recovering from an emergency appendectomy at age 23.
“Everyone my age was going out and going to parties, and I was sitting in a hospital room recovering from getting my stomach cut open. I just kind of had enough,” she said. Tired of never feeling well, she resolved to make her health a priority.
Though she lacked a background in health or dietetics, Hari dove into research and armed herself with books, eager to learn about nutrition—and whether her diet was behind her health problems. She quickly built a case against ultra-processed foods.
“I found out my body was super inflamed because of what I was eating,” Hari said.
“One of the books I was reading has this concept that the majority of grocery foods in a package or [that are] processed are dead. They’re not alive. Well, that’s how I felt for most of my life. So I decided to eat more real, live foods that came from nature, that hadn’t been adulterated by the food industry.”
She visited local farmers markets and sought out fresh, whole ingredients. She ditched the fast food and the candy. Soon, her health began to change.
Hari lost the 30 pounds she’d gained in her early 20s, plus five extra. Her energy soared to new highs. Her skin and breathing issues faded, and she didn’t need to refill her prescriptions. Family and friends noticed the “candy queen” wasn’t eating candy anymore, and they commented that she looked like a different person.
They convinced Hari to share how she did it, and her blog, FoodBabe.com, was born.
The Food Babe and Her Army
On the blog, Hari shared stories about her journey and new lifestyle, including healthy recipes and food recommendations.
She also wrote about her investigations into the American food industry and the harmful ingredients hiding in our food supply.
“I used my newfound inspiration for living a healthy life to drive my energy into researching the causes of chronic disease. It all came back to our food,” she said.
The leading cause of mortality in the United States is diet-related chronic disease. Diet is blamed for new diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. One in five American children is obese, and rates of Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are rising rapidly in young generations. These modern health problems have disproportionately affected industrialized countries with diets high in ultra-processed food.
Ultra-processed foods are made in labs, often with chemically altered food extracts and additives that make the food hyper-palatable—difficult to stop eating—and extend their shelf life. Additives include artificial flavors, colors, emulsifiers, and preservatives.
“I realized that I was eating chemicals that were not there to improve the nutrition of my body, or make me healthy, or make me live a long, beautiful life. [They] were invented to improve the bottom line of the food industry, and actually were detrimental to my health,” Hari said.
She also realized there was a lack of transparency around these ingredients that made it hard for consumers to make truly informed food choices. When she investigated healthful claims on the label of her favorite yogurt brand, the company responded by removing misleading marketing.
“This led me more into an activism role, as I saw that we had the ability to influence companies to change,” she said.
The more she called out major food companies for using unhealthy chemical ingredients, the more her popularity grew. Her blog has since grown to more than 4 million subscribers, whom Hari calls the Food Babe Army.
“I started to realize I had this amazing community that not only cared about their own health, but also wanted to hold these companies accountable,” she said. “I realized that I had the ability to get people’s attention on these issues in a way that could really change the food industry.”
Hari has taken her voice from her blog to Capitol Hill. (Adhiraj Chakrabarti for American Essence)
It’s All Personal
Some of Hari’s most popular investigations compare two versions of the same American-manufactured food product: the version sold in the United States, and the version sold overseas. The latter often has a noticeably different, shorter ingredient list.
One of her first investigations was a personal favorite food of hers: Quaker Oats Strawberries and Cream instant oatmeal. She discovered that while the UK version used real strawberries, the U.S. version instead contained dried apple bits, artificially flavored and colored with chemically-derived Red 40.
“We’re tired of this double standard that so many American food companies are participating in by selling safer ingredients to other countries,” Hari said. Other countries have stricter regulations for food additives and, in some cases, require warning labels about ingredients’ associations with health risks. Rather than add the label, American food companies sell reformulated products in overseas markets.
Quaker has since changed the U.S. product to use dried strawberries and natural dye, citing consumer demand for simpler, shorter ingredient lists.
Compelled to action, Hari began launching petitions asking food companies to remove chemical ingredients from their products. She was inspired by fellow food blogger Bettina Elias Siegel, who petitioned to remove “pink slime,” a processed beef byproduct used as a cheap filler, from school lunches.
During a campaign against Subway to stop using azodicarbonamide, a bleaching and dough conditioning chemical also found in yoga mats and shoe soles, Hari filmed a video of herself chewing on a yoga mat. Her petition collected more than 50,000 signatures. Not only did Subway remove the chemical from its bread, but eventually, others like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and White Castle did, too.
“When one product, one company changes, it does inspire the rest of the industry to start changing as well,” Hari said.
Her advocacy is inspired by situations in her personal life, such as seeing a coworker eat Subway for lunch every day, or realizing her husband’s beer didn’t have an ingredient label—and was the only item in her refrigerator that didn’t.
“Every single thing has been about a personal situation or story that has led me to say, ‘Enough is enough. This company needs to be held accountable,’” she said.
Hari credits the Food Babe Army with helping influence some of the largest food corporations to make positive changes, including Chick-fil-A, Kraft, Chipotle, General Mills, Panera Bread, Anheuser-Busch, and Starbucks.
Even when a company is initially non-responsive, she persists. Petitions that aren’t recognized turn into boycotts strong enough to affect company sales.
However, the impact seeps much deeper. Hari noted the power of a single campaign to spread greater public awareness about the link between diet and disease.
“Taking a single product or a single ingredient, and talking about it in a way that wakes people up, that leads to other changes in their diet. That leads to other changes in their lifestyle,” she said.
Hari’s advocacy and education go hand in hand. “I really want people to know what they’re eating so they can make good, informed decisions,” she said. She’s written two books, “The Food Babe Way” and “Feeding You Lies,” and two cookbooks, “Food Babe Kitchen” and “Food Babe Family,” to help empower families to make changes in their own shopping carts and kitchens.
Hari with her husband and two children. (Susan Stripling)
Onto a Bigger Stage
Hari attempted large-scale, governmental-level change early on. She was a Democratic delegate for Barack Obama during both of his presidential campaigns. But when promises to address food chemicals went unfulfilled, she became jaded about the possibility for political change.
However, Hari said the country’s chronic disease crisis has been a big wake up call. Recent public awakening and growing momentum have finally forced the bipartisan issue into the government arena.
She’s been tapped to help elected officials and non-profit organizations from 30 states write bills to ban various chemical ingredients. She’s also uniquely positioned to inspire reform at a higher level.
In September 2024, Hari was invited to participate in a U.S. Senate roundtable discussion on chronic disease. She described it as one of the most important days of her life. Later, Kennedy cited information from Hari’s presentation in his Congressional hearings for his HHS appointment: how McDonald’s French fries differ across the pond. French fries in the UK are made with potatoes, oil, dextrose, and salt; while in the United States, they have more than 10 ingredients, including hydrogenated soybean oil, the antifoaming agent dimethylpolysiloxane, and the preservative TBHQ.
“I’ve never had a politician take my voice like that and bring it to the highest levels of government. I’m extremely hopeful because of that,” Hari said. “It’s the first time we’ve had this level of awareness around chemicals in food at this level of leadership.”
The momentum since has illustrated to her that regulatory change may be possible, ending the game of “whack-a-mole” where change comes slowly, with one ingredient and one company at a time.
“Both sides of the political spectrum are engaged, and it’s just so good for the country, and it’s so beautiful,” Hari said. “I hope when we look back, we see this was the turning point, and we reversed chronic disease.”
At the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Hari, then a Democratic delegate, advocated for more transparency in the food industry. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Raising Her Voice
Back in 2017, Hari launched her own company, Truvani, making protein powders and bars without synthetic ingredients. She admits that one reason she did so was to step back from the risky role of activism and focus on being a mother. However, she quickly realized that being a mom only fueled her passion.
“I want to make it easier for every mom out there to feed her kids and not have to worry about eating these chemicals,” she said. “I personally know how hard it is to avoid processed ingredients. When it comes to artificial food dyes, I’d love to see them removed from our food supply in my lifetime.”
She’s had to swallow self-doubt and defeat imposter syndrome to step foot in Washington and speak up. But she knows what it takes to overcome insecurities to be in the limelight. When she launched Food Babe, she couldn’t bear to use her own photograph, choosing instead to publish clip art for the first two years. “I didn’t feel like a ‘food babe’ for most of my life,” she said.
Yet she’s driven by a sense of responsibility. Her destiny is written in her name.
In Hindi, Vani means “eloquent with words” or “voice.” She continues to express the voice of many, whether from her blog, through megaphones on corporate lawns, or into a microphone on Capitol Hill.
Each time her platform grows, she’s had to ask if she wants to continue to take the risk of advocacy.
“I kept coming back to ‘yes,’ because I was like, ‘How else are we going to change the world, if I don’t use my voice in this way?’” she said. “If you don’t follow your calling, it just keeps calling.”
Hari in the kitchen with her son, Finley. (Susan Stripling)
How to Reclaim Control of Your Health, the Food Babe Way
The Food Babe way isn’t about dieting or deprivation. Former “candy queen” Vani Hari wants others to know that food should be enjoyed. Her blog, cookbooks, and social media offer countless examples for avoiding chemical ingredients and opting for healthier alternatives that are just as satisfying and delicious. She shared 5 steps for getting started.
Start Asking Questions
Anyone can use Hari’s “three-question detox” to cut back on processed foods and chemical ingredients. “I think this is even better than trying to remove a food group,” said Hari.
Every time you prepare to eat a meal, ask yourself:
What are the ingredients?
Are these ingredients nutritious?
Where did these ingredients come from?
“If you don’t know the answers and you try to find out, you’ll learn more about the food system and what you’re eating, and automatically, you’ll start to make better choices,” Hari said. “You don’t have to have a rocket science degree to learn how to eat.”
Buy Organic, Whole Foods
When possible, buy and eat whole foods that are label-free and organic, such as produce, meat, and cheese. Hari says it’s especially important to buy organic dairy because of the risk of exposure to antibiotics and growth hormones.
Use Environmental Working Group’s “Clean 15” and “Dirty Dozen” liststo help decide which produce to prioritize buying organic.
Read the Ingredient Label
“The most important label on any product is the ingredient label,” said Hari. Labels like “low-calorie” or “gluten-free” won’t tell you whether the food is real or really healthy. The ingredient list is where you’ll learn whether something is made from whole foods or filled with man-made chemicals.
Start by focusing on single-ingredient products on store shelves, such as packaged rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and beans. There are also plenty of processed, packaged foods made with real ingredients that make healthy eating more convenient—think of a jarred tomato sauce made with organic tomatoes, garlic, and seasonings.
The processed foods to avoid are those that contain little to no natural ingredients, or are filled with additives—like tomato sauce with added sugar and preservatives. Compare brands to find the best option.
Hari shares a list of common additives to avoid at FoodBabe.com/ingredients-to-avoid. But you don’t need to commit every name to memory to make smart shopping choices.
“If a product is made with real food, you won’t need to question it, because you will immediately recognize the ingredients,” Hari said. “If you don’t know what an ingredient is on a label, or how it can affect your health, look for a safer alternative made with real food. I believe that if every American took this step, the health of our nation would completely turn around.”
Kick Refined Sugar
Avoiding refined sugar has two benefits: You won’t be tempted to overeat desserts, and you’ll fill up on nutritious foods, leaving less room for empty calories. “Eventually, you’ll develop a distaste for refined sugar, and your desire for ultimate nutrition will become instinctive,” Hari said.
She warned that refined sugar can be called a dozen different names on a label. Common ones include sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, sucrose, dextrose, invert sugar, and rice syrup.
In her book “Feeding You Lies,” Hari shared tips for fighting sugar cravings and transitioning to a lifestyle with less sugar:
Eat at regular times every day.
Balance your meals with protein, greens, and healthy fats.
Flavor foods with naturally sweet spices, such as cinnamon.
Drink adequate water, as dehydration can be mistaken for a sugar craving.
Exercise to take your mind off cravings and boost feel-good endorphins.
Enjoy fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut to offset cravings.
Eat fresh fruit to satisfy a sugar craving.
Avoid artificial sugar substitutes; instead, use natural sweeteners such as real maple syrup, raw honey, coconut sugar, date sugar, or dates.
Make It Yourself
Hari credits cooking with saving her life. She’s on a mission to teach others how to choose the best ingredients to make home-cooked meals simply and affordably. Her two cookbooks walk readers through healthier ways to make recipes like tacos, waffles, and luscious lemon bars, plus copycat versions of store-bought and fast food favorites. She shared three recipes with us.
8 Smart Swaps
Hari frequently shares favorite healthy store-bought alternatives to commonly craved processed foods on her Instagram page. Here are a few:
Chips: Instead of potato chips fried in refined, inflammatory corn and soybean oils, choose chips cooked in avocado oil or coconut oil, like Boulder Canyon or Jackson’s. For tortilla chips, try Sprouts brand organic tortilla chips made with olive oil.
Soda: Substitute your fizzy drink filled with high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, and artificial flavors with plain sparkling water flavored with sliced lemon, orange, and cucumber.
Cereal: Instead of cereals packed with refined grains, sugar, and preservatives, choose organic, nutrient-dense brands like Lovebird, or eat plain steel-cut oatmeal, made overnight in a Crock-Pot.
Fruit Snacks: Instead of gummies made with dyes, refined sugar, and artificial flavors, try dried organic fruit or snacks made with just fruit, like the Soley brand.
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Instead of cookies made with refined sugar and flour, choose more natural brands like Simple Mills or Skout Organics.
Brownies: Rather than indulging in store-bought brownies usually made with refined flour and oils and man-made emulsifiers, try the organic chocolate Truvani bar.
Ice Cream: Since most ice cream is made from conventional dairy, substitute it with an organic coconut milk ice cream such as Cosmic Bliss, or Straus made with grass-fed milk and cream.
Candy Bars: Instead of chocolate filled with artificial emulsifiers and flavors, make Hari’s 8-Minute Candy Bar (recipe at FoodBabe.com) with organic Hu Chocolate Gems, or snack on Hu’s chocolate bars.
Snack Smarter
Hari frequently shares her favorite healthier, store-bought alternatives to commonly craved processed foods on her Instagram page. Here are a few:
Truvani is Hari’s own brand of protein powders and bars. (Adhiraj Chakrabarti for American Essence)
Raising Healthy Kids on Real Foods
The Food Babe way isn’t just for grownups. As a mom of two young children, Hari shares three strategies that have worked for her:
Keep junk food out of the house. “That’s 90 percent of the battle,” Hari said.
Mix up what you eat. “We don’t eat the same vegetables [or] fruits every day. That’s helped my kids adapt to real food, because they can eat 10 different vegetables, 10 different fruits,” Hari said.
Processed food, engineered to taste the same every time, “actually makes your child more picky,” she added. Real food naturally offers variety—a blueberry may be more sour or have a different texture, for instance—creating interest and curiosity at mealtime, and training kids’ ability to handle new foods.
Try growing some of your own food. Getting children involved in the process makes them more interested and willing to try new foods.
A portrait of O. Henry by W.M. Vanderweyde, 1909. (Public Domain)
O. Henry is remembered by millions as America’s unparalleled maven of the short story. His stories were pithy, comprehensible, and moving, and there were hundreds of them. A brilliant force of nature, he could produce a pearl of a story in a single night and hardly ever corrected his work from the initial handwritten manuscript. If there ever was someone who seemed to possess an innate talent for putting into words the dreams, desires, and motivations of ordinary people, it was him.
But behind the pseudonym, there was a real man who once received reconciliation and a second chance and never looked back. He’s a sterling example of one who corrected and reinvented himself, who, when at a point in life of utmost crisis, took up their mat and walked.
A Man of Many Yarns
Born on a plantation on Sept. 11, 1862 at Greensboro, North Carolina, William Sidney Porter was raised by his grandmother. He left school at age 15 to work in his uncle’s drugstore, obtained a pharmacist’s license by age 18.
William Sidney Porter as a young man in Austin. (Public Domain)
At age 20, he drifted to the rapidly industrializing West and, after settling in Texas, held a series of jobs, including working on a friend’s ranch, bookkeeping in a real estate office, and in a pharmacy. There are an epic number of stories floating around about Porter’s whereabouts and travels at that time and a fair share of them are most likely apocryphal. Indeed, from brazen cattle thief to miner and cowboy, to weary traveler and wandering tintype artist, the tales and legends attached to him are many.
“A lot of yarns,” he was once quoted in the Houston Daily Post as saying, “have been printed about me and none of them is true.”
What is known is that Porter moved to Austin in 1884, population of over 11,000, and worked a variety of odd jobs before finding work as a draftsman with the General Land Office.
Subsequently, he married Athol Estes Roach and found employment as a teller in a bank in Austin, where he was said to be kindly regarded by his customers and co-workers. Around that time, he became a columnist for a Houston newspaper and ran a weekly newspaper in Austin called The Rolling Stone, a comic and humor journal. He whittled away his free nights writing stories.
Life ostensibly seemed to only be getting better after the couple welcomed a son into the world. But then a string of ill-fated events changed the course of his life—and the trajectory of American letters.
Troubled Times
The couple’s infant son died in 1888, and Athol became tubercular. In 1894, a suspicious deficit had been discovered at the First National Bank where he had worked. He removed himself from his position and two years later he was indicted on four counts. Not willing to cope with the humiliation of a trial or its potential repercussions, he fled to New Orleans before eventually departing the United States. Porter ended up in Honduras, in July 1896, where he lived a harsh, difficult existence. (He also began writing “Cabbages and Kings” while in Honduras, notable for the introduction of the term “banana republic.”)
The Porter family: wife Athos, daughter Margaret, and William. (Public Domain)
Informed that his wife was gravely ill, Porter returned to the United States about six months later. She died of tuberculosis shortly after. He was tried and convicted (some say unfairly and without legitimate evidence) for embezzling $854.08. He offered no defense for the misappropriation of funds, remaining silent at his trial, and the fact that he had run away was perhaps a sizeable factor in his conviction. He was sentenced in February of 1898 to five years’ imprisonment in a federal penitentiary in Ohio, entering as a shattered man, pushed to “the limit of endurance,” as he wrote to his mother-in-law. He had lost his son, his wife, his good standing, and his freedom, in addition to now also losing contact with his 8-year-old daughter, Margaret.
Embracing a New Path
But Porter dug deep within and he discovered a way to overcome his feelings of shame and affliction, accepting his sentence as an invitation to change. He made crooked ways straight, transformed himself into a new creation, and would ultimately become world famous for his talent.
The Ohio Penitentiary, circa 1897. (Public Domain)
Porter was a model prisoner: he worked long, overnight hours as the prison drug clerk and was secretary to the prison steward. He drew from his life and prison experiences, and, from a heart-piercing place of fresh insight, he learned from them. He befriended fellow inmates and based some of the characters and plots of his stories on their true-to-life accounts.
It would not be too much of a stretch to say that Porter rejoiced in the inward journey of writing and found some degree of refuge and repentance in it. One can only speculate how redemptive it must have felt to him when, as his new alter ego O. Henry, he sold his first story “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking” to the national magazine McClure’s Magazine, in December of 1899.
Porter was blessed with an early release, serving only three years and three months out of his five-year sentence. He had sold about a dozen stories and earned a few hundred dollars from them, which was enough money for him to eventually travel east to New York City after he was freed on July 24, 1901. There, Porter earnestly committed himself to writing; drawing from a seemingly endless fount of lucid and compelling ideas, he mastered the short story form.
He never returned to Austin, and he never again used his real name. Some have proposed that his pseudonym was an abridged adaptation of the name of the French pharmacist Etienne Ossian Henry. The most commonly accepted explanation and origin story of the pseudonym O. Henry, however, is that Porter borrowed the name from a guard at the Ohio Penitentiary named Orrin Henry, who, depending of which account you decide on, was either Porter’s “favorite jailer” or no longer working at the time that Porter was incarcerated, but whose name was still available in the prison records.
A Sterling Second Act
In 1903, the Sunday supplement of the New York Herald started to publish his weekly stories of city life, and the response was overwhelming. O. Henry developed his own, one-of-its-kind style, a plain, frank approach to weaving a yarn, which, in time, made him one of the most read and circulated authors of his time. His well-crafted, deftly packaged writings are crammed with careful details and unforgettable characters—shopgirls, opportunists, neighbors, cops, landlords, ministers, artists, and waitresses, to name but a few—as well as the vivid juxtaposition of irony, intimacy, humor, and pathos. Precious for their colorful colloquialisms, surprise, laughter, excitement, and, occasionally, tears, O. Henry’s works withstand the test of time as some of the best turn-of-the-century vestiges of tongue and technique.
Supernaturally prolific, he penned, by some estimates, more than 600 short stories, including one of the most endearing Christmas stories ever written, “The Gift of the Magi,” and “The Last Leaf,” a thought-provoking reflection on the inherent symbiosis of death and life, told through metaphors of old ivy leaves and the regenerative pursuit of art.
The front cover of the first edition of the short story anthology “The Four Million” by O. Henry, published on April 10, 1906 by McClure, Phillips and Company, New York, 1906. “The Gift of the Magi” is included in this collection. (Public Domain)
The author known as O. Henry died June 5, 1910, in New York City, the conclusion of a remarkably successful and unique journey. Outside of the smartness and aptitude of words, William Sidney Porter profoundly exemplified the truism that, indeed, there are second acts in American lives, and that America gives second chances, and is especially generous to those who accept them with care.
The benefits of better sleep include improved alertness, decision-making, and physical performance and recovery. (oatawa/Getty Images)
“Sleep is not the end of today; it is the beginning of tomorrow,” said Dr. Cheri D. Mah. “How you invest in your sleep tonight will impact how you feel and perform tomorrow.”
Dr. Mah, a specialist in sleep optimization for elite athletes and sports organizations, has spent more than 15 years teaching this “small but powerful shift in mindset” to her high-performing clients, which have included Olympic gold medalists, the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles, executives, and the military. A physician and adjunct lecturer at the Stanford Health Care Sleep Medicine Center, Dr. Mah got her start studying under Dr. William C. Dement, known as the father of sleep medicine.
She knows well the power of a good night’s rest. Take the success story of one of her clients, former NBA star Andre Iguodala. Recognizing that his career was coming to an end, 28-year-old Iguodala worked with Dr. Mah for several months to improve his unhealthy sleep habits. The next season, his three-point percentage more than doubled, his free throw percentage increased by almost 9 percent, and his fouls and turnovers decreased by 45 and 37 percent. He was named the NBA Finals MVP, and went on to win four NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors and play for nearly 10 more years.
The rest of us can also reap the benefits of better sleep, Dr. Mah said, including improved alertness, decision-making, and physical performance and recovery. She shared her own bedtime best practices.
(Courtesy of Dr. Cheri Mah)
American Essence: What are the most common mistakes that are undermining our sleep quality?
Dr. Cheri Mah: Lack of a regular wind-down routine. Prioritizing time to relax can help your brain and body prepare to sleep. Take five to 10 minutes for a relaxing activity, i.e., reading, breathing exercises, or meditation. If you have a racing mind in bed, take an additional five to 10 minutes outside of bed, before your relaxing activity, to journal or write a to-do list.
An inconsistent sleep schedule. Our bodies like regularity.
Spending too much time in bed not sleeping. If you’re doing work, using devices, or doing other stimulating activities while in bed, these associations can negatively impact sleep at night.
A sleep schedule that is not synchronized with your chronotype. It’s best for a lark to sleep earlier and wake earlier, rather than try to operate on an owl sleep schedule.
Undiagnosed sleep disorders. Obstructive sleep apnea is incredibly common—about 26 percent of 30- to 70-year-olds have it—as is insomnia. If you have concerns, reach out to a sleep physician.
AE: What does your own wind-down routine look like?
Dr. Mah: I start by taking a hot shower 90 minutes before bedtime. This timing has been shown to help you fall asleep faster and increase deep sleep, as it allows sufficient time for your core body temperature to decrease, which naturally occurs when you fall asleep. You don’t want to increase your core body temperature right before sleeping.
I have a daily alarm on my phone that reminds me to wrap up my day in the next 30 minutes, so I can stay on track to hit my targeted bedtime. I use dim lights in my living spaces and bedroom to signal that it’s time to prepare to sleep. I often write a to-do list to process my thoughts for the day and prepare for tomorrow. I then do breathing exercises, reading, or light stretching before turning out the lights.
A regular wind-down routine, including a relaxing activity such as reading, can help your brain and body prepare to sleep. (Shakirov Albert/Shutterstock)
AE: How about your morning routine?
Dr. Mah: I aim to wake up at 7:15 a.m. every day. I try to get morning sunlight soon after waking up, starting with breakfast by the windows or going outside, to increase alertness and lock in my body clock. I drink water to rehydrate and enjoy a coffee to start my day.
I’m at my best when I get eight to nine hours of sleep. When I’m not able to, I often take a 20- to 30-minute afternoon power nap to boost alertness, and try to extend my sleep during subsequent nights to pay back accumulated sleep debt.
Sleep quality starts with choices you make during the day. I exercise regularly; finish meals at least two to three hours before sleeping; and take a 30-minute walk with my family after dinner every day.
AE: What are your essential sleep tools?
Dr. Mah: Blackout curtains or an adjustable eye mask, to eliminate light from any sleep environment.
Eight Sleep, a temperature-controlled mattress cover that provides 55- to 110-degree-F temperature control.
Coop Sleep Goods Eden Adjustable Pillow. (Amazon.com)
An adjustable pillow, such as the Eden pillow from Coop Sleep Goods.
Sound+Sleep SE Special Edition High Fidelity Sleep Sound Machine. (Amazon.com)
AE: If you’re struggling to fall asleep or go back to sleep, what are your go-to strategies to help?
Dr. Mah: Try a sleep reset: Get out of bed, go to another room, and do a relaxing activity for 20 minutes in dim light. Avoid devices. Then try to go back to sleep. Don’t lie awake in bed for hours!
AE: If you could tell someone to do just one thing to improve their sleep quality, what would it be?
Dr. Mah: Start with one to two changes tonight. Small, gradual adjustments are best.
Make your bedroom like a cave—dark, quiet, cool (60 to 67 degrees F), comfortable, and consistent.
Aim for at least seven hours of sleep each night. There is individual variation, so you may need eight to nine-plus hours to feel refreshed and alert. If you’re not there yet, the good news is that even 15 more minutes of sleep each night makes a difference.
AE: What recent advancements in sleep science are you most excited about?
Dr. Mah: The brain’s glymphatic system was a fascinating discovery. Waste and byproducts are eliminated during sleep, including byproducts implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. These studies suggest how critical of a role sleep has every day.
Tasha Layton is a Billboard chart-topping singer-songwriter. (Tasha Layton/BEC Recordings)
Tasha Layton has thrived since her days as a contestant on “American Idol” and a backstage vocalist for Katy Perry. After turning down a solo career in pop music, she released several successful Christian singles, including “Into The Sea (It’s Gonna Be OK)” and the smash hit “Look What You’ve Done,” which landed her on Billboard’s list of top 5 female Christian artists of the year in 2020 and 2021. She is currently wrapping up her Trust Again tour across the United States.
In this interview with American Essence, the South Carolina native shares about her life—from being mom to her kids Levi and Lyla, to launching a mental health initiative inspired by her own story. Through it all, faith and family are front and center.
Layton performs in Milwaukee, Wis. Tasha Layton/BEC Recordings
American Essence: What is your morning routine like?
Tasha Layton: My morning routine is being woken from a dead sleep to chaos every morning. My children are 4 and 7, and so I may or may not have washed off my makeup from the night before, and I literally hit the ground running.
There’s no routine right now in my life, which I am sad about, but I know that will come as my kids get a little bit older. I know that I’ll fall back into a routine, but I do try to wash my face every day, but I don’t have a normal cleanser either. I mean, it’s literally just chaos and no rhythm. The only rhythm that I definitely don’t sway from is my time doing daily devotionals.
AE: Any daily wellness practices that keep you grounded?
Ms. Layton: My time in meditation and prayer every day with my Bible and my journal—that is the one that I don’t miss. I really want to take better care of myself physically, but as a mom, I haven’t been able to find that balance yet. And sometimes, for folks looking at my life from the outside in, they might think I have it all together, but I really don’t.
AE: What is something that people might be surprised to find out about you?
Ms. Layton: Before I had children, I was an adrenaline junkie. I skydived, bungee jumped, did extreme scuba diving, rafting, and other things like that. I just loved doing extreme things. And then when I had kids, I didn’t do any of it anymore, because I just wanted to stay safe for them.
Layton with her husband, Keith Everette Smith, and two children, Levi and Lyla. (Tasha Layton/BEC Recordings)
AE: What is your favorite part of the day?
Ms. Layton: I love the time in the evening when I get to snuggle my kids on the couch, or read to them at night before they go to bed. That’s my favorite time of the day. My husband and I weren’t able to have kids, we weren’t supposed to be able to have kids, and so our children are miracles and huge blessings to us.
AE: What has motherhood taught you?
Ms. Layton: I learned something new about God all the time because of my kids, how much God loves us, how much grace He shows us, how much patience He shows us, ways that He knows better than we do about certain things. And, like a good parent, you’re going to give your kids what they need, not always what they want. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you become a mother, because you’re operating under extreme exhaustion and beyond the capacity you thought you had, and somehow you get it all done.
AE: What is your favorite family tradition?
Ms. Layton: One of my favorite times together as a family is when we are home from traveling and we go out for Mexican food and ice cream. We do it regularly, and it’s easy. We don’t have to think about it—we know what we’re going to get to eat. My kids love that time. They get so excited for ice cream at this age, so we really love just time together as a family, since we travel so much.
AE: What inspires you and keeps you going on tough days?
Ms. Layton: It’s a combination of two things. The first is that I feel an innate sense of calling from God to do what I do, and, thus, the grace to do it. And the second is that I hear stories every night when speaking with people after events and concerts of how my music has inspired them or changed their lives. Hearing that encouragement from them is also a big deal for me.
AE: How does your faith show up in everyday life or guide your daily decisions?
Ms. Layton: My faith shows up in every single decision I make every single day—how I respond when my kids are fighting, my tone when my husband brings up something to talk about, or how I greet the Amazon delivery person at my doorstep. It’s how I treat people. Doing what I do for a living, I have a very large team, and it’s how they feel treated—and do they feel loved? Do they sense that I am wanting the best for them?
AE: What is your ultimate goal as an artist, and how do you hope to impact others?
Ms. Layton: My ultimate goal with music is to help people connect with God, and, by helping people connect with God, that helps bring them freedom and joy in life. Those are the things that I’m aiming for every time I write a song, to connect people with Him.
Layton performs during the 10th Annual K-LOVE Fan Awards at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. on May 28, 2023. (Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)
AE: How does your faith influence the messages you want to convey through your music?
Ms. Layton: When you write Christian music, you are essentially teaching theology to the masses. With theology, being the study of God, you have to be very careful about what you’re writing. I want to get a theologically sound message out to the masses and to help people know and experience the love of God at a level maybe they hadn’t before. And when I’m writing a song, I have that in mind, both making sure that the song is scripturally sound and also just a healthy song. I’m not going to write about the things that other pop artists write about. I’m going to write about heart issues and keep God at the center of it all.
AE: Where do you find inspiration for your music?
Ms. Layton: The biggest inspiration I’ve had so far has been my own experience—the low points of my life, the struggles, the honest questions I’ve had—but as I continue to do what I do on the level that I do it now, it’s also being inspired from the people who come to my events and tell me their stories. Other people’s stories have been very inspiring for me over the last year, and I definitely consider those stories when I’m writing music.
AE: What songs have you gotten the most feedback on?
Ms. Layton: Probably one of my biggest songs to date is a song called “Into the Sea,” and I think people have really gravitated to that song because the chorus says “It’s Gonna Be OK.” And we live in such a season as a culture of anxiety and fear, and hearing the message “It’s gonna be OK” is very important.
As a person of faith, I don’t believe that just because we have faith, our life is going to be easy or free from distress or obstacles, but I do believe that God’s presence will always be with us, and that our faith sees us through those things and walks through those things with us. That song has definitely been a huge anthem for people. And then I have another one called “Look What You’ve Done.” That’s my life’s testimony in a song. That one has become an anthem for a lot of people as well.
AE: Who has had the most significant influence on your life or career?
Ms. Layton: My husband has had the most influence on my career, because he is the one who believes in me and pushes me to do all that God has called me to do, and I can’t fake it in front of him and get out of anything. He’s gonna be that voice to say, “You can do this.”
AE: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received in your career, and how did it impact you?
Ms. Layton: When I was a young girl, my mom told me, “Tasha, be who you’re supposed to be, and you will become exactly who you’re supposed to become,” and she said, “Be who you’re supposed to, and you’ll do exactly what you’re supposed to do.”
I think when we focus on our character and our internal integrity and self, somehow, the externals just handle themselves—jobs and open doors and all of that. It handles itself when you focus on your character and on being more like Christ. And I’ve carried that with me my whole life.
AE: If you could sit down with your younger self at the start of your career, what advice would you give her?
Ms. Layton: I wish that I would have lived with the fear of God and not the fear of man. I was so concerned with what people thought of me that I wasn’t living courageously or vulnerably. It wasn’t until I knew how loved and special I was, and that God feels that way about every single person on this planet. It wasn’t until then that I truly stepped out courageously into what I felt like I was supposed to do in life, because I knew that I didn’t have to be afraid of what people thought.
(Tasha Layton/BEC Recordings)
AE: What projects are you most excited about right now?
Ms. Layton: I have three things I’m very excited about right now. One is a live worship record that is releasing this year. And then, I also have a full-length studio project releasing as well. The third thing that I’m very excited about is, I began a Christian mental health initiative in 2024 called Boundless.
It was really birthed from my own mental health struggle because I have a suicide attempt and depression in my history, and I went through a process with God and my therapist that really got me through and set me free from all of that. It was so special that I wrote a book about it to help people walk through that same process, to experience the kind of freedom that I had experienced. The book turned into a workbook that turned into a leader guide, and then I wrote a kids’ book, and now it’s an online course. My aim is to help people reach a sense of holistic health in their life that’s not just, you know, taking a pill for everything or praying it away. It’s this balance of what we need in every area of our life to be whole and healthy. But it began out of my own process of freedom, from lies I believed when I was a kid about God, about myself, about other people. We’ve put a lot of work into that this year, and I believe that the music in what we’re doing is working hand in hand to help people find that freedom.
Layton’s song “Look What You’ve Done” has become an anthem for many people. (Tasha Layton/BEC Recordings)
AE: What is a dream project or collaboration you haven’t tackled yet, but hope to in the future?
Ms. Layton: I would love to build an intensive counseling center where people can escape and go explore their own history and get healed up from past wounds and trauma.
AE: How does your faith influence the messages you want to convey through your music?
Ms. Layton: When you write Christian music, you are essentially teaching theology to the masses. With theology, being the study of God, you have to be very careful about what you’re writing. I want to get a theologically sound message out to the masses and to help people know and experience the love of God at a level maybe they hadn’t before. And when I’m writing a song, I have that in mind, both making sure that the song is scripturally sound and also just a healthy song. I’m not going to write about the things that other pop artists write about. I’m going to write about heart issues and keep God at the center of it all.
AE: How does your faith show up in everyday life or guide your daily decisions?
Ms. Layton: My faith shows up in every single decision I make every single day—how I respond when my kids are fighting, my tone when my husband brings up something to talk about, or how I greet the Amazon delivery person at my doorstep. It’s how I treat people. Doing what I do for a living, I have a very large team, and it’s how they feel treated—and do they feel loved? Do they sense that I am wanting the best for them? Other people’s stories have been very inspiring for me over the last year, and I definitely consider those stories when I’m writing music. It handles itself when you focus on your character and on being more like Christ. And I’ve carried that with me my whole life.
Hayley Paige is a celebrated bridal designer known for her playful, imaginative approach to wedding gown design. Her creations aren’t just garments—they’re works of art, thoughtfully crafted to evoke joy and enchantment on a bride’s special day. Paige’s designs blend whimsical elements with personal style, celebrating individuality and empowerment.
In this interview with American Essence, she opens up about her creative process, icons, personal style, and the magic of making every bride feel unique.
American Essence: How would you describe your design philosophy and vision?
Hayley Paige: Growing up, I was always drawn to fashion, but something about it felt distant, almost like it was “too cool for school”—intimidating, even. The bridal world, however, pulled me in with its intimate connection to love, romance, and sentimentality. It offered a way to create art that wasn’t just admired, but cherished through the most meaningful moments of life.
For me, design is a dialogue—a conversation that continues long after the sketches and stitches. It’s about weaving stories and emotions into the fabric of someone’s most special day. I don’t take myself too seriously, but I find pure joy in the process of being inspired, creating something from that spark, and then watching it take on a life of its own in such a personal and profound way.
As a sought-after designer, Paige has dressed brides including Kelsea Ballerini and Carrie Underwood. (Ashlee Mintz)
American Essence: How do you express personal style in your designs?
Ms. Paige: I try to maintain a sense of happiness and humor in my artistic process. It helps that design is an ever-changing, ever-evolving, and wonderfully eclectic world—there are so many personalities to engage with. In a way, it feels like anything goes. My personal style doesn’t always align directly with my dress designs. Instead, it’s more about taste and appreciating how things can weave together in unexpected ways. I love surprising people and getting a reaction like, “Whoa, I never thought these two things would go together.”
It’s like the first time a friend of mine told me to drizzle honey and add chili flakes on my avocado toast! When the goal is to create something “thoughtfully crafted,” “deeply meaningful,” or “curiously quirky,” that’s when the process transcends the ordinary and becomes something truly expialidocious.
Paige‘s Alohomora shoes. Fans of Harry Potter will recognize the spell that opens doors to the unexpected. With a bold bow for drama, the kitten heels feature Paige‘s signature toile print. (Courtesy of Hayley Paige)
American Essence: Where do you find your design inspiration?
Ms. Paige: I always spend the most time on this question because sometimes I feel like the expectation in my answer is to be one word, like “flowers” or “music” or “architecture.” For me, inspiration is mindfulness and a manifestation of the things we experience. Every encounter holds potential—whether it’s a fleeting moment, a cherished memory, or an unexpected spark of emotion. I believe in keeping your senses open to the world around you and staying sentimentally invested in your creativity. You can so easily be spellbound in this world if you’re open to it.
Paige at a She Is Cheval pop-up event at Collective615 in Nashville, Tenn. (Kathy Thomas Photography)
American Essence: Who is your favorite style icon or designer and why?
Ms. Paige: Dolly Parton, hands down. Not just because I want to rock rhinestone denim on the daily—but because of how she’s mastered the art of being unapologetically herself. She’s stayed true to her brand and never taken herself too seriously, while still being a powerhouse of kindness, humility, and wisdom. The woman built an empire and a theme park while keeping that warm, down-home charm. She’s a national treasure, and in my book, she’s the gold standard for balancing authenticity with flair!
American Essence: Any must-have personal fashion essentials?
Ms. Paige: A great pair of cowboy boots. The whole identity for SheIsCheval.com was built around a pair of vinyl and rhinestone cowboy boots—because why not? They’re the perfect mix of rugged and glam. You can throw them on with denim for a day out or pair them with a ballgown when you’re feeling extra. I’m all about fashion essentials that have that kind of range—pieces that can go from the rodeo to the red carpet without missing a beat!
Paige in heroffice, wearinga romper of herown design. (Nina Merikallio)
American Essence: What’s a timeless style secret that you swear by?
Ms. Paige: Never underestimate the power of a great upcycle. There’s something fulfilling about breathing new life into an old garment and giving it a fresh “up-spiral.” My go-to is, unsurprisingly, bedazzling denim. That obsession started when I was young, and it’s never left me. The idea that something can live beyond its initial shelf life and be appreciated in a new light is quite magical.
American Essence: How do you recharge creatively?
Ms. Paige: Growing up as a competitive gymnast, there’s something about moving your body—whether it’s a solid gym session, a long walk, or even a spontaneous dance break—that shakes off the creative cobwebs. Plus, it’s when I’m moving that my mind tends to wander, and that’s when the best ideas often sneak up on me.
American Essence: What’s your top beauty secret?
Ms. Paige: Lemon juice in the mornings. Seriously, squeeze a full lemon into a shot glass and take it down first thing. If you can’t handle the zest, try it in sparkling water and sip.
American Essence: What’s your must-have accessory?
Ms. Paige: Music. I suppose that’s not really a physical accessory, but I think it enhances almost any situation or environment.
American Essence: What five items are must-haves in your handbag? Anything unusual or unexpected?
Ms. Paige: Lipstick and eyebrow pencil (the beauty must-haves I need to feel freshened up in a pinch), business card for SheIsCheval.com with a fun discount code, extra doggy bags, mints (because gum gives me nightmares—but that is for another story), and extra hair ties (I like to be that girl with the extra hair tie in the bathroom).
American Essence: What is your morning routine like?
Ms. Paige: Not glamorous in the slightest. Make bed, quick stretch, shoot my lemon juice and take vitamins, unload dishwasher, do laundry, feed dog, set up workstation, drink coffee, answer important emails—and set drafts for everything else. I like a productive, chore-filled morning because it sets me on a path of productivity when I sit down to work. It also eliminates distractions, which are the killer of creativity. I believe in getting through the “to-do’s” first so then you can get into the “ta-da’s.”
Paige at a wedding industry event in Palm Springs, Calif., with Société Privée. (Cam + Larisa, LLC)
American Essence: How do you handle pressure with grace?
Ms. Paige: I try to remind myself that how I act in any situation is a reflection of my integrity and leaves a lasting imprint on another person. While we cannot always get it right, I do believe in putting in extra effort to protect your character. I never want to look back and wish I had been kinder or more composed. I like the Stoic philosophers—recognizing where your control lies and focusing your energy where it truly matters. It’s good to maintain humility on the highs, and hold on to your joy in the depths.
The kitten heels ‘If You’re a Bird.‘ (Courtesy of Hayley Paige)
American Essence: What is your superpower?
Ms. Paige: My mind is not a terrifying place to be. It’s easily distracted by happier thoughts, so that’s something to appreciate.
American Essence: What’s one thing that might surprise people about you?
Ms. Paige: I love working and being alone for most of the day.
American Essence: What is your favorite workout?
Ms. Paige: If I find the time and can get lost in a two-hour walk outside, preferably in a scenic place, I’m set.
American Essence: What’s your favorite way to unwind at night?
Ms. Paigee: A cozy dinner date with my fiancé and dog.
Designer Hayley Paige, with her dog, Winnie. (Garnet Dahlia Photography)
American Essence: If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
Ms. Paigee: Probably “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder.
American Essence: What are you most excited about right now?
Ms. Paige: Without question—relaunching the Hayley Paige brand and finally marrying my fiancé—we’ve been engaged for five years now.
You might think that actor Steve Guttenberg, known for the role of Mahoney in the “Police Academy” movies—a character who once gave a speech with his fly unzipped—would find just about everything a source of hilarity. But there’s one thing at least that he is dead serious about: honoring his mother and father.
Guttenberg honors them with a passion that informs his new book, “Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero.” A series of vignettes that alternate memories of growing up with reminiscences of his adult life, it’s a history of the journey Guttenberg took from humble beginnings to superstardom—an all-American success story that led him from his family’s small apartment in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens to Hollywood fame.
It’s all seen through the lens of his father’s last years, when Guttenberg commuted regularly from California to his parents’ home in Arizona to assist with dialysis treatment, which extended his dad’s life for several years.
“Time to Thank” is a portrait of a son’s devotion to his family and, before that, the story of a family’s devotion to their son.
Heading to Hollywood
Guttenberg’s father, Stanley, was a New York cop and Korean War veteran who believed in his family with absolute faith. Self-reliance was a trait that he, as a father, exhibited and encouraged in his children. When Guttenberg, at only 17 and fresh out of high school, expressed the desire to leave New York for Los Angeles to plunge himself into the movie business, many, if not most, parents would have said no.
Steve Guttenberg with his father, Stanley. (Courtesy of Steve Guttenberg)
Guttenberg’s parents practically helped him pack his bags. He recounts in “Time to Thank”:
“When I first came to Hollywood, my parents gave me two weeks and $300. They believed that, in my youthful endeavor, I could be trusted. Their hope for a measure of maturity meant that I could do what I dared to; my parents intended the cash for food and gasoline to shepherd me around Tinseltown.
“I spent almost the whole shebang on photos of myself.”
Guttenberg’s parents, Ann and Stanley, great supporters of his endeavors. (Courtesy of Steve Guttenberg)
The first attempt at transplanting to Hollywood failed, despite some limited success, and Guttenberg returned to the East Coast and college. But in Hollywood, he had employed an agent, and, one day, out of the blue, that agent called him with the perfect part in a major new film.
Guttenberg’s portrayal of the young Nazi-hunter in “The Boys from Brazil” (1978) was his breakthrough role at the age of 20. Co-stars included Gregory Peck, James Mason, and Sir Laurence Olivier. He found Peck especially impressive.
“Greg was so generous, so thoughtful, and really good to me in so many ways,” Guttenberg recalls in a phone interview with American Essence.
“I was blown away by his ease and his greatness. When you’re around someone who does their job really well—a great baseball player, a great chef, a great director, a great architect—they’re very easy to be around, very down-to-earth. Their greatness makes them focused. They’re not distracted.”
Police Academy, 1984.(MovieStillsDB)
A dozen films followed in rapid succession, among them the highly respected and successful “Diner” (1982), “Cocoon” (1985), and “Three Men and a Baby” (1987). Among these came the four “Police Academy” flicks (1984–1987), slickly spoofy movies that have been described as broad, silly, goofy, feel-good, and flat-out dumb. The franchise didn’t win any prestigious awards, but did it soar at the box office!
Its popularity linked Guttenberg with “Police Academy” and the character of Mahoney forever. The association was so strong that when he met famous Italian film producer Dino de Laurentiis in connection with his appearance in the de Laurentiis film “The Bedroom Window” (1987), the producer greeted him with, “Ah, ‘Polizia Accademia!’”
Guttenberg embraces the fame he won through the “Police Academy” movies, but he also points out the range of his other films.
Three Men and a Baby, 1987. (MovieStillsDB)
“I’m very lucky that so many of my films appeal to people in different ways. Some people come up to me and say, ‘Can’t Stop the Music’ is one of the best experiences of my life.” (“Can’t Stop the Music” was a wild, extended music-video-as-film from 1980.) “Other people say that ‘To Race the Wind,’ a movie I did early on about the first blind law student at Harvard, speaks to them. ‘Three Men and a Baby’ really addressed the single parent phenomenon.
“And yes, some people will say that ‘Police Academy’ saved their life. Bill Clinton said that when he was having a hard time in the White House, he and his daughter Chelsea would sit in the screening room of the White House and watch ‘Police Academy.’”
The greatest compliment of all came from a legendary funny man.
“Woody Allen once told me ‘Police Academy’ made him laugh,” Guttenberg says.
The Bedroom Window, 1987. (MovieStillsDB)
Family First
(Adhiraj Chakrabarti for American Essence)
Guttenberg’s parents did not get lost along their son’s yellow brick road to stardom. His dad especially liked to visit Guttenberg on set from time to time. The stories are outrageous and plentiful. There was the time when his dad said yes to performing a stunt on a set overseen by fabled director Blake Edwards. Moments before the stunt, who should show up but Dame Julie Andrews, Edwards’s wife and one of Stanley Guttenberg’s idols. As he did the stunt—a 50-foot jump into an airbag—the elder Guttenberg yelled, “This is for you, Miss von Trapp!” The reference was to Andrews’s character in “The Sound of Music.”
Dad also pulled his son out of some tight spots. There was the time Guttenberg ran out of gas on his way to Arizona and found shelter from the heat in an abandoned building. Little did he know he was trespassing, and, when a state trooper arrested him, there seemed no way to avoid a night or two in jail.
Then, like a miracle, his dad called. The trooper wouldn’t allow Guttenberg to answer the phone, but he answered it himself and was soon in conversation with a fellow cop from back East. Before you could say “fellow officer,” Guttenberg was free.
“The CEO of Facebook could not have saved me from arrest, but my dad did. He saved me in all kinds of ways. He saves me every day—even now. The second I wake up, I ask him to tell me something. Today, he said, ‘Have a great attitude and you’re going to move forward.’”
After Guttenberg’s dad passed away, he understandably had a hard time dealing with it. When a friend suggested writing a book about the endless trips back and forth to help his dad with his dialysis, about his family’s mutual devotion, and the amazing things that happened around his dad, such as the incident with the state trooper, Guttenberg took on the challenge.
“People asked me if it was cathartic. No. It was painful. Only now that the book is published am I starting to get a lot better at accepting it.”
Guttenberg’s easygoing personality comes across in the book. “I get along with pretty much everybody,” he says. “I can get along with a Gila monster.” Which is fortunate, given all those times he crossed the Arizona desert to administer the dialysis, sometimes with the assistance of his sister Susan or his wife Emily.
Because so many of his hit films were made when he was in his 20s and 30s, we think of Guttenberg as perennially young. But he is now in his 60s and playing age-appropriate roles. He’s currently shooting a family film called “American Summer.”
“It’s a coming-of-age film about a 14-year-old boy. I play him as an adult.” It’s all about growing up.
How would this good son sum up the philosophy of his wise father?
He thinks for a minute or so. Then he says: “Get up out of bed. Don’t lie there. Wake up and open your eyes. Don’t think, don’t ruminate. Get up out of bed and everything will turn out great.”
High Spirits, 1988. (MovieStillsDB)
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Wisdom From The Gute
In his Instagram bio, Steve Guttenberg describes himself as an “actor, writer, sandwich maker,” but he’s also known for his uplifting words. Here are some pearls of wisdom:
There are times in everyone’s lives when you kind of wonder if anything really is possible. Can you achieve certain things? Can you make things happen? Can you do what you’ve been told is impossible? So there are times in my life when I think “that’s impossible,” but maybe it’s not impossible. Maybe whatever you can do, you can do.
You are never alone. Whether you have family or friends, people that you know and love and care about, that care about you, somebody you see on the street every day—you’re just never alone. We all feel alone sometimes, but you’re not alone. You’re never alone.
I never wanted to get up early when I was younger. Now I love it. It’s exciting! It’s exciting to start the day before anybody else is around. It’s a good time to think about my life—about the people I love and the people that love me, the people I care about, the people that care about me. And how I want to contribute. What do I want to give today? What do I want to give? What do I want to put out there that makes this world a better place? I want to think about what I can give today.
I go to all these places I know, but sometimes you gotta go somewhere you don’t know and learn something new. See new sights, something different. Get out of your comfort zone.
Today, I’m thinking about being grateful. Being grateful for my life, the people that are in my life, the things I do, the things I get to do, the things I’m going to do, the things I’ve done. I’m really thinking about being grateful. There are often times—many times, I don’t know about you—where I forget to be grateful. So today, I’m really working on being grateful.
Just a lesson to myself: I can get myself out of a lousy mood. Maybe you’ve got the same feeling, too. You can get yourself out of a lousy mood just by saying, “No. Things are OK.”
You know what? You’ve got to make the effort. You want to become somebody? You gotta make the effort. You want to go somewhere, you want to visit a friend, you want to have a meeting? You have to make the effort. Nothing happens at home.
I’ve been thinking about the journey, and thinking that my dad would always say to me, ‘It’s up and down.’ It’s like, kind of like a rollercoaster. You’ve got your great days, and you’ve got your days that don’t work. I’ve definitely had my share of hard times that challenged me, and I think I learned some lessons. There are also those highs, where you win, and everything is just going great. It’s a journey. So, let’s just take every step.
Imagine being a struggling actress, tired of being turned down at auditions, so strapped for cash you have to move in with your mother. You finally decide it’s time to stop chasing the dream.
“I was trying to quit acting. I was in Austin, working mostly in commercials, and really not able to make it. I just couldn’t afford rent anymore. I moved in with my mom. My car was all beat up,” Elizabeth Tabish told American Essence. Being constantly passed over for roles was also taking its emotional toll on her, and she decided to move on. “This wasn’t healthy for me to keep putting myself out there and getting rejected.”
A month after she told her agent to stop sending her to auditions, she was cast in the incredibly popular Christian series “The Chosen,” playing a major character: Mary Magdalene.
It almost seems like divine intervention; for Tabish, it was the breakthrough role of her career.
Elizabeth Tabish as Mary Magdalene in “The Chosen,” the hit series about the life of Jesus. The fifth season debuts on March 27, 2025. (The Chosen/Press Center)
Journey to Freedom
Her latest project is a starring role in another true story. “Between Borders” chronicles the lives of the Petrosyan family, Armenians who had to flee their home and communism in the 1980s to avoid persecution. Their dangerous journey to freedom presents life-threatening trials along the way as they temporarily end up in Russia. Their attempt to receive asylum in the United States spotlights how difficult and incredibly emotional the process can be. Tabish plays Violetta Petrosyan, a wife and mother who would do anything to protect her family.
In “Between Borders,” the Petrosyan family must make the difficult choice to flee Azerbaijan as tensions against Armenians rise. (Between Borders)
The role is personal for Tabish, whose maternal roots are Armenian. “I grew up listening to my grandmother and great-grandmother speak to each other in Armenian, and make all the good food,” she said. The script for “Between Borders” really spoke to her. “I recognized so many characteristics and so much strength and heart and personality that reminded me so much of my grandmother.”
The actress met the real Violetta Petrosyan and said the woman’s incredible spirit influenced her performance in certain parts of the film. During the powerful asylum hearing scene, Petrosyan was on the set and in Tabish’s line of sight. Tabish said, “While I’m talking about how Jesus transforms my life, she was in that courtroom scene, so I was looking at her and telling her story back to her. It ended up being really emotional and meaningful for me to get to do this alongside her.”
Petrosyan has seen the movie and feels Tabish was the perfect person for the role: “I could have never dreamt of anyone who would portray me better than Elizabeth. From the moment we met in Bucharest, Romania, to the very present hour, I am forever grateful to the Lord for the privilege of sharing our life story.”
Violetta Petrosyan (played by Tabish) experiences discrimination due to her Armenian heritage. (Between Borders)(JSquared Photography)
The film is filled with heartbreaking emotion. That’s evident in a scene in which Tabish’s character applies for a job in Russia. As an Armenian outsider, she’s made to repeat demeaning statements by the interviewer in order to secure the position.
“When I first read the script, it was one of the scenes that really popped out to me as the type of bullying that is insidious,” Tabish recalled. “It’s the type of cruelty that doesn’t leave visible marks. This forced humiliation and undermining of confidence, or deserving to be in that space, just broke my heart.”
The time that the Petrosyans spent in Russia gives us a close look at communism and how it dehumanizes those deemed to be outsiders. Before they leave Armenia, Violetta is a school principal and her husband is a rocket scientist. But their resumes mean nothing when they arrive in the Soviet Union; they’re forced to take any jobs they can find.
“To see them both really have to humble themselves in order to survive, in order to take care of their girls, is really a powerful story,” Tabish said. “They’re willing to say whatever needs to be said and avoid eye contact with officials, not make waves, so that they can keep surviving. It’s a really courageous thing to witness.”
Transformation
The film shows the Petrosyans’ initial belief in communism and their transformation as they realize it has put their lives in danger. “I think that it’s sort of a religion for them. At first, you see this reliance on communism as a family in the very beginning, with this expectation that their country and the Soviet Union will take care of them and protect them. And we see that fail just tragically for the Armenians.” One heartbreaking scene in which the father tries to recover a toy for his daughter and is threatened by Russian officials drives the point home.
Thanks to some kind missionaries from the United States, the family turns to Christianity, as communism has destroyed the life they once knew. “In some ways, because it failed them, it opened up this opportunity for them to find Jesus and to find God—to find a strength that doesn’t go away depending on politics.”
Did her role in “The Chosen” translate to her part in this movie? It would seem that Violetta Petrosyan and Mary Magdalene have nothing in common, but Tabish believes a spiritual thread connects the two. “There are some similarities between Mary Magdalene and Violetta in that they have these new lives when they meet Jesus, and their lives transformed so dramatically at that point.”
Elizabeth Tabish as Mary Magdalene in “The Chosen.” (The Chosen/Press Center)In “Between Borders,” Tabish plays the role of refugee Violetta Petrosyan as she testifies in court during her family’s quest for asylum in the U.S. (Between Borders)
No longer at her mother’s house, she now lives in Cleveland with her husband. Tabish has been busy of late, as she was also cast in the holiday movie “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” “Between Borders” will be released in theaters Jan. 26–28, 2025, while season five of “The Chosen” is set to premiere this spring. Since that series will run seven seasons, Tabish will have plenty of steady work. While “The Chosen” has given viewers a different perspective on the Bible, “Between Borders” provides an important history lesson about the quest for freedom.
“America, to so many, has been this place of refuge, this safe space where you can start over, try again, and have opportunities that a lot of other places in this world do not afford. And so, to me, this film is it. Personally, I’m so proud to be Armenian, but I’m also so proud to be American,” Tabish said. “This film reminds me of what America has been for so many people, and I hope it can continue to be that for those who seek refuge and seek peace and freedom from persecution.”
Angelia Wang has been a principal dancer with Shen Yun Performing Arts for more than a decade. (Larry Dye)
Deep in the woodlands of upstate New York, in the early 2000s, a group of elite artists who hadescaped persecution in China began building their dream. There, in a patch of mud and dirt, they laid the foundations of a cultural renaissance: a revival of traditional Chinese culture and true classical Chinese dance—an ancient art form displaced, like them, from its home and nearly lost at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. They knew that this precious art, and its values of goodness and hope, needed to be shared with the world.
Today, Shen Yun Performing Arts is one of the world’s top dance companies. Its eight troupes tour 200 cities across five continents, performing for more than 1 million audience members each year. On stage, lush silk costumes billow against backdrops of ancient palaces and heavenly gardens, reminiscent of Chinese landscape paintings, brought to life. Melodies from a live orchestra suffuse the scenes.
It’s difficult to imagine that it was all built from nothing. In the tough early years, “we had almost no money,” recalled Ying Chen, vice president of Shen Yun and an orchestra conductor. “Sometimes in the depths of winter, we had to rehearse in makeshift studios with very little heat. Much of the heavy lifting was done by volunteers—people who would work all week at a job, and then drive five hours to our campus to work the whole weekend.”
Through the sheer dedication and grit of its artists, staff, and volunteers, the company flourished.
Principal dancer Angelia Wang embodies that selfless dedication. She was drawn to Shen Yun’s mission and joined in 2007, a year after its founding, during its humble beginnings. Little did she know how quickly she’d rise to the world stage. Now, she’s held her title for more than a decade, won multiple awards, and become a literal poster girl for the company—she’s often the model who appears on billboards across the country and globe. She’s also dance captain of her troupe, and an assistant professor of dance at Fei Tian College, an arts-focused institution in upstate New York where many Shen Yun artists train.
Wang demonstrates a variety of postures in classical Chinese dance. (Adhiraj Chakrabarti)
Gu Yuan, an accomplished choreographer at Shen Yun, said, “In my 40 years in the dance world, I have rarely encountered an artist who demonstrates such unwavering dedication and infectious positive energy.”
Ask Wang the secrets to her continued reign at the top of her field, and she’ll reveal no grand ambitions of fame or stardom. She’s driven instead by gratitude. She cherishes the opportunity to bring the beautiful culture of her heritage to life on stage. “Shen Yun created this platform for artists who pursue their dreams, to be able to showcase this great culture and art form,” she said.
Wang was born in Xi’an, a city that was an ancient capital of China for thousands of years. From a young age, her grandmother made her memorize famous Chinese poems and works of Chinese literature. She didn’t fully understand their meaning at the time, but those texts often contained moral lessons and expounded on ancient rules of propriety—values that later became important for her to comprehend, as a dancer portraying exemplary characters from Chinese history. “This was like predestiny, like I was meant to do this. All that preparation was just for today,” she said.
After moving to America at age 14, Wang heard about Shen Yun. She’d attended a dance school briefly in China, but Shen Yun was her first introduction to classical Chinese dance. She was intrigued by this art form that came from her native country, but that she knew little about.
Going back millennia to imperial courts, ancient plays, and folk performances, classical Chinese dance is an expressive art form with a rich history. Much of its core was lost in the Cultural Revolution, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set out to systematically destroy traditional Chinese culture. It’s impossible to find in its true form in modern-day China.
The CCP’s machinations hit especially close to home for some founding members of Shen Yun. They fled China to escape the regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based in Buddhist tradition that grew popular during the 1990s. Its guiding principles are truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Chen explained that Falun Gong’s spread represented “a return to traditional values and spirituality”—running directly counter to the atheist CCP. Launched in 1999, the persecution “not only sought to eliminate Falun Gong, [but] was also an attempt to destroy the last remnants of China’s authentic culture once and for all,” Chen said.
“In many ways, we are modern-day pilgrims,” she added. “Many of us arrived on America’s shores with nothing but our faith and each other.” Here, in a country “rooted in freedom and liberty, we could freely create Shen Yun on our own terms”—bringing the true essence of the culture to the world, she said.
That mission resonated deeply with Wang. She began training in classical Chinese dance, and in 2007, had the opportunity to tour with Shen Yun as part of a student practicum program. She’s been with the company ever since. Within a few years, she demonstrated her prowess by winning first place in the NTDTV International Classical Chinese Dance Competition’s junior division in 2009 and 2010, and first place in the adult division in 2012.
She laments that Shen Yun’s performances can’t be seen in her homeland. But she’s grateful for her adoptive home. “Being able to use this art form, dance, to carry traditional Chinese values … I’m very thankful to America for giving us the platform to revive our own culture,” she said.
Culture of Excellence
Reflecting on her journey with Shen Yun, Wang recalled her early career. Their training facilities were more rudimentary, but the spirit of camaraderie was just as strong as it is today. “We bonded together like a big family,” she said. Outliers in the competitive world of professional dance, the artists fostered a culture of mutual support and excellence.
Chen credits Shen Yun’s incredible growth to that unique company culture. “We forged a new kind of performing arts company where artistic excellence goes hand-in-hand with a spiritual life of meditation and moral living,” she said. She explained that in ancient China, it was common for artists to pursue spiritual self-improvement to elevate themselves in both skill and character.
(Larry Dye)
Shen Yun artists follow an old Chinese adage about artistry, Wang said: “Before you learn an art form, you should learn how to be a good person.” The characters she’s portrayed on stage have served as constant inspiration for how to do that. “Ancient people had the greatest wisdom,” offering lessons about kindness, integrity, and selflessness, she said.
To enrich her sense of artistry, Wang also enjoys drawing inspiration from doing Chinese calligraphy and reading Chinese poetry. (Larry Dye)
In 2018, she played the role of Wang Baochuan, a historical figure from ninth-century China, who faithfully waited 18 years for her husband to return home from war. Wang also admires Xi Shi, one of four women known as ancient China’s greatest beauties. As part of an elaborate plan, she was sent to an enemy state to make its king fall in love with her, all the while reporting back intelligence so that her kingdom could seize the right moment to invade and attack. “It wasn’t something that she wanted to do. She was not completely happy because she was such a kind person, and she felt that in the process, she hurt other people,” Wang said. Nevertheless, she chose to put her kingdom’s needs above her own. Wang channeled those layers of conflicted emotions while portraying Xi Shi during Shen Yun’s 2024 tour.
“Being able to speak with your body, and feel the emotions of different characters going through their lives just by dancing, it is a very magical feeling,” she said.
Off-stage, Wang embodies her characters’ selflessness in her roles mentoring junior dancers. She began as a teacher’s assistant at around age 19, and has been teaching on and off since then. Regarding challenges and obstacles, she tells them: “Don’t be scared of what you’re facing, and don’t look at a problem as too big. Just take the first step.”
As dance captain, she must constantly consider her troupe members’ emotions and needs, to ensure rehearsals and training sessions go smoothly. “This load of responsibility means that oftentimes, I have to put my own dance training as the last priority,” she said. It’s not an easy choice, given the rigorous demands of keeping her body in peak condition.
But she’s found it rewarding to guide a new generation of dancers. Being an instructor has also helped her realize some of her own weaknesses and improve upon them. “There’s a Chinese saying by an emperor that means you look at other people as a mirror to reflect yourself,” she said. “Everything happens for a reason, so anything you see, you can reflect on yourself and see if you can improve.”
Giving Back
Beyond her love for dance, Wang feels a responsibility toward audience members that drives her constant pursuit of excellence. She sees how the values conveyed through Shen Yun’s performances, though rooted in the Chinese tradition, resonate with people around the world. She recalls reading a heartfelt review from an audience member who thanked Shen Yun for making art with a deeper purpose. “’How do you evaluate kindness? How do you evaluate beauty? … We should cherish and appreciate the culture’s essence,’” Wang recalled him saying. “[That] pushed me forward to craft my art better.”
It’s a sentiment the whole company shares, according to Chen. “We feel a tremendous responsibility to remind people of our common humanity, and the divine connection we all share,” she said. “We would like to show people that we all have a divine side, and by recognizing that and feeling that, our futures will be bright and filled with hope, regardless of how messy and difficult the world may be at times.”
Wang is at the top of her game, but she isn’t thinking about her own prestige or how her dance career will unfold. All she wants, she said, is to “bring warmth” to audiences.
“In society nowadays, everything’s very fast-paced, and they choose to come to the theater and spend 2 1/2 hours just sitting there watching us,” she said. During those precious hours, “I wish to give as much as I can.”
An aerial view of Jonesborough, Tenn. (Courtesy of Jonesborough Tourism Department)
There’s nothing quite like a sunny day in a small Southern town. Whether you’re on the coast, the bayou, or the rippling mountain ranges, these places are special. It’s the smiles and hospitality and history, and so much more, that set them apart. Here are five of the very best, most charming Southern towns.
Historic Port
(Chris Rogers/Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce and the Hammock Coast)
Roughly halfway between Myrtle Beach and Charleston on South Carolina’s Hammock Coast, a visit to Georgetown is like a trip back in time to Colonial days. Stroll under oak-shaded streets in the well-preserved downtown. Then head to the Harborwalk to spot boats and sea birds while you settle into a waterfront restaurant, tucking into some of the freshest seafood you’ll find anywhere.
Horse and Hunt Capital
(Visit Middleburg)
Although the historic district in the small northern Virginia town of Middleburg is under a mile long, you’ll find plenty to explore along its cobblestone sidewalks and amid great stone buildings. Backdropped by the Blue Ridge Mountains, it was established in 1787 between Winchester and Alexandria (that’s the “middle” in the name). Browse art galleries and antique shops, and indulge in excellent food and local wine. If you’re lucky, watch an equestrian competition—Middleburg is the nation’s horse and hunt capital.
Tales of House and Home
(Madison-Morgan CVB)
While Madison, Georgia, about an hour east of Atlanta, is very small (population: about 4,000), it has one of Georgia’s largest historic districts. Picture it: spreading magnolias and some 50 antebellum homes, their Victorian and Greek Revival beauty carefully preserved by local residents. The best part? In some cases, you can go inside. The town has a number of house museums, which tell not only an architectural tale, but also the stories of those who lived within.
Appalachian Beauty
(Courtesy of VisitNC.com)
One of the highest-altitude towns east of the Mississippi, Highlands, North Carolina, lives up to its name, sitting on a picturesque plateau deep in the Appalachians at above 4,000 feet elevation. Short hikes take you to beautiful views, like the vistas off the paths of Whiteside Mountain. Waterfalls abound, too, including the famous cascades in nearby Cullasaja Gorge. Breathe in the fresh air, then come back to town for a delectable Southern meal and a night at a historic inn.
Louisiana Getaway
(Launch Media/Visit St. Francisville)
St. Francisville, Louisiana (population about 1,000), was once one of the most important river ports between New Orleans and Memphis. In 1810, it served as the capital of the Republic of West Florida, an unrecognized state that lasted just 74 days before it was annexed by the United States. Today, it is peaceful and beautiful, all shady paths and Spanish moss. Browse the shops and galleries, then enjoy a meal at a restaurant serving up Cajun, Creole, or Southern cuisine.
Storytelling Roots
(Peter Montanti)
Established in 1779, Jonesboro, Tennessee, a postcard-perfect town set on the rolling edge of the Appalachians, claims two major titles. The first—Tennessee’s Oldest Town—works well with the second, the Storytelling Capital of the World. Indeed, there are centuries of tales to tell, and they invite you to come listen. The town is home to the National Storytelling Festival and the International Storytelling Center, which hosts performances and preserves oral traditions from across the globe.
Sheldon Theragood has
been a police officer
since 2010, and he also
works on his volunteer
organization that gets
kids involved with doing
good for the community. (Courtesy of Sheldon Theragood)
From the time he was a teenager, Sheldon Theragood has mentored young kids. With dreams of becoming an NBA basketball player, Mr. Theragood often practiced on the ball court and would teach ball tricks to kids who wanted to learn from him. “I was able to dribble the ball very well. Kids would actually come to the game just to see me make some moves,” he laughed. “It made a place in my heart.”
But due to arthritic pain in his hips, Mr. Theragood was cut from the basketball team during his junior year of college at Texas Southern University. “I had to figure out what else I could do,” he said. He got hired as a youth detention officer in Harris County, Texas. “Working there, I was going to be around teenagers who had made life mistakes. I felt like that was going to be a great place for me to help teenagers.”
Mr. Theragood spent time mentoring the youth, listening to them, and helping them build a plan for when they would be released. However, after working there for four years, he was discouraged to see some of the youth get re-detained. “All the staff were excited to see this kid leave and all of a sudden two months later, he’d be back.”
He decided that becoming a police officer was the best way he could help. “I thought that was the only position for me; the whole deal for me was to save the kids’ lives out on the streets, and to do whatever it takes—that’s my motto—to make a difference.” While patrolling the streets, Mr. Theragood would not only encounter at-risk teens but also many homeless. When he first joined the Houston, Texas, police force, he became a member of the police department’s homeless outreach team, which would provide housing, rehab, access to daily necessities like clothing and toiletries, and services meant to help them get out of homelessness. Mr. Theragood then realized that he could teach teens valuable lessons through introducing them to the homeless men and women he met. “I brought them so that they could understand that nobody’s born like this,” he said. “This is just choices. Hey man, this could be you. Sometimes you have to be realistic with them and give them that little scare so they start thinking, ‘I want to change my life.’”
Mr. Theragood volunteers at a blankets and clothing giveaway for the homeless during the 2023 holiday season. (Courtesy of Sheldon Theragood)
So in 2010, Mr. Theragood got the inspiration to start TheraGood Deeds, a nonprofit to involve children of all ages and backgrounds in community service. He envisioned gathering kids with a troubled past and straight-A students, hoping that they would learn from each other’s experiences. After he got support from a community center to introduce kids to his program, his nonprofit took off, with children ages 4 to 16 doing at least one community outreach project per month. Activities range from serving in soup kitchens to hosting a Christmas toy drive and organizing celebration events for the homeless. He is constantly looking for new project ideas. “Wherever the help is needed, we want to provide a service. I’ll never say no.”
Mr. Theragood at an Easter-themed event with children participating in his TheraGood Deeds organization. (Courtesy of Sheldon Theragood)
The children enjoy spending time together and making new friends. “We have a good time, so it’s also catering to their enjoyment of life,” he said. “We hang out, we go to the basketball court and play. Their friends see them being part of something that looks exciting, and they want to join, too.” Over the years, some of the teens who joined TheraGood Deeds have grown up and gone to college, and thanks to donations from local sponsors like the Ashley Jadine Foundation, the nonprofit is able to provide them with scholarships.
(Courtesy of Sheldon Theragood)
Princess Jackson, 21, started doing outreach projects with TheraGood Deeds in 2014 and said that the experience has taught her humility by seeing and working with people in need. Ms. Jackson, who also happens to be Mr. Theragood’s stepdaughter, said that her stepfather also showed through his example how to be a giving person who serves others. “He is a great man of faith. Not only does he tell you what is the right thing to do, but he shows it and he walks it.”
In his 
