#personal-identity

#personal-identity

Childhood patterns of beliefs, behaviors, and emotions are easily introduced to our young, malleable psyches through immediate family members, relatives, teachers, clergy, and coaches who present prescribed ways to live. The beliefs we inherit describe convictions about religion, work, money, and relationships, including how to relate to emotions through either suppression or expression.

It was another detail that the rest of the family apparently knew but had never told me; they thought I already knew. The biology mattered less to me than the secret. Dad had been adopted, it turned out. A classic affliction of the 1950s, in which young, unmarried couples were forced to give away their newborn babies.

I've been Ashley French for so long at home, but I really never changed publicly. Because everyone knows me as Ashley Tisdale. But I just felt like it was time for people to know me for me, and not just a character or a celebrity.

Security guards patrol areas that used to feel universally safe. This shift reflects a hard truth about modern healthcare - the environments designed for healing have become unexpectedly dangerous places to work. Behind every access control system, every badge scan, every visitor check-in, there are real people trying to do their jobs while feeling safe. And right now, too many of them don't.

When I modelled them in the shop for my wife, she reacted instantly. I couldn't pull them off, she said. You're not an art or fashion person, was the implication. She was right; her advice tends to be sound. As a man, when you push into your 40s it becomes harder to keep up with every new trend and perhaps there comes a point at which maybe you shouldn't. But you might not want to totally give up either.

None of this (Trump Media deal, subtle DEI rollbacks, etc.) was ever openly addressed. Since the firm advertises its commitment to socially progressive causes, I thought this was a tension that warranted conversation.

When you can't use your voice, it is very, very frustrating. Other people project what they think your personality is. I have silently screamed and screamed at there being no scream.

If I'm going to help brands tell their stories with honesty, I have to start by telling my own.

"The quest to find and define yourself can feel never-ending, and a vital part of life, as if you're missing out without self-understanding."

I refuse to see the world as you see it, and you hate me for it.

Legacy is complicated; being the child of successful parents is complicated for Violet Oliphant-O'Neill as she charts her own course in art.