In this episode, I chat with my Instagram twin, my sister from another mister, Shirley Hagel.

Shirley has been a stylist for fourteen years in both Tallahassee, Florida, and New York City.

I met Shirley on Instagram of all places when she commented on one of my posts. I creeped on her profile and immediately started noticing similarities: we both have nose piercings, similar tattoos (we both have a heart on our wrists!), and we have the same anxiety necklace.

Whaaaaat?!

*cue Twilight Zone theme.

And that’s only a few of our similarities. Of course, we became friends and I can’t tell you how often one of us says something and the other immediately responds “Same!”

This episode gets a little unusual as we talk about some really gritty, personal, and controversial topics.

Here are just a few nuggets we dug into:

• Our mutual experiences growing up in Evangelical Christian churches, and then leaving our religions of origin.

• Navigating relationships and anxiety, and how both of those things changed flavors outside of religion.

• How not going to Bible school led her to hair styling (and changed her entire worldview at the same time).

• Shirley’s move from Florida to New York City, and her journey from employed to self-employed and back again. (Because let’s be honest, self-employment is freaking hard and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting the stability of a job.)

• Making peace with our own changed perspectives while respecting the views of others.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this episode! This just scratches the surface. Make sure to give it a listen and check out Shirley on Instagram!

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