Being multifaceted in your professional and personal life AND having balance for both, especially in today’s world where you want to be your authentic self but virtually connect. And our special guest is an absolute boss when it comes to creating your lane in every aspect that fuels your fire, it’s the incredible chronic illness activist, content creator, editor, writer, model and all-around boss woman, Devri Velázquez! In 2011, Devri was diagnosed with a rare disease called Takayasu’s arteritis and she used her talents of writing and advocacy work to create a professional resume that rivals many for its diversity and skill. With her unique platform empowering others to create positive changes across communities of gender, race and identity, Devri has written for brands like Allure and 21Ninety.com and been a panelist of health summits. Now with over 96k followers, Devri is the queen of sharing how writing and visuals can empower women to focus on their individual wellness, activism in daily life, and inner powers. In this episode, Devri and Dominique fire off some quick takes about Devri’s favorite things like her favorite TikTok trend, how she starts and ends her day with two of the COOLEST things in her routine, and a guilty pleasure she has not shame sharing. Then the duo dives deep and gets real breaking the glass ceiling on misconceptions the diverse chronic illness/disability community deals with—like how to navigate social media while touching on topics of racial and gender inequality, and ways to be a person that advocates for MANY communities because that makes you a passionate badass. Allyship becomes a major chatting point as Devri mentions not only the starting points you can add to be an ally for underrepresented communities, but also how to amplify voices of those in communities like the BIPOC and AAPI communities, because as Dominique points out, being proactive and reactive are two different ways of advocating for change but two very needed styles of allyship! STORY TIME for our Intermission Segment gets a bit spooky and sentimental as Devri tells us about how her love of horror stories resulted in her creating a childhood side hustle that led her down the path as a professional writer today. Get your notepad ready for the second half of the episode because Devri and Dominique create the guidebook of how to be an entrepreneur and be a successful one as your creator and manager, every tip to make your social media a focal point like writing that best caption or taking that perfect photo, and lots of advice of how to create wellness and boundaries to protect your mind and health. Probably the best advice comes from our super uplifting conversation at the end of the episode when Devri mentions how to respond to those social hot button questions about things like racial ignorance, gender inequality and ableism and how to boost your confidence to NEVER be silence when you feel fearful of ‘saying the wrong thing.’ They even talk about how ignorance isn’t a bad word because that means you can STILL grow and learn from what you don’t know. And Devri’s BEST piece of advice is so empowering, so powerful, you will want to stick to the end of the episode. Please like, comment, subscribe and share this episode, follow Devri @devrivelazquez, and support InvisiYouth Charity by donating, following and joining our programs and community @invisiyouth!

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