Who Are You When No One's Watching?

By Petronella, Founder & Artist of Blingaratti™

I want to tell you something about me that might surprise you.

Most of the time, I'm not glammed up. Not even close.

I work from my home office and studio on our farm. My preferred attire is a comfy onesie, of which my grands are quite amused at the variety I've managed to acquire. No makeup. Hair probably in a clip or just doing whatever it wants. I'm deep in work, or I'm outside watching the sun come up, sitting quietly with my coffee and my Bible. Dressed down is how I live about 85% of the time.

But then there's the other 15%.

That's when I dress. When I do the hair. When I put on the makeup and the jewelry and yes, the glasses. The sparkly ones. The ones that catch the light and make people look twice. Whether in admiration or marveling at the audacity… I don’t know and don’t need to know!

And here's what I've learned: I don't have to choose.

For so long, women have felt like they have to be one thing. You're either the put-together woman or the casual one. The professional or the homebody. The glam girl or the natural one.

But we're not one-dimensional. We never were.

We contain multitudes. We have layers. And somewhere along the way, we stopped exploring those layers because life got busy. We focused on everyone else. The kids. The job. The house. The marriage. The aging parents. The never-ending list of errands and people who needed us.

And we forgot to ask ourselves a simple question: Who am I?

Not who am I as a mother. Not who am I as a wife or employee or caretaker. Just... who am I? What do I like? What brings me joy? What have I always wanted to try but never gave myself permission to explore?

This is our time.

I'm not talking about being selfish. I'm talking about being whole. About finally giving ourselves the space and quiet to think. To feel. To examine who we are and what we believe. In this chaotic world with stimuli coming at us from every direction, we have to be intentional about slowing down. About turning inward instead of just consuming.

How long has it been since you asked yourself:

What is my purpose?

What am I meant to do?

What am I meant to create or share or become?

These are big questions. And they don't get answered in the scroll of social media or the noise of a busy schedule. They get answered in the stillness. In the reflection. In the moments when you finally stop running from here to there and just sit with yourself.

For me, Blingaratti became part of that answer.

But notice, I said part. Blingaratti, although a passion, is still just a small piece of the whole. I have books coming. A podcast. A whole world of other passions still to explore. But these glasses? They are definitely an outward manifestation of something happening inside. My ability to be different. To think differently. To be unique and not be afraid of it. To stop following the norms that say women my age should fade into the background.

I didn't want to fade. I’m NOT going to fade. I will shine.

Not all the time. Not every day. But when I choose to, I want to show up fully. Unapologetically. With a little sparkle that says, "I'm still here. I'm still becoming. I'm not done yet."

That's what these glasses represent to me. And maybe that's what they can represent for you, too.

So here's my challenge.

Take some time. Find out who you are. Explore the parts of yourself you've neglected. Give yourself permission to be both the woman in the onesie and the woman in the crystals. You don't have to pick one.

You were never meant to be one-dimensional.

And the world needs all of who you are.

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