About Me

Hello! I’m Reagan Freed, aspiring writer and storyteller living blissfully in the mountains of Colorado. Writing is a creative outlet I use to weave together my stories, thoughts and ideas with the intention to seek clarity and understanding in my head and heart.

A few fun, authentic facts about me:

  • I’m an Aries – the “fiery spice” of the zodiac. Passionate, outspoken, bold, independent and adventurous is just the tip of the iceberg for this party of one.

  • I am an extrovert who discovered and fell deeply in love with my introverted parts during the pandemic. It’s a love story.

  • I am a hard-core Type A personality. Excessively planning, organizing and bossing people around is my thing.

  • Coffee daily, wine weekly. This completes me.

  • My partner in crime is my 6-year old rescue pup, Sophie.

  • Cooking is my therapy. After a stressful day, you’ll always find me in the kitchen whipping up dinner (with a glass of wine, of course!).

  • My favorite song to work out to is Zombie by the Cranberries.

  • My favorite book to read is any memoir. I LOVE reading the stories of others and feeling a sense of solidarity through their experiences.

  • I am not a good driver, it’s quite baffling actually. I even crashed a golf cart once (long story).

  • I have leaped like a frog while slurping for flies in order to get into a bar, nothing is beneath me (even longer story).

What Inspires My Writing?

Three years ago, I had a mental health breakdown. Decades of overwhelming stress, all-consuming anxiety and more baggage than I could carry all came crashing down on me in a paralyzing moment that forced me to face a harsh realization that the path I was following was unsustainable. To find joy again and to get healthy, I had to completely transform my way of living and unlearn everything that I knew.

As I began to deeply evaluate myself, my life, my relationship, my friendships and my career, I retraced every wound and every unsavory life experience that led me to that moment. I unpacked it all. Through vicious cycles of hurting, forgiving, releasing and healing, I discovered that we are capable of transforming our pain into our power through acceptance, compassion and a curiosity for ourselves.

Reshaping your mind, retraining your heart and reimagining a different way of life is hard and messy and a lot like the game of whack-a-mole. Writing has become an invaluable tool to dissect and process my life experiences, my learnings and the messy sea of emotions we all live in. Through writing I have found a deeper understanding of myself that has inspired a journey of personal growth, rebuilding and finding my voice.

My Guiding Principles

I am fiercely passionate about inclusion, equity and equal rights in our communities and workplaces. I firmly believe that before anything else, we are all human beings breathing the same air, drinking the same water and bleeding the same color of blood. After that we are just pieces of a puzzle waiting to be put together. Each puzzle piece representing our unique backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, thoughts and ideas. One human puzzle is not the same as the other, and yet we are more similar than we are different.

These beliefs are foundational to my writing and weaved throughout my personal stories and reflections as an LGBTQ woman. By shining a light on the stories of those who are unseen, overlooked and underprivileged in our communities, I hope to inspire a curiosity that can slowly begin to replace the judgement and criticism that lurks in the darkness of our society. I aspire to challenge the inequities in our society and influence a system where we teach people how to think, not what to think.

Why Read With Grit + Grace?

Reading the stories of others and learning from their experiences has been a tremendous source of inspiration for my own journey. A journey I feel compelled to share with YOU in case there is one shred of wisdom (or a good belly laugh!) I can offer you in the pursuit of your own personal transformation.

With Grit + Grace is designed to create connection through our shared experiences with trauma, shame, mental health, courage, vulnerability and the mess of it all. It’s a place to amplify the stories of others and raise awareness to the beauty unfolding in our marginalized communities. A place to explore our deepest truths, advocate for and lift each other up and inspire healing as a collective.

What To Expect

This is a FREE subscription with a casual schedule of newsletters aligned with the natural flow of my writing and creative process. I can’t promise weekly content, but I can promise gritty topics with graceful narratives.

Connect With Me

Be the first to know when new content is released! Hit the subscribe button below and With Grit + Grace will land in your inbox twice a month. Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for bonus content.

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Gritty topics with graceful narratives. Reflections on messy healing journeys and building resilience in ourselves and in our communities.

People

Aspiring Writer + Storyteller. Fur-Mom. Wino. Foodie. Human Rights Advocate. #withgritandgrace