1

THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY

The Power of Authenticity

Annie Ewald
Writing 310

2
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
While inspiring others, and still having time to meal prep every week, Lauren Bragg
gracefully (and humorously) changes the lives of middle-aged women every day. Growing up,
she always loved to cook and help others; but never in her life did she think these two would
combine into something amazing and life changing. What began with just jotting down recipes
and handing them out to her gym partners, led to creating a beautiful blog displaying her recipes
and hard work. This passion overcame her desk job, and then began to consume her life in a
positive way. When asking Lauren how she was able to do this with the competition of so many
other health and wellness coaches, her answer was simple, by being my best, authentic self.
Although writing did not come easy to Lauren, she found she did her best work when writing
about what she felt was best for those in need. Her health and wellness program, Wellness Vixen,
became a blend of her own stories of struggle, how she overcame those times, and how she
wants to help women in becoming the best versions of themselves. Because of her authenticity,
her audience formed in a way that worked harmoniously with her business.
After graduating college, Lauren had a well-paid office job where she was essentially a
secretary. Her day consisted of writing and replying to emails in which she had no personal
connection with the person on the other end. Although she was making good money, she soon
realized she was not getting much personal satisfaction from sending emails. During this time,
she would decompress by working out at the gym. Her gym buddies became good friends and
after small talk turned into every day conversation, they started to realize she had a serious talent
in the kitchen. This inspired Lauren to start writing down her recipes and soon after, bring them
with her to give to her gym friends. What started as jotting down ingredients led to her creating
her first blog, Simply Paleo, of all of her paleo recipes. This was a huge hit. She was able to

3
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
attract people locally as well as across the country with her unique, quick and easy, and healthy
recipes. Lauren decided to go paleo after struggling with her weight and feelings of low energy.
A paleo diet is one that includes only food that you can hunt or gather. This helped Lauren get to
the healthy state she is in now, and she wanted to share it with the community she was thriving
in.
Once Simply Paleo became a large success, she then decided to take things one-step
further. How could she continue to promote healthy eating while also providing the foundations
for a healthy mind, body, and spirit as well? Becoming a certified health and wellness coach was
the first step. Once she had this certificate, she was able to show future clients her credibility, and
constructed a helpful and effective program. This was the beginning of Wellness Vixen, a sixweek program that inspires women to become the best version of themselves. This program is
what cultivated Laurens creativity and brought a level of self-satisfaction she did not know was
even possible. Although much of what Lauren does is in her writing and the messages she is
giving to younger women, she does not consider herself a writer. Her approach to writing well
and making it effective is solely authenticity. She finds she cannot even get her words across
when she is not being authentic to herself and her thoughts. In order to help inspire other women,
she feels she has to be honest and true to herself. With this being said, her blog is the most
informational area of her business.
When scanning Laurens blog, the viewer can further understand what her business is
about, just by reading some simple, well-constructed sentences on the first page. Laurens target
audience are middle aged women who do not have a ton of time to sit down and read every day.
With this, she makes her bullet points simple and to the point, as well as light and humorous.

4
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
When asking Lauren about how she gained her audience, she stated that she first had to figure
out how she wanted to go about helping others and what that looked like to a busy, working
women. Once she did this, her audience essentially came to her. Wellness Vixen blog is a very
accurate depiction of the life that Lauren lives every day. For example, she states,
Heya Gorgeous! My name is Lauren. Im a board certified Health and Wellness
Coach with over 5 years of experience guiding women in cultivating the most
vibrant version of themselves. I can help you heal your body and your
relationship with the mirror so you can truly live like a Vixen. Stop trying to
accomplish your goals alone, lets elevate your life together!

This shows her ability to not only clearly state her purpose, but also show her creative side. She
writes in a way that makes the reader feel comfortable and excited about changing themselves
for the better. With comfortably comes trust and her vixens have to have trust in her posts before
believing they are valid.
In another section of Laurenss blog, she does what I feel is her most important move;
she explains her story. Her struggle to develop a healthy and constructive relationship with her
body was not easy, but it helps her audience feel as if they are not alone. She expressed that,
during what should have been the happiest time of my life I was slipping into depression. I have
always been a happy person and did not know where to start to turn my life around. This is not
easy to admit, especially to an audience, but instead of looking back and being upset about her
past, Lauren allows it to fuel her connection with her vixens. Her past lead her to an incredible
future of love and forgiveness with her body. The story she shares is inspiring and raw. It is

5
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
easier to take advice from someone who has walked in similar shoes, and can connect with the
reader on a personal level. This drew in the appropriate audience, and she did not feel ashamed to
have made herself vulnerable to strangers who would soon become fellow vixens.
After Lauren had figured out her target audience, she constructed a muse. A muse, in
this case, is a made up woman Lauren created in order to imagine her audience. Her muse was
the exact person she felt was a good fit for her program. For example, a busy, middle aged
woman who needs help balancing all aspects of her life. This helped when Lauren felt stuck on
something, or did not know if she should say/write a post a certain way. When this happened, she
would think to herself, would her muse be offended? Would her muse find it helpful after a long,
busy day? By doing this, she was able to strip down what she was saying and this created more
effective and note worthy posts. She explained, I most commonly ask my muse if she has time
to sit down and read a long article about what asparagus can do for your body, of it will be easier
for her to get a quick summary. The quick summary almost always wins. When Lauren felt the
need to question the relevance and power of her posts, she was forced to ask herself these
questions, in relation to her muse. According to Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst, The best way to
answer questions about the larger consequences of your claims is to appeal to something that
your audience already figures to care about (p. 97), which is something Lauren does often. She
knows what her audience cares about, which helps in deciphering the importance of her
knowledge through their lens. This also helps her figure out what her posts are going to consist
of, and whether they are posted to her blog, Facebook page, or sent out in her weekly email.
Social Media has become such a place of controversy recently, and often times there is a
negative connotation behind it. I asked Lauren if it helped or hurt her business, as it seemed it

6
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
could go either way. She explained that it has been a great foundation in getting her word and
name out into the public. Her friends and fellow vixens will post about her program, so it gets
distributed to friends of friends, and so on. In this situation, she finds herself being a bit more
careful in how she displays herself, while still being authentic to her goals and program specifics.
For example, her Facebook page is much more for promoting her business, and posting short
clips that relate, rather than helpful articles for her vixens. Carroll discussed that, the more we
know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become
about making savvy judgments about the people, situations and media we encounter (2010, p.
45). This is a large part of Laurens job to make her business effective and relevant to her
audience. She must analyze each article, recipe, video clip, picture, etc., before posting it to her
Facebook page or blog so it is powerful to the reader. By knowing her audience, and staying true
to her authentic self, she is able to do this fairly easily. It was relieving to hear that Facebook can
still be used in such a positive way, and can empower readers instead of bringing them down and
causing controversy. Facebook is a much different tool than her blog with one on one interaction
between her and her vixens. With this being said, the language she uses to them personally is a
bit different.
Throughout the interview, Lauren cussed a couple times, which was not to my surprise.
On a friend-to-friend level her language is very colorful. She cusses like a sailor, especially
after a beer or two. Yet, this sparked my curiosity in wondering if she cussed to her vixens.
Language is a very important concept, and can be taken offensively if not implied correctly. She
stated that even cussing was something she continued to do (when she felt it appropriate) as it
kept her authentic and human. For example, one of her posts displayed her dinner that had

7
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
dropped all over her floor. The caption underneath read, One of those nights when everything
seems to be a bit off, so I said fuck it and got a burrito. Treat yourself when you need to vixens!
She looked at it as more of a social expression and a way to get out feelings and emotions, rather
than something of harm. I felt this was very powerful as so many words have negative
connotations, yet it is all about the implications behind why they are being said. It is not the
word; it is the emotion and drive behind it. Lauren is fortunate enough to construct her own
rules and regulations behind her business, and feels that this is something that allows her
audience to relate on a more personal level. This is what flourishes her authenticity. Her vixens
do not feel they are getting a scripted program from a book, but personal, day to day health tips.
She then explained that the only place she really sensors herself is on her business Facebook
page, because this is a place that gets visited often by readers that are not her vixens.
Another aspect of language that Lauren and I discussed was her ability to lose her bias,
and keep her responses creative and authentic. It felt as though it came as second nature to her,
but with health and wellness programs on the rise, I was wondering what she did to make her
posts different from others. She brought up other blogs that paralleled hers in many ways. She
then discussed what made her stick out in comparison to the others, and how that helped with her
overall outcome. She explained, you must find your niche and make that a golden nugget in
your program. This is what makes you stand out from others, and shows your readers who YOU
are (Bragg). This is a skill she has mastered very well, by combining light humor and a bright
vocabulary. It is important to recognize that just because there are key words that are classified
with health and wellness, straying away from them is what makes posts more noteworthy.

8
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
With this being said, Lauren knows her audience so well at this point she is able to know
what they need from her. This helps her decipher what kind of advice they may need and thrive
from hearing. Writing Routine and Positive Messages explains, with all messages, you need to
adapt to your audience by being sensitive to their needs: Maintain the you attitude, be polite,
emphasize the positive, and use bias-free language (p. 209). Lauren is dealing with women who
often put themselves in a vulnerable state by expressing their hardships, so being sensitive to
their needs is incredibly important. She comes to them with a un bias mindset and is able to
listen and communicate with an open mind. This comes back to Laurens ability to relate to her
vixens authentically and effectively. Without these skills, her job would not be half of what it is,
and she would not be able to provide good insight to those in need.
Although Lauren does not consider herself a writer, and does not even enjoy writing
much, she is able to create a blog with beautiful key points and expressive language. This comes
from authenticity and pure passion for what she is speaking about. When she is able to think of
writing blog posts and emails in those terms, she doesnt even feel like she is writing. Through
her unique and eloquent posts, she attracts her target audience by keeping things personal and
helpful. By having the best audience, she is able to create her best work. Now with her company
flourishing and all of the speed bumps finally gone, she asks herself, what next? How can I
continue to make a difference on an even bigger level? I, along with many others, am excited to
see what Laurens next path entails.

9
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY

References
Writing Routine and Positive Messages. (p. 208)
Carroll, L. (2010). Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis, volume 1.
Graff, Birkenstein and Durst. So What? Who Cares? not sure about publishing info?