“Healing journeys are a huge undertaking, but Sarah Bagharib is unafraid to ask hard questions. As founder of women’s platform Crazycat and host to podcast Nusantara Women Conversations, she is a champion for everyday women from all walks of life. But this journey is a culmination of unlearning stereotypes, earnest self-reflection and a willingness to be vulnerable publicly in a deeply personal way.” – Aqilah Zailan of Studio Gypsied.

I think the journey towards discovering my voice intersected with becoming a mom four years ago, and that’s around the time where I felt the misalignment in my identity, my core voice, and who I am. I was also turning 30 and it felt like a milestone in life.

Reflecting and thinking about who I am essentially, is such an existential question, but it made me think about who – or what kind of mom I want to be to my daughter, and I fet that made me think deeply about who I am, my roots and my identities.

I feel that a lot of my intersections in my identity being a woman, an ethnic minority woman, a Muslim woman… all my life I've had to shed parts of myself to fit into boxes that I just don't fit into no matter how much I try.

I want to live a life in alignment with my truth and it starts with identifying that core voice inside me. So I began unlearning a lot of the internalised stereotypes and racism of my racial and religious identities. That helped me recognise that it’s okay for me to accept these parts of myself.

If the community or society, or even the world doesn’t accept me, that’s fine. I should firstly accept who I am and I want to be in alignment with that. That’s when I’m able to step into my personal power and be my most authentic self.