Arielle D'Angelo: How Self-Loved Saved My Life as an LGBTQ+ Person

Arielle and our founder, Elena Joy, discuss aspects of self-love that are unique to the LGBTQ+ community.

Hey fam!  I hope you’re enjoying our season of showcasing the incredible speakers at the Pride and Joy Summit from May 2021.  This episode is sponsored by Queers in the Country, a 3 day meetup in April for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC nomads, hosted by a queer-owned venue in rural Kentucky.  This amazing vanlife festival is raising funds for Pride and Joy Foundation.  Overnight and day passes are now available, visit www.QueersintheCountry.com to learn more.

Today, we have Arielle D’Angelo is an incredible coach and leader in our community with her company We the Rainbow.  

Self-love is an integral topic in the LGBTQ+ community, one that words can’t fully encapsulate. Sometimes I feel like straight people don’t understand the amount of self-love that it takes to live a truly authentic life.  Recently, Pride and Joy Parents hosted a workshop focused on self-harm in our youth.  Our facilitator taught a concept about the “layers of protection” that we all need.  It starts with self, and expands in concentric circles to family, school and/or work, and then society at large.  

I love that it starts with self.  We have to feel safe enough with our own selves to be authentic inside, as we build the safety to be authentic on the outside.  And self-love is critical to that safety. 

This is also an important concept for parents of LGBTQ+ youth to understand.  We, as parents, can shower our child with love.  But if they don’t feel the love and safety within themselves first, it’s almost impossible for that love to penetrate them.  So one of our most important jobs as parents is to foster deep self-love, both modeling our own and helping our children to identify it in their own lives.

One of my favorite parts of Arielle is how she shows a different side of what it means to be queer.  There is such a lesbian stereotype of flannel-wearing, home depot going, Subaru driving lesbians, (and while it’s a personal favorite) it’s just one aspect of our community at large.  Arielle and her visibility drive home the point that queerness exists in nuance, not in singular stereotype.

 I hope you enjoyed this discussion on self-love and I invite you to contribute your thoughts on our blog post for this episode. 

If you want more from Arielle, she'll soon be enrolling for Unleashed, her signature group coaching program for LGBTQ+ humans who are ready to release patterns and internalized shame around their identity and create new empowering narratives so they can confidently live the authentic life that they so deeply desire and deserve!

If interested, visit arielledangelo.com/unleashed to apply or send Arielle a message on instagram!

 Again, thank you to our sponsor of this episode, Queers in the Country.com.  Be sure to visit to learn about the game changing experience of this weekend in the country, sitting in community with our rural queer family.