Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Macdonald.
Christine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story is Less Than Zero meets Miami Vice, but with more make-up and hairspray. Raped at thirteen, drugs by sixteen, a skin deformity by fifteen, promiscuity to feel beautiful, left home at seventeen…and on and on. Absentee father, abusive stepfather, and a mother who drank. The perfect sister everyone loved. And then there’s me. The Stripper. The Hot Mess.
For as long as I remember, I was a disappointment. I found the stripper stage in Waikiki (my hometown) at age nineteen because at age thirteen I had suffered a rare but serious skin disease called Acne Conglobata which left over eighty percent of my face scared. Once I stepped on the stripper stage in 1987, I was transformed to a world where I was beautiful and appreciated (if only for my body). But the fast lane proved too much for me and after nearly a decade, I found the courage to walk away.
Thinking I could move off the island and start fresh in California in my late twenties, I was met with a new set of challenges. Turns out, you can’t run away from your trauma, no matter how far you travel.
After years of therapy and getting to my ‘whys’ (why do I choose unavailable partners, create chaos, self-sabotage my joy), I was on a mission to create a world where I felt beautiful without taking my clothes off or taking drugs to mask the pain of living with depression and PTSD.
Fast forward thirty years and I’m here, ready to share my story of survival through the darkness with the dream of helping others with similar stories.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh, those pesky land minds! I can’t tell you how many of them I came across in my journey to self-love but there were many. The biggest one being myself. I should start a fragrance line and call it Self Sabotage. It will smell of childhood trauma with notes of lavender and neurosis. Having zero self-esteem served my mental health well and it took years of therapy truly unravel the hard wiring in my brain that told me I was not good, pretty, strong enough.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I always tell people that my passion and my career part of the same coin. To pay the bills, I work as an Executive Assistant and to pay my passion, I write.
Helping others gives me a sense of purpose and comes naturally to me so after being let go as an advertising executive in my thirties, I took a gig as an assistant to keep the lights on. I quickly learned that having a career in administration was my niche, with a lot less stress, compared to sales. Less stress meant more time to focus on my passion.
Before TikTok, there were blogs (remember those?). I knew I wanted to write my story but had no idea how to start, so I created a blog and called it Pole to Soul (I went from working the pole to baring my soul). I wrote essays and fun anecdotes from my days on The Pole. Thanks in part to earning the coveted “Blog of Note” award by Google in 2010, my exposure increased. Once I passed the 20,000 subscriber mark, I was compelled to dig a little deeper with my story and unveil the darker moments from my past, knowing that I wasn’t alone with my struggles of finding my self-worth. Expressing my vulnerability spoke to people and I started receiving personal emails through my website thanking me to being so open about my story.
Something that sets me apart is my sense of humor in the face of adversity. I’ve been a comedy junkie since discovering George Carlin in high school. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched Carlin at Carnegie, but what I do know is that had it not been for my connection to comedy, I don’t know where I’d be today. “If my life wasn’t funny, it’d just be true and that is unacceptable.” – Carrie Fisher.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I was just talking with a colleague about this! Having no college degree or formal training, I knew I was starting my book journey with a deficit when I started my blog. I signed up for local writing classes and attended as many conferences as I could afford. The sessions and teachers were great, but the real networking muscles were flexed in social gatherings. My sales experience and sense of humor came in handy and I learned to ask the right questions when I wasn’t soaking in copious amounts of knowledge from the more seasoned writers.
It’s always a good idea to lean into your discomfort when it comes to finding a mentor. For some, raising their hand and asking someone about their career path and sharing their dreams isn’t natural. But that’s where the magic happens, outside our comfort zone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.poletosoul.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatgalkiki/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorChristineMacdonald
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thatgalkiki
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ChristineKikiMac
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thatgalkiki1
Image Credits
Professional Headshot: Sascha Knopf, KNOPFoto
