Hidden Gems: Meet Jenna Gestetner of xHealth Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Gestetner.

Hi Jenna, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My work has always come from the core purpose of innovating the experience of health care through design, communication, and education. 6 years ago, I started working in health care, and I now run a marketing agency that helps health care companies use digital media to build community and transform how they connect with consumers to increase trust, community, and loyalty. I never realized how deep this ran within my personal life until my health issues started to impact my life more severely and became something I started to share about publicly.

At first, it was just a fun way to document parts of my life that were different to those around me, but I quickly realized how many people could relate. Over the past 2.5 years, it has turned into a community, a platform, and a business. My content focuses on sharing my journey with MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome), several chronic conditions, and food allergies. I create content about living with dietary restrictions, navigating health challenges, and staying positive as a young adult and college student. My community is all about empowering each other, connecting through shared experiences, and finding ways to have fun despite having these challenges.

I always say – this is literally just my life. It may seem unfathomable to other people, but for me, it’s normal. I’ve lived this way for so long that I’ve just learned how to make it work. I can only eat 14 foods, I react to most products, and I have had to learn to live and work with the way my body functions. But I don’t think of it as this big, terrible thing, I think of it as my life, and I’ve built something out of it.

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?
One of the hardest parts has been learning how to advocate for myself in systems that weren’t built for people like me. When you have a complex condition that’s not well understood, you end up spending a lot of energy just trying to articulate what is happening, having to discuss emotionally heavy experiences in a clinical environment. I’ve had to become the leader of my own health, not just navigating appointments, medications, and reactions, but managing the psychological weight of it all.

I realized the key to changing my life was changing my relationship to my reality. I had to figure out what I needed and give it to myself. But I needed to be open to that looking different than I expected. For example, I needed control but thought it was with my conditions but they are complex and change and are out of my control in many ways so I gave myself control through the habits and systems I built. As someone who has always wanted to feel in control, I had to learn that I wasn’t going to be happy if my happiness was defined by how in control and how “fixed” my health was. I completely changed my life by taking my own control in many ways. For example, I felt the best about my health and my life, even though my health was objectively at it’s worst, because I made the decision to implement small habits such as going for walks every day that serve me, make me feel good, and help me feel in control.

There’s also the constant unpredictability. What’s safe one day might not be the next. I’ve had to grieve versions of my life that no longer exist and get comfortable with uncertainty, while still showing up for my work, my community, and myself. And I think that’s something a lot of people quietly relate to – this feeling of having to figure everything out while still trying to be present and live your life. Something I have always believed, that has been a driving force, is that you can be happy with where you are while simultaneously wanting something different in the future.

What’s been unique in my experience is that I’ve also worked in health care professionally for years. That gave me access to perspectives, language, and tools that most people never get. It helped me see how the system works behind the scenes and how disconnected it often is from the actual human experience. It gave me the confidence to ask better questions, educate myself, take control, and become the leader of my health care rather than letting the systems take control. And made me more aware of just how much work still needs to be done to make health care more compassionate, accessible, and empowering for everyone, not just people who know how to “speak the language.” That is a huge part of what I hope to do and empower people to do with my platform and with the work I do through my agency, working with health care companies.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about xHealth Studio?
I believe creativity is the bridge between medicine and health care.

I am an entrepreneur and founder passionate about reimagining health care experiences through creativity, design, and education.

I am the CEO and Founder of xHealth Studio, a creative agency focused on experience design, marketing, and community building to help health care companies deliver forward-thinking digital marketing and engagement solutions that transform how they connect with consumers, patients, and providers to increase trust, community, and loyalty.

I also share my health journey and how I navigate my life with complex chronic conditions, on social media (@jennaxhealth on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube). I have a collective following of over 150k and have been featured in major news publications such as the Daily Mail and Newsweek.

What does success mean to you?
For a long time, I thought success meant arriving somewhere and having everything figured out, but I’ve realized that success is when my life and my work reflect who I am and what I care about.

Success is feeling proud of how I show up, even when things are hard. It’s constantly adapting to whatever plot twists life throws at me. It’s building systems that work for me, not trying to fit into what’s “normal.” It’s someone messaging me saying, “You made me feel seen,” or helping a brand connect with the community they are building for. It’s creating work that helps people feel understood, whether that’s through content or strategy.

But on a bigger scale, success to me means being able to bridge the gap between the people creating health care solutions and consumers. We can’t fix health care just by inventing something new, we need to make what already exists work better. I want to bring companies closer to the people they’re trying to serve, and bring people closer to the care, tools, and resources they need. My goal is to build that bridge. Because better communication, deeper understanding, and more human connection are how real change happens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennagestetner/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennaxhealth/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennagestetner/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLFb6eY11KNGkKFmPvbjwmw
• Other: https://www.jennaxhealth.com