Today we’re excited to be connecting with Vanessa Ferlaino again. We’re excited to feature one of their products in our gift guide – learn more below and we encourage you to use your gift budget to support small businesses & creatives whenever possible.

Vanessa, so thrilled to have you joining us again, this time to talk all about products and so let’s jump right in. Please give our audience some background on the product side.
My two-time award-winning book “human” was born from a soulful reflection of both my inner world and the outer world. During this period, I was committed to honouring my space in solitude, really becoming one with the suffering that took up space in the body. For me, this looked like loss, grief, mourning, and trauma — mostly sexual and family trauma. These experiences are not at the forefront of “human”, and instead serve as the lens of a needed awakening. As I delved deep into my inner world, as I held space with myself and these parts of me, I slowly transformed my suffering. In this more transformed state, I saw, and still do, the thread between “me” and the outer world, a journey that is very intimately woven into human, in less than 100 pages. It is different from most books of this nature in that it invites us to take our healing journey a step forward; many times, we focus on our healing in isolation, but humanity does not happen in a vacuum. Ultimately, the intention of “human” is to invite us to explore the power of inner healing to shape humanity.

Do you remember the moment you realized the world needed this product?
In my solitude, I had been exploring many ways to return back to “me”, to get to know all of these versions of myself, through music, writing, and mindfulness. My mindfulness journey began with a journalling practice, that consisted of me waking up every day and writing whatever I wanted for as long as I wanted. It could be short form, long form, bullet points… sentences could be complete or incomplete… each practice concluded with a fears list and gratitude list. I engaged in this practice consistently for about a year or so, witnessing my thoughts, how I thought and felt about my thoughts and eventually, their transformation. The journal was a space to validate all of my feelings and thoughts, and in hearing them, they needn’t take up so much space within. It meant I had more space to see a truth of our humanity that revealed itself to me: “Pain is pain, loss is loss… just like happiness is happiness.” I once wrote. We all experience all of the same things, we all share many of the same experiences, but just in different contexts, in our own lived experiences. “human” was born from this very line and the thoughts that followed it…

If you had to boil your product or brand down to one core message – what would that message be?
I wrote “human” almost five years ago, asking the question of “being human”. But now, I witness how my humanity is connected to the humanity of everyone else, and instead ask the question of “being humanity”. Embodying our humanity comes from holding space; how we show up and hold space with ourselves is the same way we show up and hold space with one another. What space are we creating? Can we create more space? In all spaces we create, how can we harness our individual humanity to bring humanity closer together, collectively?

What’s next on the product or brand roadmap?
I’ve been reimagining “human” for almost two years now, in the form of a second book… bearing witness to these parts of myself in an evolved way, writing from a place of the soul, as opposed to the place of suffering. Reimagining “human” has been more about the role human played in my whole journey of rebirth. When I wrote “human”, I often said it was the journey of being human to myself, to each other, and to the world. But in reimagining “human”, it has become the journey of being human with myself, with each, and with the world. This work is set to be published and released in 2025. Be welcome to subscribe to my email list at vanessaferlaino.com. stay tuned…

Image Credits
Human bathtub, desk top, tea – Steven Lee Busby Vanessa – Krystyna Photography New York Times Billboard – The Book Fest