We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Lavigne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

When I was young, I always had crazy ideas stemming from my creative mind. Many of them were inconvenient for my parents… meaning they usually made a mess! I would make up art projects, try building furniture out of logs or cardboard, made all of my own Halloween costumes, and things like that. A couple of my DIY costumes were a McDonald’s drive thru, a toilet (complete with an aluminum foil flush & the toilet bowl was the candy reservoir…), and a Wii remote.

I was really fortunate that my parents supported me in that and rarely told me “no” when it came to those ideas. This helped foster my creativity leading me to be person that I am today! I am so grateful to them for giving me the space and support to explore my creativity with confidence, and now I’m able to use my creativity to help others- both as an RN and as a social media advocate for gluten-free living.

Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I dealt with mysterious symptoms throughout my 4 years of nursing school, which I had attributed to stress and lack of normal schedule (with clinical hours, late study nights, etc.). The summer heading into my senior year I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease, that answered to all of my long-term symptoms.

In college I would always bake for my roommates and friends, it was so therapeutic to me and I loved creating fun treats and sharing them. My celiac diagnosis really challenged that creative outlet as gluten-free cooking/baking/living is much different, and overwhelming especially in the beginning. I wished I had more resources available to me so that I felt less alone and had access to gluten-free “hacks.”

After getting the hang of things myself, I started testing out homemade gluten-free recipes and sharing them with my friends again which brought me so much joy! The positive reactions to the taste, presentation, etc. encouraged me to take it a step further. I decided I would create an Instagram and blog where I share what I’ve learned to help others feel less alone, too. I figured that if I, someone with a medical background, struggled with the diagnosis, there must be others out there. I share my own recipes, other gluten-free creators, my favorite products, resources, and more!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had known about Canva earlier on in my creative journey! It is so helpful to make graphics, lists, visuals to share and has a lot of editing features for photos, too. Now that I have Canva, I am using it all of the time! It allows you to either go off of a pre-made template, or you can start completely blank and make it completely your own.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is when I get messages expressing gratuity for the resources/recipes/products I share. Or when followers tag me in a recipe of mine that they’ve tried and loved. I have had several followers express to me via DMs that my page has helped them feel less alone and less overwhelmed, which has always been my goal. It fulfills me to receive that kind of feedback and it is the true reason that I continue to pour my time into Celiac Sweetie when I am not at my full-time job.

One time I was at a local coffee shop and the barista taking my order recognized me from Instagram and asked me if I was Celiac Sweetie! I was stunned, I had never been recognized before. It was a really special and sweet moment, she told me she was diagnosed with Celiac 6 months prior and that my Instagram page has been a go-to resource for her. I don’t take for granted the connections I have made through Celiac Sweetie!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://celiacsweetie.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: @celiacsweetie
• Facebook: Celiac sweetie
• Other: TikTok @CeliacSweetie