We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Barness a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
In March 2023, I lost my job. That same week, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35 years old, and then five weeks later, my older sister was also diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a defining moment in so many ways.
I would have to fundamentally pocket my goals and career prospects for the year to instead focus on getting through treatment. But most of all, it meant having to try on a whole slew of different identities I never wanted. Identities like “cancer patient,” “bald person,” and so many others.
I quickly pivoted from my career-focused role as a content strategist to documenting my cancer year in an multi-media art project on Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/SarahBarness) As a writer and artist, processing my experience through essays, podcasting, photography, and more felt natural. It’s created new pathways for my creative self that feel fulfilling and challenging.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have a decade of experience as a professional content marketer, SEO strategist, editor, and writer. I got my start as Trends editor for HuffPost, and then went on to work for various startups, including Ashton Kutcher’s A Plus, CircleAround, Finder, and more. As an editor, I love managing teams and helping writers grow and strengthen their craft. Working behind-the-scenes to ensure all editorial content shines is gratifying, but I also value my own creative pursuits. That’s why I earned my MFA at The New School in creative non-fiction. During the pandemic, I wrote my thesis: a memoir about a big secret, revealed.
After earning my MFA, I worked as the head of content at O.school, a sex education platform, and became certified as a holistic sex educator. In March 2023, my life came to a screeching halt when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It turned out to be a year of incredible growth and I have found so many opportunities for artistic expression.
I have been published on HuffPost, O.school, and Psychology Today. I am currently in a memoir writing workshop via Granta, where I am working on turning a collection of essays on my cancer year into a book.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I thought the hardest part of chemotherapy would be losing my hair. Instead of shaving my head alone in a bathroom, crying with my mom, however, I decided to celebrate and ritualize the moment by bringing in my community.
See my head-shaving party here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/first-cut-is-86960065
I threw a head-shaving party where friends and family each cut off a piece of my hair. The party was meaningful and intimate and helped me de-stigmatize the hair loss part of chemo. I actually loved how I looked bald.
After losing my hair, I bought all kinds of wigs. Each time I wore a wig, I found myself taking on an entirely new persona. I created a series of essays called “Wig World” in which I wrote from the perspective of my character in her wig. Each wig elicited a different personality, with different interests, occupations, and more. New wigs meant new identities, and I loved playing with those identities through my writing. Each wig persona had her own Spotify playlist. They also interact with each other, and some of the characters like each other, and others not so much. By turning my hair loss journey into an opportunity for artistic expression, it allowed me to overcome my fear and pain around the experience.
See Wig World here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/48791/edit
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had a huge aversion, to anyone who would blog about cancer or use words like “brave” or “warrior.” It didn’t feel at all like me.
Cancer itself was so far from my identity. I was a person who had never been sick before. (Seriously, my last doctor was my pediatrician.) But the more I began to write about trying on new identities, related to cancer, the more I found myself unlearning who I had previously thought a “cancer person” was.
I wrote essays through my experience and made my cancer a multi-media art project. I found myself in new identities, and found that words that had previously felt repellant to me (i.e: brave, warrior) began to resonate in whole new ways. I had to unlearn my conceptions around cancer and also around myself to be brave enough to try on new identities.
Contact Info:
- Website: patreon.com/SarahBarness
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebar0ness/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-barness/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBadness1
- Other: sarahbarness.com https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202403/the-year-we-got-cancer
Image Credits
Sarah Barness