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

Hi Savannah, thanks for joining us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

My story is like so many others, it is filled with twists, turns, tears, laughs and a bunch of detours. If you would have asked my 18-year-old self, who just dropped out of nursing school, if this is where I would be today, I would have honestly laughed. At 18 I don’t think anyone really knows what they want, I know I sure didn’t, but my story I would say started way before I was 18.

Growing up I watched my parents work extremely hard to provide for our family. You wouldn’t know it by looking at them now, but they both grew up in extreme poverty and barely had food on the table. One thing that shaped me is their constant display of hard work, but my story was really affected by my mom’s work ethic and the simple fact that she loved what she did for work. She always taught me that it is so important to love what you do every day because it is something you will be doing for the rest of your life.

My mom is the definition of a pioneer in her career field. She was the first nurse in Minnesota trained and to hold a certification to inject the only dermal filler FDA approved in the US at that time, which was bovine collagen (which caused a lot of challenges due to the need to skin test everyone and then wait 30 days before treatment). Her love for this industry led to many conversations over my childhood/teenage years in our household about beauty, aesthetics, and the impact of helping people. I actually attended my first training session at 10 years old, for the sole reason of skipping school, to help my mom. I did not know, at that time, that I eventually would be following in my moms’ footsteps. Her passion was evident every day as she worked tirelessly in the clinic as well as spending hours weekly teaching other providers to inject safely and artistically. Watching her opened my eyes to her passion and also sealed my passion for aesthetics and helping others feel confident in their own skin.

My dream quickly turned into the driving desire to follow in her footsteps and become an aesthetic nurse. So, it was obvious that at 18 years old that I would enroll into nursing school. Remember when I said that I dropped out, yeah, its funny how life throws curve balls at you. There I was at 18 years old, filled with so much self-doubt, that when I dropped out of nursing school I changed paths completely and enrolled in business school. Throughout those four years I wasn’t truly sure of what my story was supposed to be, I would say I was coasting along just hoping that I would find my path. My passion was always for aesthetics, so much so that as I was in my last semester of my bachelor’s degree, I duel enrolled and finished my advanced practice aesthetician certification as well. So, there I was with two very different degrees, and that’s when I decided to go back to nursing school. I couldn’t tell you what clicked, but in that moment, I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t about to let my own self-doubt divert me again.

I can happily say that I graduated nursing school and passed my boards in the fall of 2020, although it was in the midst of a pandemic, I did it. Now, I am working full time side by side with my mom, Connie Brennan, being trained and mentored by her. We are quite the dynamic duo. I am over a year into being an aesthetic nurse and my schedule is fully booked about a month out. I recently wrote my first peer-reviewed article that was accepted into publication for the International Society of Plastic Surgery Nursing (ISPAN) and will be published later this year in the Plastic Surgery Nursing Journal. I like to say that I got to where I am today because I never gave up on what I knew I wanted for my life but also the constant support I was given by my parents.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a registered nurse and work in the specialty field of aesthetic medicine. My typical day involves helping people age gracefully through each state of the aging cycle and cosmetically injecting patients with neuromodulators (ex: Botox and Dysport), dermal fillers (ex: Juvederm and Restylane). My work is way more than just injecting patients to help enhance their appearance but also mentally helping them see that their imperfections are beautiful, their looks are unique, and regain confidence. There are so many amazing aesthetic injectors in Minnesota, but what I would say sets me apart is that I am an artist throughout my entire being. Aesthetic medicine is a marriage of art and science, and I grew up in the arts. My family is a musical family and you will find some of the songs that I wrote and recorded on iTunes, Apple, etc.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The word resilience really hits home when it comes to looking back at my journey.

I want to share a vulnerable backstory that most people don’t know because it will shed light on how challenging it was for me to get to where I am today. In general, people tend to be quick to assume that things come easy to someone or that they didn’t have to work as hard for it, but for me I had multiple set backs that challenged me in very unique ways.

When I was just 18 months old, I almost died from salmonella poisoning but miraculously made it through after my mom found me unresponsive in my crib and gave me compressions all the way to the hospital. Then, at the age of 3, I sustained a head injury which resulted in my frontal lobe developing slower than it should and because of this, I was a slower learner and needed years of tutoring in order to catch up to other kids my age. This caused my IQ jumped ten points during those years which is SUPER rare according to the neuropsychologist at Children’s Hospital that my parents had me working with.

If you would have asked my younger self if I would be where I was today, I would have NEVER in a million years thought I would be here today, with a bachelors degree in business, an advanced esthetician certification, a registered nurse license, a bachelors in science in nursing, a singer/songwriter, a model, and a nurse injection specialist position at a billion+ dollar company.

This road has been far from easy, filled with so much self doubt and tears but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I would encourage anyone who thinks they are incapable of living their dream to re-wire their mindset and with each day work toward the overarching goal. Because we all are on this earth for a unique purpose but it is up to us to figure out what that purpose is.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

If I could go back, I would choose the same profession of being an aesthetic nurse because it allows me to blend both my creative and science background. Although I would choose the same profession, I would change some of the steps along the way. I would have invested more time in my own creative space because as life gets busier, the first thing to usually be put on the back burner is things we do for our self, being creative is one of them. I think why this happens is we stop believing in our dreams because they seem too unrealistic and start pursing a different passion which will be beneficial to your future; but the creativity is what makes you unique, you shouldn’t have to choose between stability and creativity. If I could go back in time, I would have stopped worrying about what everyone else thought I would become and just allowed myself to be in that moment and appreciate that stage of life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.savannahbrennan.com/
• Instagram: https://www.savannahbrennan.com/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjlmdn44yf5l2qZcR6G5JsA
• Other: TikTok: @nurse.savannah.brennan

Image Credits
Photos all by Michelle Schmidt, from Michelle Portrait Design