S2 E.11 More than just a gymnast with Gold Medalist and Mental Health Advocate, Laurie Hernandez
In this EpisodeYou guys. This is possibly the most exciting episode we’ve EVER recorded, because we had a literal Olympian on the podcast. At just 20 years old, Laurie Hernandez is a Jersey girl who made her way to Team USA in the 2016 Olympics, is a gold medal winner, and is one of a handful of Latina women who have represented the USA at such a level. And she partnered with Little Words?! It’s too much for us to handle! In all honesty, we absolutely loved chatting with Laurie in this episode, we’re so grateful that she finds Little Words as special and inspiring as she does, and we lowkey want to be best friends with her.
Once we finished fangirling over talking to Laurie Hernandez in the flesh, we got into the real meat and potatoes of the episode. Laurie started doing gymnastics when she was just 5 years old. She had started ballet when she was 3, but even at such a young age, she knew that it wasn’t for her. When she saw Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on TV, though, she said to her mom that she wanted to be just like them. And the rest is history… literally. Her mom put her into gymnastics classes, and by 12 years old, Laurie was considered to be an elite athlete.
However, the road to the Olympics, as you can probably imagine, was never easy for Laurie. She had her own share of mental health problems, along with struggles as harsh as verbal and emotional abuse from coaches. Laurie opens up to Adriana and Mariah about her experiences with depression and anxiety, speaking on how difficult it was to grow up in a sport and an industry that places so much pressure on the way you are perceived. When Laurie was about 16 years old, she had a wake-up moment after one of her practices that the things she was dealing with in gymnastics, and just life in general, weren’t things that she should be going through alone, and she went to her mom to start the process of going to therapy.
Luckily for Laurie, her mom is a social worker and was very supportive of her pursuing therapy. Laurie also opened up about being on medications for depression, and how taking medication is like putting on glasses - it’s not amplifying anything, but rather putting you on the same playing field as others who might not struggle as much with mental health issues. She recounts a day after she had started her medication, where she was able to clean her apartment and she woke up the next day feeling so much better, and ready to take on the day. Before she had started the medication, something as small as cleaning her apartment wasn’t as easy for her. We so appreciated the way that Laurie was so vulnerable when sharing her struggles with mental health, and we hope that they are something that resonated with you.
Among some of the other things that we talked about on this episode are the fact that, basically, Laurie and Mariah are the same person… they both love Hamilton and the Backyardigans (randomly), AND they’re both Gemini queens! We also chatted with Laurie about the time she considered quitting gymnastics. Laurie doesn’t see herself as a quitter, and usually tries to grit her teeth and push through whatever she needs to get done. However, she had reached a point in her gymnastics career where she had a strain in her knee and couldn’t tumble, along with struggling with her coach. It was a big decision – one road might lead to the Olympics, and the other wouldn’t. Laurie ultimately decided to tough it out (obviously), but looking back, she gave herself grace, and said that if she had quit, she would have understood why she had to do that for herself.
Some of the words that we had featured in Laurie’s collection with Little Words Project spoke to her time and her learnings from being a professional athlete. She reminisces on the feeling of getting ready to compete, and wishing that someone was standing there next to her telling her that she could do it. Unfortunately, that’s not possible, and so she decided that if nobody else was going to tell her, she would have to tell herself. She recognized the power that little words had – because some of the most hurtful things she had heard were little. And on the opposite side of that spectrum, little words can go a long way in empowering yourself, loving yourself, and overcoming even the toughest of obstacles. We’re so honored that Laurie chose to partner with Little Words, and even more honored that she took a whole hour out of her day to talk to us! We truly believe that she is the LWP girl, and an amazing representation of our brand and the girls we look towards to inspire us.
Important Times0:50 - Welcome back!
3:05 - Welcome Laurie!
9:02 - Beginning of her gymnastics career
15:00 - How Laurie gets in the zone
20:05 - Being in the “celebrity” realm
25:34 - The gold medal heist
28:15 - Sibling chat
33:43 - A quote from Laurie’s mom, and a conversation about mental health
53:46 - Wanting to quit gymnastics
57:08 - Biggest lesson she learned
59:13 - What words does Laurie wear
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Welcome bestie.
We’re so glad you’re here.
We’re Adriana and Mariah. Co-hosts, entrepreneurs, BFFs, and girls just like you trying to figure it out as we go.
