Embracing Contradictions with Lauren Macrino
It's time to be your whole damn self.
Our friend Lauren Macrino is a lot of things: a founder, a mom, a competitive cyclist, and a designer with incredible taste. She loves metal music and old cars, and also finds deep satisfaction in toggling numbers in a spreadsheet. She doesn’t fit cleanly into one box. And thank goodness.
Even though that’s what the world rewards, right? We’re told to pick a lane. Be known for one thing. Make it easy for people to understand you. Especially if you’re building something.
When Lauren was creating Musewash, she made a very intentional choice to build a laundry brand that was elevated and specific. It’s beautifully designed, smells amazing, and its uniquely powerful formula is good for the planet. It has a clear point of view, but it’s not her whole personality.
And what’s interesting is that decision didn’t make her feel smaller. It made her life bigger.
She didn’t have to collapse all of who she is into her work. She could let the brand be one expression of her, not the container for all of it. Which meant she could still ride her bike, still be a mom, still love the wild things that make her her.
There’s a quiet pressure right now to be easily defined. Social media especially has a way of turning people into characters. You’re the wellness person. The career person. The creative. The founder. And once you pick one, it can feel like you have to keep performing it.
But, obviously, most people aren’t one thing. They’re a collection of interests, instincts, and contradictions. You can be deeply disciplined and wildly free. You can love structure and crave spontaneity. You can build something serious and still not take yourself too seriously. None of that needs to be resolved.
What Lauren reminded us is that your life doesn’t have to be perfectly packaged. In fact, it shouldn’t be. The parts of you that don’t neatly match are often the most alive.
There’s also a freedom in letting your work be just one part of who you are. It doesn’t have to hold everything and it doesn’t have to explain you completely. It can simply be the thing you’re good at, that supports the rest of your life.
Then the rest of you just gets to exist, unbranded.
If you’ve been feeling the pressure to define yourself more clearly or smooth all your edges, don’t. Maybe the move is just to allow it. Follow what you’re actually drawn to and stop trying to make it all match.
You don’t have to be one thing. Become more yourself. That’s usually a lot more interesting.