Women in Expansion
Moving with Visible Vulnerability
Live Conversation · Wednesday, June 24 · 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern
MOVING WITH VISIBLE VULNERABILITY
Artists move with visible vulnerability more literally than most. Every piece they put into the world is a test — of expression, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to be truly visible.
Over time, they develop something most of us haven't: a practiced relationship with the fear of being seen.
We are taught, early and often, that wisdom comes from going softly. Sidestepping conflict. Editing ourselves down. Fitting in. And yet something in us keeps asking to be fully expressed.
The women in this conversation have spent their lives creating in public. They have been seen and judged, and they have continued to expand who they are.
Together, they’ll share what visible vulnerability looks like in practice — and what becomes possible when we stop waiting to feel fearless before allowing ourselves to be seen.
There will be space to bring your own questions into the room.
Panelists
Grace Valerie, Singer, Actress & Content Creator
For nearly two decades, Grace Valerie has built a life in creative expression — navigating reinvention, visibility, and the ever-changing world of entertainment. Discovered by Randy Jackson, the Los Angeles-based singer, actress, and content creator launched her U.S. music career with her debut single When the Lights Go Down, which reached the Billboard Top 40 and received nationwide radio play. Today, she brings together her experience in music, acting, and digital media to help brands create compelling content and shape conversations at the intersection of entertainment, culture, and influence.
Carmen Scott, Actress, Writer, Coach | Flesh Onesie Creations
Carmen is an actress, writer, improviser, and award-winning filmmaker whose work centers on the power of storytelling and play to uplift and inspire others. She holds a B.S. in Dance Management from OSU and trained in improv at iO West. Carmen has performed with Second City and The Pack Theater, and her acclaimed one-woman show, Dream Role, was selected as a featured performance at the 2025 Cucalorus Film Festival. She has executive produced and acted in the Emmy-nominated series Razor Tongue and associate produced the groundbreaking documentary 1946. Through her Art of Play methodology, she leads executive leadership experiences that combine mindset, mindfulness, and facilitated play.
Sumanma Wadhwa, MFA Visual Storyteller & Design Director | Art Leela Design House
There is a particular kind of stillness expected of women who become mothers in fast-moving industries. Sumanma never accepted it. From publishing and media roles at Network18 and Outlook Business to founding Art Leela Design House, with clients across India, East Africa, and the United States, she built a twenty-year design practice that kept moving through every crossing life asked of her. Now based in the United States, she teaches and practices design through care, culture, and visual storytelling. Her current work centers on EMBRACE: The Bindi Quotient, a framework for making visible what working women often carry but are rarely given space to name: ambition, exhaustion, care, resilience, and the quiet intelligence of not giving up.
Moderator
Sunaina Mehta, Founder | Design Your Next
Convention was never easy for Sunaina to live by. The boundaries that contained and destined her life were ones she could not abide — and choosing herself, as she puts it, became the most graceful act of rebellion. She knows how hard and how brave that is. She founded Design Your Next as a studio for women's expansion — bringing together strategic direction, original research, cohorts, and a growing body of work built around one question: what becomes possible when a woman returns to herself, and expands?
Women in Expansion is an ongoing conversation series hosted by Design Your Next.
Design Your Next works with women in the process of realizing their own Beautiful Power — the power that is naturally visible when a woman returns to herself and expands. This panel brings that conversation to the broader public.
Past Conversations
NAVIGATING THE UNKNOWN
May 13, 2026
Three women who had walked away from something significant and built something truer on the other side — Sejal Desai (Executive Director, Akanksha Education Fund), Tomide Awe (Founder & Creator, On Your Terms), and Theresa Bailey (Founder & CEO, Starfish Synergies).
What came out of the room:
The knowing comes before the certainty. You don’t need the full plan — just the willingness to notice what you already know.
To expand, we often have to contract. What no longer fits — relationships, identities, roles — isn’t loss. It’s space being made.
You’re not starting over. Everything you’ve built is preparation. The walk-away is not a rejection of who you’ve been, but a continuation.
The mess is the path. Non-linear, unglamorous, and more honest than anything that looks clean from the outside.
