What They Don’t Tell You: How Hiding in the Brand Almost Made Me Lose Myself

Five years. That’s how long I’ve not been showing up… felt but not really seen. Unfortunately, I had gotten comfortable hiding in the brand.

If you know The Curvy Fashionista, you know the stories we’ve told, the wins we’ve celebrated, the way we’ve carved out space for plus size fashion to be more than an afterthought. You’ve seen the coverage, the community, the joy.

But you haven’t seen me. Not really.

Because somewhere along the way, I disappeared behind the very thing I built.

I poured everything I had into TCF. Every ounce of energy, every spark of creativity, every late night and early morning was about making this platform bigger than me. A space to uplift others. A light to shine on a community that deserved to be seen. But that same light? I used it to stay in the shadows. I was hiding in the brand.

I let heartbreaks, missteps, mistakes, and friend fallouts make me question my worth. I made myself small because I was afraid of being “perceived” or not enough. I obsessed over the business while completely neglecting myself. I started and stopped this very site—MarieDenee.com—more times than I want to admit, not because I didn’t have something to say, but because I didn’t believe I or it mattered enough to say it.

And here’s the thing they don’t tell you about building a business or brand:
It can become the perfect hiding place when you don’t think you deserve to take up space inside it.

You can spend years building a brand and wake up one day realizing you have no idea who you are outside of it—or worse, within it. Call it impostor syndrome, trauma, or just not knowing how to confidently take up space…. But your girl was lost.

This season, though? This season hit different. Maybe it’s Mercury retrograde in Leo, maybe it’s just divine timing, but God and the universe sat me all the way down. No distractions. No running. Just me, facing myself.

And what I saw wasn’t failure or shame—it was a woman who’d been carrying so much, for so long, she forgot what it felt like to stand in her own light.

So, I’ve been doing the work. The hard, uncomfortable, ugly crying, shadow-work kind of healing. The kind where you peel back layers of old trauma you didn’t even know you had. The kind where you admit that leadership isn’t just panels and photo ops—it’s heavy decisions, chaos behind the curtain, and nights you swear you’re done… but you wake up and keep going anyway.

And now? I’m choosing me. I’m choosing to stop hiding in the brand.

Not behind the brand.
Not behind my team.
Not behind fear, doubt, or exhaustion.

I’m choosing to show up—not just as the founder of TCF, but as Marie Denee. You’re going to hear my voice. You’re going to see me on my own platform, in my own truth, sharing my own lessons—the wins, the fails, the unglamorous middle parts we usually skip over.

Podcasts. Webinars. Keynotes. Essays like this one. This is me, reclaiming my presence. This site even has a new look too!

But I’m not doing it alone. I need you.

I need you to hold me accountable. To remind me that I don’t have to dim my light to make space for others. To remind me that I deserve to be visible in the very vision I built.

And if you’re reading this and feeling that tug—the one that says you’ve been hiding too? Whether it’s behind your hustle, your brand, or just sheer survival mode? I see you.

This is your nudge, your call-in, your permission slip to step out of the shadows with me.

Because the truth is, the world needs us both to show up. Fully. Unapologetically.

And this time? I’m not running.

Let’s do this together.