Everyone please welcome my long-time friend, hairstylist, style coach, and overall style icon Geena Mericle to A Broadway Body: Continued Conversations! Geena is one of the most authentic and beautiful humans I have ever met in my lifetime, and she’s a true rainbow in human form. Not only is she one of my dear friends, but she’s also an expert personal stylist who’s had a direct impact on my personal style and how I express myself in the world. (She once told me I shouldn’t wear black because black clothing does not reflect my personality - I took her wisdom to heart, and I wear a whole heck of a lot more color now.)

In our conversation, Geena speaks about feeling stifled in clothes that didn’t properly represent who she is on the inside, her core top value of expression, and how discovering your personal style can change how you show up in the world. I cannot wait for you to hear our conversation. Geena’s lens on clothes and self-expression is one I hold in high regard, and her views on supporting older women in expressing their true inner selves is one the world needs more of. Enjoy my continued conversation with the lovely Geena Mericle!

“ Those moments, I've never taken it for granted getting to be in those intimate spaces with my clients and really understanding how they view themselves. And I can't do a lot, but I try in a two-hour session to at least turn the boat around a little bit to get them to start seeing and connecting with themselves again.“

- Geena Mericle

Megan Gill: I feel like through our conversations about the work that you do, as far as, I call it helping people discover their personal style, I know we've had a couple conversations where you've been like, “Meg, shouldn't be wearing black. Don't ever wear black. Your personality does not match with black clothing. It's not the same vibe,” and honestly, I've really taken that with me. And I was very resistant to it at first, and now here I am in my mauve. I’ve found what works for me.

Geena Mericle: Yes.

Megan Gill: There’s something to this work that you do, so I'd love if you could share a little bit about it and how you've grown since maybe we've even last spoken about it.

Geena Mericle: Yeah. Yeah, so I help women discover their authentic style, and I like to think of it as it's their self-expression. It's their inner self that's coming out on the outer surface for people to see and experience who that person is on an individual level. And it started with my own journey into this and working in an environment where I'm a hairstylist. And so, I worked in a salon where we wore all black and it was just a very fashion forward, edgy way of being in the beauty industry. And so, I didn't really question it, and I did it for years, and it was seen as professional. And so, that's where I was when I discovered this other thing of like, “Oh, well, if I actually dress to who I am and let that self-expression show, that resonates and that ripples out to other people,” instead of hiding and instead living to these old standards of beauty and rules that have just been created for over many years.

The shift for me happened in 2016. Just being able to step back and really critically think about it, I've always been someone that has been interested in taking some sort of personality test and like, “Oh, like, I wonder what I am!” And just from a psychology standpoint just understanding myself a little bit better. I always had a desire to understand like other people too.

And so, I was already doing things like that just in my personal life. And so, then when this frame of, “Oh, well, how you express yourself is also an extension of who you are,” that hit hard because I was like, “Oh, I've been totally –,” not ignoring it. I obviously was working in the world of beauty, but I didn't understand the power behind it until walking it out, understanding it for myself, and then turning around and teaching other people and helping other people. But that journey definitely started with me for myself first.

And just over the years, probably since I've seen you, I've definitely grown into really honing in, not just what the framework is for, because I think it's for everybody to look at and understand. But I specifically am really passionate about aging and beauty, and over my life and my career, I have experienced clients and mentors of mine that have all, you know, said these things to me about how they view their own age and how they view themselves. And that has always been a part of me. But in the business I'm in today, that is who I'm running after is older women and showing them that they have a place in this conversation of beauty and they're not invisible. They deserve to feel fully expressed and authentic to who they are just as much as someone that's 21 and doing that naturally. I think each generation has their version of what that self-expression looks like. But if we follow the aging process, at some point, it’s been taught to you that once you reach a certain age, you're invisible, the world no longer sees you, and you kind of just need to give up, and I am here to dismantle those beliefs and help women really see their beauty again.

Megan Gill: Ugh, I love that. We are not subscribing to that. I'm right there with you. As an actor and someone who is using my body to tell stories, I am very passionate as well about older women being able to show up as themselves and not feeling like, as an older actor, they need to get the Botox, and they need to fix themselves because that's not a proper representation of our actual world. So I'm right there with you, and I think that's really powerful work, and really impactful, and I'm just so glad that you're doing what you're doing.

As I'm sitting here listening to you, I keep coming back to this piece of, well, if we are properly representing ourselves, our true authentic selves, who we are on the inside, outwardly, isn't that where our confidence really thrives and isn't that where we can truly be our best selves in the world because we're not hiding and because we're not feeling insecure and in maybe clothes that we don't relate with or clothes that – I know when I was wearing a lot of black, I was living in Chicago at the time, kind of like right before you told me all this. And I kind of had this, not bad bitch energy about me, but I was kind of closed off to others, and it was from a place of insecurity and from a place of, “Don't see me because I'm scared. I'm scared for you to see me. I don't want you to see me.”

And so, I think that even in your simple comments to someone like me about exploring different color palettes even in the clothing that I'm wearing has really helped me shine, helped who I am as a person shine on the outside, and It's very fun because – and not to make this about me. But just as an example, I have just been hearing a lot more feedback from people around me lately about how vibrant I am and how much they love my laugh and all of these things that I really have to truly attest some of this feedback that I'm getting and some of how I'm showing up in the world today to something as simple as opening my eyes to see a different way of presenting myself to the world.

And I really just thank you for, however many years ago, that was (five, six, seven years ago) for even just sitting down with me and opening my brain up to some of these concepts and to the work that you do, and I just think it's so important. And yeah, I just also wanted to share that about me because it's really cool and it feels really good to finally feel that confidence and even just in a place of I'm putting myself out there more which is scary. It's scary to put yourself out there and be vulnerable in any setting. And granted, I am 32 years old, so I can imagine if you're 52 years old or 62 years old, that it only compounds and gets more and more maybe daunting to kind of put yourself out there in a world where you maybe feel like you can't keep up as much.

Geena Mericle: Again, to give people an insight of our relationship, we did meet in college, and I went and visited you in 2019. I came out to LA, so that's what we're talking about when I had this conversation with you.

Megan Gill: I remember I came to Ladybird, which you are still working with them today, which is very cool, in kind of a different capacity.

Geena Mericle: Yes!

Megan Gill: But I remember I came and you did my hair, and that's the first time that you kind of told me about all of this. And I think that was 2018, right before you came out here.

Geena Mericle: You’re so right! You're right, because I probably would have told you then about my own transformation, all that. Then I remember coming out in 2019 to visit you, and we'd had these conversations around your image. You were working in a fitness environment at the time, and I know you were just kind of struggling in that as well. And we’d had so many just in-depth, personal conversations through that week. I literally came home, got off the plane, and there was a double rainbow happening. I'm not kidding you. I got home. I have pictures of it on my phone. I don't even know if I ever shared that with you.

Megan Gill: You probably did.

Geena Mericle: But I I just remember I saw those rainbows, and it was a pivotal moment both of us, but I just knew that something amazing was coming out of that weekend together.

Megan Gill: Oh, my gosh. Me too. I think about it often, and obviously how much I miss you and just wish that we were closer proximity wise, in general. But yeah, it was really impactful. And I even remembe