The Courage to Be Seen: Alva Gardner on Breaking Stigmas Around Disability, Sexuality, and Success

Have you ever met someone who redefines what courage looks like?

There are moments that crack you open in the best way and my conversation with Alva Gardner in this podcast episode was exactly that.

Alva is a speaker, advocate, and unapologetically bold woman living with cerebral palsy who reminded me just how powerful it is to own your voice as you are.

This episode is for every woman who’s been told she’s “too different,” “too much,” or “not enough”—because those differences? That’s where your magic lives.

This is what I mean when I talk about disrupting hustle culture and doing business in alignment with your body, your story, your truth.

Disability isn’t something to fix, hide, or fear.

It’s part of the human experience and when we honor that, we stop creating systems that work for the few and start building spaces that work for all of us.

And honestly? If that’s not feminine leadership, I don’t know what is.

We also talked about:

• How Alva’s public speaking journey began at just 8 years old—and why her voice is more powerful because of her difference, not despite it

• Why embracing your “too muchness” or “not-enoughness” is exactly what makes you magnetic and impactful

• How Alva uses humor, grace, and real talk to shift perceptions and break stigma

• The quiet power of being raised by someone who presumed ability, not limitation and how that shaped Alva’s identity

• The taboo truths about sexuality and disability (and why access, autonomy, and education matter so much more than we think)

• How to reframe disability as a natural, inevitable part of the human experience (not something to fix or fear)

“There's such a misconception of disability as a category, disability as a group of people, that people who don't yet experience disability, have and don't have a connection to disability, have this perception that that is always how it will be.” Alva Gardner

This conversation will stretch your heart, expand your mind, and leave you thinking about your own visibility in a whole new way.