I'm a skincare founder, a Clinical Nutritionist, and a woman who spent $1.3 million figuring out what actually works to look and feel incredible after 40.
But I didn't start here. I started with nothing. I decided at a young age, where I started would not be where I finished.
I rewrote every story that said otherwise.
Today I am the founder of Rewritten Beauty, host a show called I'd Like to Thank MySELF, and spend my time doing what I've always done: figuring things out for myself and then telling other women the truth about what actually works.
I believe everything is
rewritable.
I'm Cynthia
From No Running Water to Making It Rain
For the first 15 years of my life, I took baths in a creek, used an outhouse as a bathroom, and heated water on the stove to wash dishes. My family lived on $13,000 a year from social security checks. For four people.
We relied on food stamps. Dumpster dived for clothes. I skipped lunch in high school because I was too embarrassed to use my free lunch ticket.
We didn't have running water until I was 15. That's not a typo.
I grew up in a tiny town in the Appalachian mountains, tucked deep in the Bible Belt.
But maybe we'd better start at the beginning...
For the first 15 years of my life, I took baths in a creek, used an outhouse as a bathroom, and heated water on the stove to wash dishes. My family lived on $13,000 a year from social security checks. For four people.
We relied on food stamps. Dumpster dived for clothes. I skipped lunch in high school because I was too embarrassed to use my free lunch ticket.
I also dumpster dived for makeup and skincare.
But here's the part nobody knows.
I was obsessed with Dallas and Dynasty. Those women walked into rooms and everyone stopped. They were gorgeous, polished, powerful. They moved through the world like they mattered.
I wanted that so badly it physically hurt.
Not the money. Not the mansion. The visibility. The being SEEN. Because where I came from, I was invisible. I was the poor girl. The girl with no bathroom. The girl everyone looked past.
Beauty was the first story I ever tried to rewrite.
One of the most defining moments of my childhood happened in fifth grade.
My face burned. My chest tightened. I wanted to disappear.
I remember thinking... don't let them see you cry, Cynthia.
I looked her dead in the eye and said, "One day, I'll have so many bathrooms it'll take me ten minutes just to pick one."
Then I walked into the school bathroom with my head held high... and cried until I couldn't cry anymore.
"What do you mean you don't have a bathroom or water in your house?"
A girl named Amanda turned to me and said, loud enough for everyone to hear:
I studied the women on TV. Not just what they wore, but who they were. How they spoke. How they carried themselves. How they looked.
That embarrassment turned to fire. That fire became my fuel.
I moved into a rent-by-the-day hotel, stretched every dollar, and tried to figure out how to survive in a city that didn't exactly welcome small-town girls with a drawl and a dream.
I tried everything. Modeling, acting, hosting. I landed gigs. Lost them. Landed bigger ones. Lost even bigger.
I was "living the life" by most standards. Partying with actual rockstars and movie stars, feeling inadequate as a motherfucker. I was terrified at any moment I would be found out.
So I did what any reasonable person would... I used drugs and alcohol to numb that fear. And that's when my health hit rock bottom.
I was overweight, my skin was destroyed, and I suffered from symptoms no doctor or expert could seem to fix. Ready to end it all, I decided I would do what I had always done... figure it out myself.
Within 48 hours, I was homeless.
Eventually, I made my way to Los Angeles with a couple of suitcases, and a refusal to go back to the life I came from.
I got obsessed with becoming her.
I moved into a rent-by-the-day hotel, stretched every dollar, and tried to figure out how to survive in a city that didn't exactly welcome small-town girls with a drawl and a dream.
I tried everything. Modeling, acting, hosting. I landed gigs. Lost them. Landed bigger ones. Lost even bigger.
I was "living the life" by most standards. Partying with actual rockstars and movie stars, feeling inadequate as a motherfucker. I was terrified at any moment I would be found out.
So I did what any reasonable person would... I used drugs and alcohol to numb that fear. And that's when my health hit rock bottom.
I was overweight, my skin was destroyed, and I suffered from symptoms no doctor or expert could seem to fix. Ready to end it all, I decided I would do what I had always done... figure it out myself.
I used the credit on my last 3 credit cards to enroll in a nutrition coaching program.
I became a Clinical Nutritionist. I fixed my own health first. Then my skin. Then I started helping others do the same.
I launched products that ended up in Whole Foods and in the hands of women like Kim Kardashian, Charlize Theron and Sandra Bullock. I landed on Dr. Phil and the Today Show.
I built The Institute of Transformational Nutrition into an accredited school that's trained thousands of health professionals over 16 years.
Every single one of those businesses started the same way: I had a problem, I figured it out for myself, and then I shared what I learned.
That's the only model I know.
I was desperate to feel better. That decision changed my life.
And then, after I turned 40,
something shifted.
I decided to rewrite that story.
So I did what I've always done.
I spent $1.3 million on every treatment, protocol, product, and procedure I could find. I used my clinical nutrition background to understand what was actually happening at the cellular level. And that's when I discovered the root cause: zombie cells. The real reason most skincare doesn't work.
I built Rewritten Beauty to rewrite aging at the cellular level and to rewrite the stories women have been told about what aging means. Because the girl who dumpster dived for makeup at 10 years old grew up to create the skincare company she always needed.
Beauty was the first story I ever tried to rewrite. Now it's my whole life's work.
What I'm Building Now
where I'm helping people rewrite the signs of aging and the stories they're told about it.
where I say the things out loud that women over 40 are thinking but won't talk about.
where I share every product, protocol, and procedure I use and recommend with a community of women who simply refuse to fade.
PS. If I could rewrite a story that started with no running water, no bathroom, and dumpster-diving for lipstick... imagine what you can rewrite from where you're standing right now.
Today I host I'd Like to Thank MySELF,
And I run THE VANITY CLUB.
I write Hot AF Over 40 on Substack every week.
today i'm the founder of rewritten beauty
where I'm helping people rewrite the signs of aging and the stories they're told about it.
where I say the things out loud that women over 40 are thinking but won't talk about.
where I share every product, protocol, and procedure I use and recommend with a community of women who simply refuse to fade.
PS. If I could rewrite a story that started with no running water, no bathroom, and dumpster-diving for lipstick... imagine what you can rewrite from where you're standing right now.
On A Personal Note...
I live in LA with my husband Zak (who's also my business partner, which is exactly as intense as it sounds), my daughter Rain, and two cats named Oliver and Bogart who genuinely believe they run the house. They're not wrong.
I rewrote everything to get here. And I'm not done.
I'm a wife, a mom, and the kind of woman who goes just as hard for her skincare as she does for her next big idea.
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