Sarah Dubbeldam
“You should never meet your heroes” they say.
Well, whoever said that surely didn’t have the right “shero.”
It should be pretty evident by now that I’m inspired and motivated by women, particularly entrepreneurial women. It takes so much courage to branch out on your own, to defy tradition, to be your own standard. That’s why I’ve always admired Sarah Dubbeldam, Founder and CEO of Darling Media. They empowered women before it was commonplace—insisting early on to never retouch or digitally alter the skin or bodies of women in their magazine, to offer tangible advice for the real, often painful issues plaguing women, and to promote self-worth through honoring your body and soul.
Sarah is a mom of two, wife to a fellow entrepreneur, and a former model. This Oregon native became pretty successful in the commercial modeling industry, but she felt she was meant for a higher calling. Realizing there was no positive media for women, and noticing the lack of diversity and accessibility within it, Sarah and a friend wanted to address the problems through starting a new kind of magazine. With the help of Kickstarter, they soon got the funding they needed to build Darling,—now a full fledged brand, with a magazine, blog, lifestyle products, events, video content and more, all anchored by their beautiful mission statement. Meeting Sarah surpassed my expectations, and I hope that she and her work inspires you as much as it has inspired me.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
1.) What inspires you to do what you do professionally?
I think it’s pretty addictive when you create something that is encouraging to people and encouraging to yourself. Waking up everyday and knowing that Darling, has a voice for people really is inspiring to me. You know, a lot of people are really discouraged, and most people are struggling in life, we’re all struggling with different things. So being able to have a company where our main job is encouraging and uplifting people is really motivating and life-giving to me.
2.) What person has had the biggest influence on your life and why?
I would definitely say my husband. I met him at the beginning of when I was starting darling, and he helped me so much from creating our first logo to our first website, and just being there as a cheerleader from day one. Darling, literally wouldn’t exist if he didn’t exist, so it was his encouragement, him helping me, and he continuously does that for me everyday.
3.) How do you practice balance in your life?
I think I have some good practices—I have a newborn so I think everything is thrown off right now, but typically it’s waking up before the kids and having quiet time. I read, reflect, journal, pray, think about my life and just have this moment of grounding and centering. I work a lot, but now I try to put away my phone at 5pm, be really present with our children, try to have dinner every night and have good conversation. I log out of instagram every day—so does my husband, so that I’m not just randomly picking up my phone and looking at it. And at night I try not to stay up past 10:30pm.
4.) How do you use your inherited gifts, platform, and or particular privilege to give back?
I think that I have the ability to communicate with words and visuals together, something that celebrates beauty and the life-giving aspects of life. And also strategically with business and a platform—how do you get people to follow you, how do you get people to listen, and thinking about being as authentic as possible, and really caring about the people you’re trying to reach versus numbers—I think that’s an ability I’ve always had because I really care about women in general. And just giving people a voice through our platform!
5.) What person living or dead would you like to sit down for a meal with?
Probably Jane Austen. I think she’s so interesting, and she was really controversial for her time as a female writer. And the way she writes, and the moments she creates with beauty and romance are so inspiring to me. I think it would be fun to sit down with someone from a different space and time.
6.) What’s your ideal cocktail, wine, or drink?
I like Chardonnay, it’s definitely my go-to. I like buttery white wines.
7.) What’s your biggest vice?
I’m really bad at being clean. I’m so scatterbrained, and my husband is too so at the end of the day our whole counter is covered with crap! I really don’t like picking up, or cleaning, or doing dishes or anything like that so it can create problems and I have to really focus and make myself do it!
8.) Name one thing you’d like to be kinder to yourself about?
Giving myself more grace as a mother and not feeling like I’m doing naps, food, activities wrong all the time but realizing that I’m doing my best.
9.) What’s your biggest insecurity?
I’m insecure about my voice - people have said I’m so “soft” or “gentle” and sometimes that makes me feel like I don’t sound bold or confident but rather sound young / timid!
10.) What outstanding goal do you have that you’ve yet to accomplish?
I think with Darling, I still want us to do a lot more video content. And I would say a personal dream of mine would be to actually act in a movie someday.