Reading & Conversation Series: Monica Hall
Recorded Wednesday, June 26
Content Warning: This reading contains references to sexual assault.
Monica Hall is a writer, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur. In addition to working as a business consultant, Monica has founded several companies, including an eponymous skincare line and a successful business centered on natural, chemical-free body care, and has worked in advertising and marketing for more than twenty years.
Her entrepreneurial spirit is fueled by the often traumatic experiences of her youth, which helped to cultivate the fierce and fearless personality that prepared her to build and direct successful industry-leading companies.
Monica loves sharing her story and giving hope to those in crisis, which she has done for over three decades. She devotes much of her time to working with women by guiding them through life’s challenges. This has been instrumental in her development, and Monica describes it as a life-changing experience. Freely giving her time has helped her to shed a self-centered worldview and gain new insight into human motivation and interactions.
An Adoption Memoir: Practically Still A Virgin is a gripping memoir recounting a fifteen-year-old adoptee’s experience of rape and the pregnancy that changed her life. Adopted and raised during Alaska’s lawless 1970s oil-boom era, Monica grows up amid trauma and dysfunction. As a teen, she rebels into delinquency. When Monica is raped and becomes pregnant, her religious parents push her into giving up her baby, her only known blood relative for adoption. These events kick off a decades-long search for family and belonging. Thread by thread, she weaves together the truth of her identity, pulled by yearning for her daughter and the mother who gave her away.