So I have a theory- Creating The Psychology of Originality | Part 2
Why This Theory Could Only Have Come Through Me
For a long time, I believed my work was about helping women express themselves.
Helping them find the words.
Helping them shape their message.
Helping them show up with more confidence, clarity, and creativity online.
But this entry isn’t about what I thought my work was.
It’s about the moment I realised what I had actually been doing all along.
The Question That Changed Everything
When I finally named The Psychology of Originality, one question hit me harder than the breakthrough itself:
Why has no one named this before- (again with the inquisitive mind)
Most people teach women how to express themselves.
I spent my life understanding why they stopped.
That is why no one else could’ve connected these patterns in the same way I have.
What I’ve Been Watching for Two Decades
For over twenty years, I’ve watched what happens to a person’s real voice the moment it becomes public.
I saw it in performers who could step into character, belt out songs, command stages, and fill entire rooms with presence- yet shrink the moment they had to speak as themselves.
I saw it in business owners whose brilliance overflowed in private conversations, client work, and lived experience- but disappeared the second they tried to turn it into content.
I saw it in leadership spaces, studios, conferences, rehearsal rooms, brand rooms, client calls.
And eventually… I saw it in myself.
My originality didn’t disappear because I lacked confidence, clarity, or skill.
It collapsed because the moment self-expression turned inward, something fundamentally changed.
And no one was talking about why.
The Pattern Beneath the Pattern
For a long time, I believed my role was to help women build their voice.
But the deeper truth is this:
I wasn’t just noticing the pattern.
I was analysing it.
Tracking it.
Mapping it.
Studying it across identities, industries, environments, and decades.
This wasn’t something I learned from a course or a certification.
It was lived.
Originality wasn’t an ROI from an investment I made- it was forged in the moments that broke me and rebuilt me.
My mind doesn’t work in neat structures or pre-set frameworks.
In fact, it actively rebels against them.
It looks for:
behavioural patterns
identity fractures
root causes
creative collapse points
moments where expression compresses instead of expands
I wasn’t trying to be a theorist.
I just couldn’t stop studying what lived underneath everything.
Why This Theory Could Only Have Come Through Me
I thrive on innovation, not repetition.
And as I watched the online space grow louder, more templated, more performative — I felt something deeply wrong.
So much brilliance.
So much originality.
Compressed into fractions of who people really are.
The world didn’t need another way to teach expression.
It needed someone willing to explain why originality collapses in the first place.
When I zoomed out, the truth became impossible to ignore:
This theory didn’t come from one moment.
It came from twenty years of identity, expression, collapse, and rebuild.
From studios to stages.
From private conversations to public platforms.
From leadership roles to personal unravelling.
The Psychology of Originality was never something I decided to create.
It was something I finally recognised I had been preparing for my entire life.
This Is the Work
This entry isn’t here to prove anything.
It exists to mark a moment of recognition- the kind that only makes sense when you look back and realise the dots were always connected.
I’m not documenting content.
I’m documenting the birth of a field.
And this is only the beginning….
So I have a theory- The Psychology of Originality
This is the first time I’ve ever introduced myself as a theorist.
Which feels… like a big deal.
But after spending years watching, studying and peeling back layer after layer of human behaviour and self-expression, wondering the exact thing that’s been choking women’s voices online for years, something in me clicked this week.
There was a breakthrough that connected every question I’ve ever had and the inner workings of my brain finally fell into place.
The moment I knew exactly what I was here to study, name, build and reveal.
So here I am- a not so confident writer but a firm belief this is going to change how online brands think about marketing and selling.
I need to write this so I see it for myself…..I’m Audrey 👋
A theorist of originality, identity expression and what happens to women’s brilliance the moment visibility turns the spotlight on who they really are.
And this is Entry One of my Diary to My TED Talk.
Where it began…
Like most theories, this one didn’t start with a polished whiteboard, a research paper, or an epiphany under perfect lighting.
It started in the least glamorous way possible:
By analysing myself!
My own behaviours
My own patterns
My own voice
My own shrinkage
My own brilliance collapsing the moment I stepped into visibility
My own deep need to feel like I belonged.
It didn’t make sense to me…
Because I’ve spent two decades choreographing entire worlds.
Directing full-scale productions.
Winning awards for originality and creativity.
Building concepts, universes and brand worlds for established entrepreneurs with absolute ease.
Yet the moment I had to “be Audrey” online?
My originality collapsed.
Not my skills.
Not my ideas.
Not my talent.
My originality.
The very thing people celebrated me for.
Then I realised an ever bigger breakthrough…It wasn’t just me.
Working with hundreds of brilliant women in the online space…
I kept seeing the same pattern over and over again.
Women with depth, intelligence, mastery and insane expertise were collapsing in the exact same way the moment visibility required them to show more of themselves.
And even though I could help them find it again-
I kept asking myself the same question:
Why is this happening?
Not theoretically
Not metaphorically
But psychologically
What was the mechanism behind this collapse?
What was the pattern beneath the pattern?
What was the invisible force making brilliant women feel muted, even when they had everything it takes to stand out?
The questions kept pouring in
Why does their genius feel clearer in private than in public?
Why does their voice feel louder offline than online?
Why does creativity flow everywhere except through their own content?
Why does self-expression collapse the second the spotlight turns inward?
These were the questions no one was asking.
…and now I have the answers.
This is the work I was born to do.
This is the field I’m here to build.
This is the beginning of my body of research:
The Psychology of Originality.
This Substack is where I’ll document it all-
raw, honest, in motion, as it unfolds.
Welcome to the beginning, this is going to help so many people…..
-Audrey Elizabeth