Tiffany Dawn

During my single 20s, I traveled across the U.S. on homemade speaking tours, sharing my seminar The Insatiable Quest for Beauty. Over just a few years, I ended up speaking at more than 250 events. I couldn’t believe it! I kept thinking, “No one has ever heard of me. How are people saying yes to these requests to speak? This has got to be all God’s doing.”

Several years in, I began feeling burned out. After marrying James, I settled in upstate New York, started a family, and took a “speaking sabbatical,” focusing instead on YouTube videos and Instagram content sharing the dating, faith, and life advice I wished I had growing up. I loved being able to share more online than I ever could in a one-hour seminar.

But our faith journey never ends, does it? Not this side of heaven. And during that season, the questions started—quietly at first, then louder and louder, filtering into every part of my life and keeping me awake at night. Am I misunderstanding Scripture? What about my lived experiences that seem at odds with doctrine I’ve always believed? What about my clinical anxiety that I can never pray away?

I tried to run from them at first, but I couldn’t. They literally kept me awake. In 2019, while pregnant with my oldest daughter, I felt it heavy on my heart to make a video called “Am I Gay?” In this video, I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to talk about God’s great love for people of all sexualities, and to share biblical scholarship on both the affirming and non-affirming sides of the issue.

The problem? I only knew the non-affirming arguments. Were there others? Was it possible to see this issue differently, when I had always believed it was black and white?

That video launched my journey. With fear and trembling, I researched it and created it—losing hundreds of followers just as I had expected. What I hadn’t expected were the private messages and emails from people encouraged by it—to not give up on their faith, encouraged because they were asking the same questions I was.

In 2021, I once again felt God calling me into the uncomfortable (but always exciting) unknown. I launched a podcast called Outgrowing the Good Christian Girl, where I explore my faith journey and create space for conversations often avoided in church. As my theology evolved, I began reading Scripture through historical, cultural, and literary lenses I hadn’t been taught, reshaping not only my beliefs but also my understanding of anxiety, sexuality, women’s roles in church life, evangelism, and what it means to belong in the Church.

It was terrifying and uncomfortable at first. Little did I know, this path wasn’t new—it’s the same journey saints have walked through the ages. We are born again and again, molting like caterpillars, shedding old frameworks before emerging as something new.

I know I have plenty more molts still to come. In this recent rebirth, I’ve been learning to surrender my certainty and embrace unity over doctrinal uniformity.

I also have a master’s degree in Music Therapy, and in my early 20s I interned at a children’s hospital, helping kids navigate difficult diagnoses and build healthy coping skills. That experience, along with my personal journey with anxiety, informs my work at the intersection of mental health and faith.

My most recent book, Love Beats Fear: A Girl’s First Devotional Journal (2025), was written for my daughter. I printed out a few devotionals for her, but she wanted to share them with all her friends—so it became a book! It helps 6–8-year-old girls build healthy coping skills while cultivating a secure, loving view of God.

The Dating Couple’s Devotional Journal (2023) was my first experiment in writing a Christian devotional outside the evangelical framework, encouraging couples to explore faith together. I’m currently writing a spiritual memoir, Born Again (Again), chronicling my journey from a legalistic, black-and-white understanding of God to a faith rich with freedom, curiosity, and color.

My earlier books and courses—including Before the Ring, The Insatiable Quest for Beauty, Boy Crazy, Up-Dating, and The Wedding Night Talks—remain available and meaningful for many, but they represent earlier chapters in my still-unfolding story of faith, growth, and exploration.

Thank you for being here. I hope to hear your story someday as well.

Remember: Outgrowing your faith doesn’t mean it’s breaking. It means it’s stretching.