Jennifer Principe is a stylist, author, speaker, and founder whose work blends fashion, faith, and emotional healing. After spending 14 years as a celebrity wardrobe stylist, she felt called to create something more meaningful — a space where style becomes a pathway back to confidence, dignity, and self-worth. She is the author of A Common Thread, a spiritually rooted memoir that explores clothing as a tool for inner transformation, and the founder of The Phoenix Effect, a nonprofit offering full styling, hair, makeup, and photography experiences for individuals facing life-debilitating illnesses. Her work has been featured on KTLA, BBC, Inside Edition, and across major outlets for its impact and heart.
Before you listen to this episode, I want to share something with you: finding your purpose rarely appears as a straight, clear path. Sometimes it unfolds slowly, in detours and seasons we don’t fully understand at the time. When Jennifer told me she worked thirty different jobs before realizing what she was meant to do, it struck me in the best possible way. It’s a reminder that the things we’re drawn to — the small nudges, the recurring interests, the quiet whispers — aren’t random. They’re direction. In this conversation, Jennifer opens up about her journey from a difficult childhood to a thriving styling career, and how she ultimately discovered the deeper calling beneath it.
Jennifer shares the moment she first learned about “enclothed cognition,” the idea that what we wear can shift how we feel and how we move through the world. It’s something she intuitively understood as a little girl seeking peace and play in the back of her grandmother’s gift shop. And then there’s the moment that changed everything: she’s out on a run, overwhelmed by life transitions, when she feels an unmistakable inner pull telling her to stop and give her gift away. She listens. She makes one phone call from the side of the road. That call becomes the beginning of The Phoenix Effect, a nonprofit that has helped countless individuals see themselves again with warmth, strength, and hope.
Today, Jennifer has stepped away from her 14-year styling career to fully embrace this mission. When I asked her about fear, she told me she’s more afraid of never reaching her full potential than she is of stumbling along the way. There’s something incredibly grounding about that. Her book, A Common Thread, captures her journey beautifully — blending storytelling, faith, healing, and practical tools to help you reconnect with who you are at your core. If you’ve been waiting for a sign, waiting for clarity, waiting to feel ready… let this episode be the moment that encourages your next step. You deserve what’s on the other side.
Shop A Common Thread (Amazon/Barnes & Noble)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Common-Thread-Fashion-Soul-Book/dp/B09YL79827
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-common-thread-jennifer-principe/1141622278?ean=2940166550262
Jennifer's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jenprincipestyles/?hl=en
All of Jennifer’s Links! https://linktr.ee/jenprincipestyles
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