Meet the Diva



Hello!  I'm Hailey, the diva behind the curtain here at Discourse of a Divine Diva.

I reside near Portland, Oregon with my husband Sean and our furry chihuahua children, Finnegan and Dobby.  I work at home as an artist, life coach, blogger, and podcaster, attending to my little home and family and following my passions.  In my free time, I enjoy reading, painting, walks amongst trees, taking photographs, bird-watching, building houses in Sims 4, heading to the beach, game nights with friends, playing Elder Scrolls Online with my husband, traveling, and singing really loud when no one can hear me. 😋 I love to try tasty, gluten-free recipes and obsessed with Thai beef salad. I am crazy about boybands (New Kids On The Block, Westlife, and Backstreet Boys are my faves), Outlander, Star Wars, glitter/sequins/sparkle, all things chihuahua, and pigs with wings. 


Starting this blog was my way of being a positive voice in the world and an outlet to talk and share about things I love.  It continues to be a place where I can share my thoughts and talk about fashion, beauty products, travel, having thyroid cancer, furkid(s), recipes, crafting, and more.

Photo by Gray Feather Photography 
I've learned a lot from the plus blogging community thus far and wanted to join in being a positive voice of body acceptance.  Having been raised in an environment where I was constantly told how ugly, fat, and worthless I was (and made to believe all of those things were related), I was tired of feeling ashamed of how I looked just because it didn't fall into the perimeters that society wants me to be in.  I was tired of all the women in my life feeling crappy about themselves because of the same pressures.  I want to be a positive voice in the lives of those around me and set an example for my friends, sisters, and family.  I want them all to LOVE themselves and treat themselves with respect and kindness.  It is an ongoing journey, but a very worthwhile one.

Now, being a thyroid cancer survivor, I feel a pull to bring awareness to thyroid issues and causes, provide information on the process of having thyroid cancer, and talk about the lessons I learned during the process.  I don't want anyone to let cancer be their teacher in living a happy life of acceptance and exuberance.

In May of 2021, my husband and I started a podcast called "Hailey Hates Everything".  We have so much fun sharing our thoughts on a variety of topics, with lots of laughs and silliness!

In late 2021, I also started an Etsy shop, Wilde Skye, to share my art.  Being creative is so helpful in managing my mental health.

Fashion-wise, my style contains my 3 C's: casual, colorful, and cute.  I love fun and flirty pieces, lots of color, sequins/sparkles, and other embellishments, but I love to be comfortable at the same time.  My style rides a line between practical and "extra" in a way that I find easy to wear.  And I never leave home without accessorizing.  For reference, regarding outfit posts, I am 5'9" and currently wear a size 18/20.  My measurements are 49/47/55.

I hope you enjoy my blog.  I look forward to hearing from you via e-mail, social media, or here on the blog with questions, comments, or just to say hello and have a chat.

I am open to working with brands to promote and review products, host giveaways, and more. Please email me to discuss your ideas and options.  I've been a member of the Kiyonna Blogger Brigade since March 2012.  I was also Catherines Style Ambassador for May 2015 and worked with the brand for their Art of the Mix (in which my ensemble was the top-rated look by Catherines' customers) and Denim Debut campaigns, hosting an in-store event as well.  

In February of 2018, I started doing plus size fashion segments on my local Portland, Oregon station, KATU.  I popped onto Afternoon Live each month to talk fashion and lifestyle!  

Most recently, I joined the Her Universe brand ambassador team when I introduced pieces from their February 2021 Outlander collection - the Tartan Cinch Dress and Thistle Cardigan!  

Check out my Featured In page for more!



E-mail contact:  diva@divinemrsdiva.com

17 comments

  1. I admire that you took the step for a blog and are love yourself for the person you are, not the size. I also admire that you try all sorts of fashions. Ones that I won't even CONSIDER. A legging? no way. I love the look of boots and tucked jeans and legging but I can't bring myself to show my knee chub or soft thighs. So I give you a big shout-out for being daring and looking great doing it. Thanks. Julie in Cleveland @Tribechic

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    1. Thank you for sharing your opinion. I appreciate it. I used to think I couldn't do leggings or jeans tucked into boots either, but I am so glad I tried it. It has been such a wonderful thing letting those ideas fall away and opened up a lot more fashionably awesome looks for me. :-)

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  2. I just discovered your wonderful blog and I am so excited that I did!! You have inspired me to start dressing cute and sassy again! :) I literally sped through your entire blog in one afternoon LOL just to get ideas on what I want to buy as well. I didn't even realize you were from the NW as well until just a bit ago ( I live in Gig Harbor, WA, near Tacoma)
    Thank you again for your awesome site!!!
    ***Hugs**** Jennifer

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    1. OMG, Blogger didn't send me an email that you commented! I apologize for being late on this. I just wanted to give you a big ole hug and thank you for reading my blog and leaving this comment. It means so much to me. I am thrilled that you are going to get yourself in some cute and sassy ensembles! You deserve it!! If you are ever in the Vancouver, WA/Portland area for some shopping, let me know! :-)

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    2. I was following you on Instagram. Now I'm stalking you on FB. I'm the same size/height as you and you totally inspire me. Keep up the good work!

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    3. Stalk away, Melissa! :-D I'm so happy to help! I hope I continue to provide inspiration and a fun place on the internet. Thank you so much for following the blog/social media and leaving me such a wonderful compliment. I appreciate it so much!

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  3. I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and always look forward to seeing your outfit posts.
    I took inspiration from your video of your dressing room and began a project of my own to bring some order to my closets, jewelry, shoes, etc.
    Thank you for the work you put into your blog!
    Because of you and several other blogs that I read, I also have started wearing makeup again (when it is not too hot :) ) and trying to put together more colorful outfits that make me feel confident. So, thank you!
    Beth in sunny and HOT Florida.

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    1. OMG Beth. I don't know why I never saw this post until now. I am so sorry I haven't replied sooner!

      I just wanted to say thank you to all of your kind words and compliments. In really means so much to me. I am so thrilled that my blog has helped inspire you in wonderful ways! If you ever have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to reach out to me!

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  4. I just discovered your blog via pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/150589181265752180/) and saw in the info line that you and I are the same height and dress size. I love your style, your outlook on your body! Thank you for sharing your outlook and ideas. Being different then the societal 'norm' is not wrong and I'm so done with being shamed for being 'plus size'. I am happy, relatively healthy. I work out and run. I also want to feel and look cute, pretty, sexy... Thank you for being refreshing and inspiring!

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    1. Wow, thank you so much, Jaime. It is comments like this that make so HAPPY and inspire me to keep doing what I am doing. I think if we keep working together to talk about our "radical" ideas of self-love and happiness and self-acceptance and we show society that plus size girls ARE cute and pretty and sexy and happy and healthy, then maybe one day it won't seem like such a "radical" idea to the majority of the population. :-)

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  5. Good morning, Hailey! I just discovered your blog through withwonderandwhimsy (Liz) and I'm so happy I did! You have great taste in clothes!! And I love your attitude about your size, as I am the same size, but sadly, lacking 6" of your height!! I'm slowly changing my attitude to like (and hopefully LOVE) myself and not feel apologetic about what I look like. But since I've been overweight my whole life, there are a lot of years to make up for! I love that bloggers like you and Liz are open to trying new clothes and styles and that designers finally have a sense of how we'd really like to dress. AND that you're bringing those styles to us, with you wearing them, so we can see how we'd look in them too!!

    Keep up the great blogging and I look forward to reading more of them!
    Donna

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    1. Oh my goodness! My commenting system never told me you left this comment. So first, I want to apologize for not having gotten back to you all this time!
      Thank you so much for stopping by the blog and all your kind words. I hope you are doing well on your journey to loving your body. It is definitely a process. I have been a big girl my whole life as well, with a mother who made sure I knew how "fat and lazy and worthless" I was every chance she got. Changing your mind set and the way you see your body (and even other people's bodies sometimes) is a big job to take on but one that is certainly worth it.
      And as far as I have come in my journey to love my body and accept it how it is, I still have crappy days where I hate on myself. It is easy to fall back into that negative space, but you have to fight through it! You can do it! I am happy to be among so many awesome women who are showing fashionable options for every BODY and doing so with helpful positivity!! Happy 2016!!

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  6. I LOVE your blog. I always look at pictures of myself and think I am so big. I revert to tee shirts and jeans for comfort and never try new things. I refuse to step outside of the box for fashion. But then I saw your blog. We are pretty much the same measurements and you are adorable!! I love your fashion pics and outfit ideas. I am feeling inspired and encouraged right now.

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    1. This is so awesome to hear! I am honored that I could be of encouragement and inspire you. Thank you so much for reaching out to me!

      I've been exactly where you are in my mind and I know what it feels like. We are conditioned to think of ourselves as less than. Society, and usually people, want us to know that every single day. It is easy to let those messages sink in and stay there. But that is no way to live. It wasn't until I started reading plus size blogs and seeing other women who looked like me that I truly started to question this idea that I wasn't pretty or worthy. These women looked amazing! They were my size and sometimes bigger and I thought they were all beautiful. So why couldn't I see that in myself? Eventually, I started to see my own beauty and my own worth and value as a human being.

      YOU deserve to feel beautiful. YOU deserve to feel loved. YOU deserve to be comfortable AND cute!! Big doesn't equal wrong or ugly or any other negative adjective. Big is just a descriptor. It doesn't take away from your worth or your value or your beauty or WHO you are.

      Changing your mindset is a long, constant journey, with potholes and side quests and bad days. But it is worth all the time and frustration. It isn't an overnight result, so be gentle with yourself. But start taking steps to shake up the way you see yourself, your body, and whatever other viewpoint is holding you back.

      If you want to shake up your style and way of thinking, I honestly enjoy trying on clothes. Try everything on! EVERYTHING! I make my friends do this. Even if you hate the color. Even if you think it looks terrible on the hanger. Even if you think the neckline won't work for you. Try the damn thing on. Go into it with the mindset that this is all an experiemnt. You are just trying things on to see what they are like. If they don't work, it is the clothes that are at fault, NOT your body. Trying on different things that push my boundaries and kick me out of my comfort zone has been a great way for me to see my body in a positive way and challenge my ideas of what I thought would look bad on me.

      And if you need a pep talk, you are welcome to email me any time. Also, if you are ready to start working through things and want to help kickstart your mind into seeing yourself differently, I recommend the book "Beautiful You" by Rosie Molinary. http://amzn.to/2Dwx0IZ It has daily prompts with questions you can answer journal-style and different suggestions for training your brain to think more positively. I bought it for all my girl friends and am reading it daily this year.

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  7. I just stumbled across your blog while shopping around on Google for an outlander t-shirt. Suffice it to say, I've since stopped shopping for t-shirts and have instead been reading your blog and looking at your pics. Your very inspiring and I truly believe your blog is something I NEED in my life. I have anxiety as well, an extremely bad anxiety disorder actually, and it always gives me a feeling of not being alone in my struggle when I come across someone else who understands the difficulties it truly presents. People who don't have it, don't understand it, and are often quite harsh towards me saying things like "it's all in your head", etc. And while I don't have thyroid cancer, I've suffered with Graves disease since 2008 and am actually having my thyroid removed within the next 6 to 8 weeks in the hopes that it will lessen some of the suffering this disease puts me through. So I feel we have another thing SORT-OF in common as far as that goes. But because of these things, I've let the fun go out of my life, first thing being fashion and beauty, because I always just thought, what's the point? My energy level is always so low as to be almost non existent, so I resorted to jeans and t-shirts/hoodies and a pair of chucks to tie my style up and then I'm done. Next to go was makeup, I haven't worn anything beyond a bit of mascara in years. And the last thing to go was my hair. I get trims, but haven't had it colored or cut into an actual style in a very long time. With my anxiety, it's hard to even get out for normal daily things, so adding anything additional to that just feels so incredibly overwhelming. Especially when I spend a good amount of time at Dr's appointments, or having tests and procedures done. But you've inspired me to put some of the fun back into my life, even if I do it slowly with fashion and beauty. So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being a voice for those of us who need to hear the things your saying. Thank you for inspiring confidence for those of us who so desperately need it. And as a final note, I'm so sorry for what you've suffered with your thyroid cancer, but I also want to congratulate you on beating it. I don't know much about thyroid cancer, but I am most definitely an expert on the effects an ill thyroid can have on the body. It's a non stop struggle and I really, REALLY commend you for your strength and for not only staying so positive, but for being willing to take the time to spread that positivity to the world through your blog. I can only hope that I will find even an ounce of that strength inside of myself. P.S. Can I just say that I am SO jealous that you got to meet Sam Heughan and Catriona Balfe? That must have been a wonderful experience, aside from your exhaustion from the long day of course. But worth it, I hope? ;)

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    1. I have to reply in two parts because Blogger says my message is too long.
      (Part 1)

      Oh my goodness! This comment just made my whole day, week, month! Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me because comments like this are the whole reason I keep keepin’ on with the blog. I want to help people so badly and can get really down on myself when it feels like no one sees me or hears me (which is kind of often because this is a rather thankless job). But occasionally someone so loving and kind and brave, like yourself, comes forward and leaves me a message and it makes all the self-doubt go away in an instant. I appreciate you so much.

      Anxiety is the WORST. I’m so sorry it gives you such a struggle. It’s so hard to rationalize anything with anxiety, so when your head is telling you all these lies and then people want you to “just get over it” or think that you have some control over it….everything just snowballs and gets worse. You are left feeling like crap and then anxiety gets to lie to you more. I’ve started to be able to tell when the panic attacks are coming and when anxiety is lying to me more often, but sometimes I can’t tell at all. I’m grateful that I have some pretty understanding and supportive people around me that understand, but that wasn’t always the case. You are more than welcome to email me anytime if you need to talk or vent about it.

      Graves! UGH. I obviously don’t know what it is like to have it, but I have been overmedicated for my thyroid to keep my TSH at basically 0 now for about 4 years. (This is an effort to keep cells from working and therefore hopefully prevent the cancer from coming back.) I know it made my anxiety worse, far more panic attacks, heart palpitations, the whole nine. In November, I finally got my endo to lower my medication to see if it would help lessen the panic attacks and palpitations. And it actually did help. I haven’t had palpitations since the lower dose. I have good days and bad days, but I know that my friends with Hashi still have their thyroids and they are miserable. The storms hit them hard and their medication is constantly changing because their thyroid is so all over the place. Yes, I am absolutely still tired and never feel like I can just be a “normal” person, but I know without a doubt that if I did still have my thyroid I would be having even more troubles because of the swings. All this to say, I think getting your thyroid removed will be a life-changer for you. I certainly wish that for you. Because it will be easier to find your right dosage and things will be more steady. I’m sending you all the good vibes and all the healing vibes I can!! And we can be scar sisters!!! You’ve got this!!

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    2. (Part 2)

      I am so touched and honored that I could inspire you in any way. I know it can be exhausting to put effort into seemingly superficial things like fashion and makeup, but it doesn’t have to be elaborate. You can be comfortable and casual and still look totally cute and fashionable. You don’t have to do a full face of makeup, unless you want to. You don’t have to do a big blow out and have Victoria’s Secret model hair. But putting some effort into these things so you feel cute and pretty and confident and yourself really makes a big difference. Looking my best, or wearing an outfit that makes me feel super cute, or having an amazing makeup or hair day (even just trying a new color of lipstick or eyeshadow), help me be more confident and the best version of myself. When I feel like I am presenting my authentic self to the world, it feeds my confidence and my happiness. You are worthy of being out in the light and being seen. You deserve to be happy and live your life to the absolute fullest! With our issues, that sometimes means tweaking things a bit, but it can be done. All of these positives feed each other, but remember to be gentle with yourself and go slow. I know my anxiety makes any changes seem so overwhelming. Sometimes I want to be perfect or nothing is good enough. Perfect isn’t the point. Nobody is perfect. Imperfections are beautiful and make you unique. So be kind to yourself, give yourself compliments, and make little changes here and there as you feel comfortable. And if you need any tips or have questions or just want to vent or talk, email me any time!

      Now let’s chat Outlander! Meeting Sam and Caitriona was totally worth it! I would do it again in a heartbeat (I would just wear more comfortable shoes). lol They were so nice and Caitriona was so personable. Sam seemed a little shy. Well, I guess you read my post so I don’t need to go over this again, but I am still crushing hard on Caitriona because she was just so fun. It is a travesty that I am not her bestie. lol
      There are some cute Outlander shirts on Etsy. I have no idea what size you wear, I guess I am just assuming you are plus size. But if you aren’t, you will have more luck finding shirts that fit. If you ARE plus size, there are still some Etsy options. I found the shirts at the official Outlander store to be the super boxy ones and the arms are really long. I need to hem mine and tweak the sleeves a little. Torrid had a few shirts, so I occasionally do searches on Poshmark and eBay for the one I didn’t get.
      The Southern Sassenachs have a new charity shirt up - https://www.customink.com/fundraising/sosass18?side=front&type=6&zoom=
      and Outlandia does as well - https://www.customink.com/fundraising/outlanimals-3
      And I just picked up a Claire and Jamie shirt from this artist at Emerald City Comicon in February. I haven’t even posted about the trip on the blog, but he had a 3X and it fits me perfectly! - https://squareup.com/market/jason-palmer-studios/item/outlander-tshirt

      Thank you again for your wonderful message. I can’t possibly convey just how much it means to me.

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