Speaker & Storyteller

A longtime mental health advocate and a big believer in ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues — Zara has spoken candidly to rooms of thousands about her own personal struggles as well as empowered audience members to get help. Her speeches on the subject of mental health have provided a multitude of audiences with tangible, life-saving resources while stimulating empathy and cultivating connection. Zara brings her critically acclaimed self-help book GIRL, STOP PASSING OUT IN YOUR MAKEUP to life with her non-didactic, visceral, and shame-eradicating talks. She has shared her mental health journey everywhere from elite performance spaces such as Joe's Pub at The New York City Public Theatre, the historic Stonewall Inn, and Samsung 837 to high schools and colleges, to fundraisers and Pride Events. 

Zara's powerful performances, talks, and story-telling shows about her lived experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community have served as a moving, powerful way to educate an audience about the issues our community faces — while also teaching the powerful history of the gay rights movement in America. Her haunting and informative workshops and speeches have been performed at diversity and inclusion trainings for brands like Frontier, Maven Clinic, CitiSoft, and Samsung — as well as for high schools, colleges, and fundraisers for non-profits such as the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative and Callen Lorde. 

I don’t know about you, but I was never really into reading magazines. Sure, I like to occasionally peruse through the pages of a tabloid while waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting for my hair to dry at the hairdresser (during pre-COVID times, RIP), but magazine writing never really spoke to me — it was just mindless reading to pass the time. Now, I really don’t remember when I was introduced to the delightful, powerful woman that is Zara Barrie, but I was definitely captivated by her unique and authentic writing style; she writes with a certain flair that makes me either smile or laugh hysterically.