Being you was never the problem.
Every standard you keep failing was made up by someone. Normal Is a Lie is a newsletter about the parts of you that others told you to fix — one made-up "should" at a time.
By Julie Harris — author of Boldly Belong (Wiley), founder of Ernest.
Hi, I'm Julie.
I went to school for neuroscience and planned a very different life. Then a neurological event in my twenties took that plan apart — and rebuilding taught me something no textbook had: when a person and an environment don't fit, the problem is almost never the person.
I spent the next five years testing it: helping employees at companies like Boeing, Microsoft, and NVIDIA win workplace accommodations — 92% of the time — and winning my own EEOC mediation without a lawyer. Along the way I wrote Boldly Belong for Wiley and founded Ernest, so nobody has to figure this out alone.
If you've ever been told you're too much, or not enough, exactly as you are — I'm glad you're here.
Stop trying to fix the human.*
Fix the environment.
Keynotes and workshops for rooms ready to stop designing for a person who never existed.
Normal Is a Lie: Design for Average, Fail Everyone signature
Belief IS the Accommodation: Stop Making Us Prove It new for 2026–27
The Dandelion Effect: Neurodiversity and the Workplaces That Decide Who Thrives
* Because you can't. Trying to fix humans breaks humans.
BOLDLY BELONG: The Power of Being YOU in a Disabling Society
The field guide for taking up room exactly as you are — instead of trading authenticity for acceptance.
Published by Wiley, 2024
Get the bookIf you need help navigating the accommodation process right now, Julie built Ernest for exactly that — step-by-step help asserting your workplace rights. Go to ernesty.com
Normal Is a Lie.
For everyone who's been told they aren't enough as they are.
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