I care deeply about people, but I’m not interested in blindly agreeing with them and I don’t want them to blindly agree with me either.
MARLANA aka OUTTAMYDAMNMIND, 2026
1
TELL US ABOUT YOU.
I think what I want people to know about me is that I’m rooting for them. Genuinely. There’s very little that I do that isn’t rooted somewhere in wanting somebody else to win.
I think we’ve been disconnected from each other for a long time, and I’m tired of how normal that’s become.
If I can create spaces where people feel connected, where we’re grateful for each other and genuinely invested in seeing each other do well, that would be a huge blessing to me too.
Because I don’t just want to build that kind of community. I want to be part of one.
2
WHAT DRIVES YOU?
Curiosity drives me. I’m genuinely curious about people and how differently we can experience the same world.
I’ve always said I’d rather be around people who challenge the way I think than people who blindly agree with me.
Creating gives me energy writing, conversations, finding new ways to express myself, even working with animals. And I’ve learned that my curiosity about other people usually brings me back to myself.
So many conversations I’ve had in The Inner Room have felt like sitting across from a mirror. I’m asking about someone else’s life, but somehow finding pieces of my own in their answers.
I think I’m continuing to build around the things that make me feel alive, even if there’s no blueprint for what all of those things are supposed to become.
3
In one sentence, what are you trying to change?
I’m trying to influence a way of living where we remember we’re connected to each other and to the planet we all depend on.
4
What did you notice was broken that made you start writing?
I didn’t start writing because I noticed something wasn’t working. I started writing because everything fell apart.
I think what I was looking for, without realizing it at the time, was community.
Writing gave me a place to make sense of what I was going through, but sharing it gave me people to make sense of it with.
I think that’s why community has become such an important part of everything I create now.
5
If you could manifest a brighter tomorrow, what would change by 2030?
By 2030, I’d love to see more people questioning what we’re told life is supposed to look like and actually experimenting with something different.
I have this vision of communal living that’s basically a high-end New York apartment building on crack, except it’s in the middle of nowhere, we’re growing our own food, there are animals everywhere, and we’ve built a space with pretty much everything we could need.
But the part that matters most to me is that living together wouldn’t mean becoming the same. Everyone could still experience life in whatever way makes sense to them.
I don’t think there’s one right way to live. I just think we should have a lot more imagination about what’s possible.
6
How would your closest friends describe you?
I think they’d say I’m curious about damn near everything, deeply caring, observant to the point that it probably annoys me more than it helps me, and always questioning something.
I can turn an ordinary conversation into a philosophical debate without meaning to, but I’ll probably make you laugh somewhere in the middle of it.
I care deeply about people, but I’m not interested in blindly agreeing with them and I don’t want them to blindly agree with me either.
I think they’d probably say I feel things deeply, think about them even deeper, and still somehow remain hopeful enough to believe most things could be better than they are.
7
What’s a challenge that changed how you see the world?
Financial instability has changed the way I see the world while I’m still living through it.
I spent years working hard, earning six figures, and believing that succeeding within the structure was the goal. Losing that financial security showed me how quickly your position can change and how difficult simply existing can become when it does.
What’s surprised me most is that I don’t want to fight my way back to where I was.
This experience has changed my goal from succeeding within the existing structure to questioning whether it’s a structure I even want to succeed within and thinking much more seriously about what we could build instead.
8
What are you most proud of right now?
I’m most proud that I’ve kept building even when I haven’t known exactly where any of it would lead.
I’ve created a writing community, built The Inner Room into a space for conversations I’m genuinely curious about, grown my work across YouTube and social media, and recently created an entirely separate pet-care company around another part of my life that I love.
None of it came with a blueprint, and I’ve been building much of it during one of the least financially stable periods of my life.
My footing isn’t always perfect, but I keep finding it again.
I’m proud that instead of waiting for my life to make sense before I started building it, I’ve been willing to create the pieces and trust that I’ll eventually see how they fit together.
9
On hard days, what kind of signal from your readers keeps you going?
Honestly, any interaction. A comment in The Den, on a piece I wrote , a Note, an Inner Room episode, or even a quote card, it all matters to me.
There’s still something fascinating about creating something wherever I happen to be and having it reach someone who isn’t anywhere near me.
These little interactions remind me that there are actually people on the other side of what I’m creating, and I don’t think that will ever stop being cool to me.
10
WHAT ARTICLE WOULD YOU WANT YOUR New Readers TO READ FIRST?
“Everything I Learned About Narcissism Led Me Back to Myself”
I actually have it pinned for this exact reason. I think it’s one of the pieces where I really let people into the way I think, taking something I was trying to understand about other people, mixing it with my own lived experiences, and eventually turning the questions back toward myself.
If you’re trying to understand the way I approach writing, reflection, and pretty much everything else, I think that’s a good place to start.
If you could recommend another writer to be featured on Not Rising, who would it be ?
I’ve gotten to know her beyond just reading her work, and I see how much time, thought, and genuine care she puts into creating spaces where people feel supported wherever they are in life.
Mental health is a big part of what she writes about, but what stands out to me most is the way she shows up for people.
There’s an intention behind what she creates that I think deserves more people on the other side of it.
