To take on a new challenge or veer in a different direction takes guts. We feel our hearts beat loudly in our chests. Our eyes take in a wider horizon. We feel fully alive. Suddenly, the world opens up and we find our way back to our true path. Gutsy! is a section featuring stories of people doing something inspiring and brave, and in the process changing their lives.
As Told By Eden Rodriguez
When was the last time you felt fear? Maybe you were about to give a speech or were confronted with a large spider in your basement. You palms got sweaty, your breath shorter and you felt your heart pounding in your chest. For Jan Creamer, president of Animal Defenders International — one of the toughest animal welfare groups in the world — fear is part of her job. And the stakes are much higher than for most of us. “Am I scared?” she says. “Over the years, I’ve learned to control it. Because whatever nerves I have, that stress is irrelevant compared to the fear the animals feel every day of their lives.”
In her line of work, Jan has ample opportunity to feel afraid. But behind her delicate frame and Doris Day appearance hides a modern day female Harrison Ford. She’s been drenched head-to-toe in pigs blood while filming slaughter houses in the Philippines, argued with enraged and armed circus owners in Bolivia, confronted injured lions and gone undercover in Europe to film circus elephant abuse.
Brianna Brown has been crying. For weeks. All while donning designer clothes and perfectly blow-dried hair. But her emotional rollercoaster ride has nothing to do with heartbreak, or excruciating pain. It’s simply par for the course on Lifetime’s hit show Devious Maids, produced by Mark Cherry and Eva Longoria. “It’s kind of been fun to be upset all the time,” says Brianna, who co-stars as Beverly Hills power wife Taylor Stappord. “But honestly, I’m pretty excited to not have to cry so much in my next job!”
Brianna is not one to shy away from a genuine good cry. Or a good laugh. But stiff designer dresses? Not so much. With her long, tapered limbs and sun-streaked locks, she embodies the carefree California spirit. She’s lived in Los Angeles since shortly after high school, when she left her native Minnesota to pursue an acting career. Her role as Dr. Lisa Niles on ABC’s General Hospital prompted People magazine to name her one of the “best villains in the show’s 50-year history.” She’s also worked opposite Claire Danes on Homeland, as well as True Blood and Castle.
Pulling up next to lifeguard tower 10 at Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica, I glance at the three 20-something girls spilling out of a black Audi a few parking spots down. I’m here to meet Dayna Devon — the former host of the show Extra! — but she has not arrived yet. I take a sip of my coffee, look out the car window and see one of the girls waiving at me. Slowly, I realize that the bouncy, lithe woman in slim, ripped jeans and a bare midriff is Dayna.
Since leaving Extra! more than six years ago, the hands-on mom to Emmi, 9 and Cole, 8, has clearly become a hardcore workout maven. But as I find out later, she has also undergone a more personal transformation. Sure, she’s good at masking her serious side: Dayna is over-the-top funny, loud, outspoken and not afraid to admit she’s had plastic surgery (after all, her husband is renowned surgeon Dr. Brent Moelleken). But she is also an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist who, after two decades on the air, suddenly found herself watching the Academy Awards from her couch instead of walking on the red carpet.
Mount Everest is its own mythical world with daredevil mountaineers, merciless temperatures, unpredictable avalanches and ferocious storms. At the two base camps you’ll find anticipation and fear: for every 13 climbers who reach the summit (29,035 feet above sea level), about two die along the way.
But you’ll also find the possibility of greatness — as in 2002, when the first American Women’s Everest Expedition arrived at the south base camp in Nepal. The team, lead by mountaineer and polar explorer Alison Levine, had more than 450 media outlets covering their every move. CNN conducted live updates from the mountain. The Discovery Channel live-blogged the climb, a first at the time. The Ford Motor Company sponsored the expedition, estimated at $75,000 per climber. But less than 300 feet from the summit, a storm came in and the team was forced to turn around. The failure was devastating.
To take on a new challenge or veer in a different direction takes guts. Our eyes take in a wider horizon. We feel fully alive. Suddenly, the world opens up and we find a new and more true path. Gutsy! is a section featuring first-person stories of people doing something inspiring and brave, and in the process changing their lives.
As Told by Kitty Pilgrim
To take on a new challenge or veer in a different direction takes guts. Our eyes take in a wider horizon. We feel fully alive. Suddenly, the world opens up and we find our way back to our true path. Gutsy! is a section featuring first-person stories of people doing something inspiring and brave, and in the process changing their lives.
Essay by Janet Wieneke
It’s only been a year since Julia Sundstrom Sandstrom moved to Los Angeles from her native Sweden, but she’s already landed a part in a movie with Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins and Josh Duhamel. The fresh-faced actress — cousin with movie star Malin Akerman — is clearly not one to wait for opportunity to knock on her door. “I played a girl who flirts with Josh Duhamel in a bar,” she says of her role in the thriller Beyond Deceit, premiering next year. “It was so fun! I worked all night until 7 am, but I had so much energy when it was time to go home that it was impossible to go to sleep. It was a big, crazy movie set and it was an incredible experience.”
When not on set, Julia is still full of energy. A fitness and health fanatic, she works out six times a week and adheres to a clean and sugar-free diet. Here, she shares four life-changing tips for staying fit, losing weight and feeling great.
