Meet Jennifer Carrillo

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Carrillo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Life has thrown many tough curve balls at me throughout my lifetime, and yet, I still continue to be resilient. I think my resilience comes from faith, faith in God, a belief that we all have a purpose greater than ourselves, and until that purpose is served, we will remain. I strongly believe we are made in God’s image and to love deeply, give to those around us, and to learn to ask for and receive help when we need it is a source of resiliency, all part of the human experience. I want to live a life of purpose, to leave a mark of positivity, and to inspire others to be authentic and strong, even in the face of life’s most demanding challenges. So long answer short, my reliance comes from within me, my will to survive, thrive, and to help make this world better place in whatever ways I can..

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a professional photographer and writer. I have been a professional photographer since 1999. I have photographed everything from weddings and events to births and families. My job is such a blessing and such a joy! I get to capture the love in this life, the joy, the human connection. In 2016 I began my book, Grief to Grace in response to the multiple traumas I was coping with at the time. Now, 10 years later, I have a beautiful book that chronicles my experience with my emotions as I journeyed from loss and pain (Grief) to a place where I have found acceptance and peace, (Grace). I personified and wrote about my experience, in the hopes that I would inspire people to talk about their emotions. To learn that facing our emotions, our experiences head on, helps us to move through them to release them so there is nothing holding us back from being our most beautiful and authentic selves.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three most important qualities, skills and/or areas of knowledge would be my creativity first and foremost. Creativity has been my saving grace for so many aspects of my life. Landscape photography, my art book, Grief to Grace, just grabbing a camera and photographing lines or details, my creativity has saved me more times than I can ever count. Authenticity would be another important quality. I am a firm believer in living an authentic life. I am not concerned with other people think of me, I am more concerned with living a life true to myself, one I can be proud of, one rooted in truth. The last impactful quality would have to be forgiveness. Learning to forgive and let go of those who have intentionally or unintentionally hurt me, forgive life for the extreme hardships it has thrown my way, forgive my body for not always working right, Forgiveness begets personal power as it allows the anger, disappointment, and sadness to melt into understanding, growth and love.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

The book I have written over the course of the last 10 years, has played the most important role in my development. Grief to Grace: An Emotional Journey Through Art, is the book I created and wrote to overcome serious trauma that occurred in my life. In this book I explore emotions by personifying them into art and then examining what they mean to me. This has been a 10 year journey in the making and I so excited to be releasing this on Amazon in February of 2026.

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