Juliana Ruggiero of Bridgeport Conneticut on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Juliana Ruggiero shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Juliana , thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
The thing that’s most important to me is energy. i bealive that energy is one of the most important things to keep an eye on, esspecally if you want to grow and sucsseed in whatever you do with your life. I a;sp hink energy is the buliding block of having a good and productive day everyday. Having energy makes you or anyone feel acompolished at the end of every day!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Sure! But before i do that, i want to thank the entire Bold Journey Magazine team for inviting me back for highlight series It truly is always a pleasure to be able to share with your readers!
My name is Juliana Ruggiero, i’m a 26 year old best selling amazon author and Certified International Speaker. I was born with Mild Cerebral Palsy.
I’ve appeared on several podcasts and shows, that includes my reccent apperence on the Tea With The Queens Talk Show and i’ve also appreard on the award Winning TV Show Real Bitz Talk with Zondra Evans.
In October of 2024, I became the first in my family to own a bu ssness . I lanuched Juliana R Speaks in hopes to take my speaking to more places and levles then just Zoom.
I am a co author of three books, one of which became an Amazon #1 best seller in 2024. My first book i co authored was “Girl Don’t Count Yourslf Out: You Are reslilant, Tenachous and Faitful.” The second one is “Turning my Pain Into Purpouse.” Volume 1 and lasty, the one that’s still pending and has not realesed yet is called” The Beautiful Face of the Invisible Illnesss: Masking the Pain We Endure Volume 2.”
I’m also the proud and humble reccipent of two awards: The 2025 Phonomanal Women Award and The 2025 Women’s Empowerment Award

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
This is a fantastic question , i just went through ending a friendship last April.
I feel the one thing(and don’t get me wrong, there’s proably more then one, but this is what i learned from what i went through last year) that breaks bons between pepole is jelousy as well as not being happy about others sucsses.
I had a best friend- or at least i thought she was my best friend who i gave my soul to for 12 years. In the begining, everything was fine, but as we both got older and she got married, we slowly were drifting apart. I didn’t see any red flags or the emotional and mental abuse she was putting me through, mind you my family did and kept telling me to get out because she’s not worth it. I ugnored them and held on to hope that things would eventally change….
They didn”t.
My co authors, myself and our visonary fillmed our segments for Real Bitz Talk with Zondra in September of 2022. Once my episode aired in November of that year, i shared it on my personal socal , hoping to get a comment from my now ex friend…i got nothing not even one.
She was jelouas that i was going down a sucessful path. She couldn’t handle couldn’t handle it.
Honestly, unless the person who breaks the bond doesn’t own up to or aplogize for their actions and that caused the bond to break, there’s no sense in trying to restore it, so just walk away like i did. Find yourself pepole that are the oposite of jealous , and watch how fast your life will change for the better.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
This question really hits hard.
Yes their dwfinetly was. After my dad passed away tragically from the advanced stages of diabetes in 2019, i truly thought when we left the hospital that night that my life was over. My dad was my biggest supporter and my rock. He always told me, “whatever you decide to do with your life, even if you don’t go to college, I just want you to be happy.” When we lost him on the morning of January 1, 2019, I was broken. I was in a depressive hole, it truly felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
I quit everything I loved to do, including writing bi weekly articals for various online sites. I just couldn’t find the will to keep writing after we laid my dad to rest, so i stopped for three and a half years.
I spent those three and a half years wondering if I would ever come back from a huge tragety. I would have my days where ii’d be ok and i just want to get as much acomplished as I could. Then, there were those days where I would try to climb out of isolation, but i would just crawl right back in and stay there.
However, once I found that first anthogy book trough facebook at 22, got involved in it, it put so much joy and growth back into me, something i lost for so many years!

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
The one thing I firmly bealive the smartest pepole are getting wrong today is feeding even the youngest adults the therory that in order to be sucssesful in life you need to have a college degree and a job that makes millons of dollars every year. That’s what i’ve been fed as an adult,
Here’s the truth folks, you do not, I reapet, you do not need any of these things to be sucssesful in life. All you really need is a good work ethic, hustle, drive, and detrmination to make a name for yourself, that is what you need!
College isn’t for everyone, so if you try it, or even if you say you know what college is not the path i want to take. That’s ok, who cares what others think.
Sucsess and growth will not happen over night, mine sure didn’t. Just be patient, trust the process and work your way up the ladder!

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When do you feel most at peace?
To be honest, I really feel most at peace when I get positivity and prasie from pepole about how much i’ve grown and sucseded over the years.
Or, when I get a comment from a past visonary i’ve worked with on a book, telling me how much my chapter on greif has helped total strangers get through the hardest times in their lives.
That’s when I feel most whole, warm inside and at peace.
I tell myself, “If my work and what i do is inspring one person’s life, i’ve done my job.”

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photo 1: Women’s Leo International Confrences Team
Photo 2: Elete Creations Team
Photo 3: Shama Unmasking Motovation Team
Photo 4: Shana Unmasking Motovation Team
Personal photo : Diana Ruggiero
Logo: Canva Desgin Softwore

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?

Coffee? Workouts? Hitting the snooze button 14 times? Everyone has their morning ritual and we

Highlighter Series
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?

Our deepest wounds often shape us as much as our greatest joys. The pain we

Highlighter Series
Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?

Culture, economic circumstances, family traditions, local customs and more can often influence us more than