Sara Donna: Everyone Needs an Awkward Phase

An awkward phase gives you plenty to cringe about. It can also teach you how to live with yourself when everyone is looking.

Sara Donna joins Jay Hicks for a conversation about growing up in a small town, finding her footing in Los Angeles, and the distance between someone's public image and the person underneath it. Pageants, professional ring work, and trapeze performance all put her in front of an audience. Here, the conversation turns toward what happens away from the spotlight.

They talk about childhood expectations, changing perceptions, and why being comfortable with your own weirdness matters. Along the way, funeral wishes, celebrity cameos, conspiracy theories, and 1990s fashion take the conversation in some very familiar Academy directions.

What We Explore

• Growing up awkward and learning to be seen
• Life across pageants, ring work, and trapeze performance
• Moving to Los Angeles and finding room to be yourself
• The assumptions people make from appearances
• Humor, curiosity, and unconventional funeral plans
• Childhood identity and the pressure to fit a role

About Sara Donna

Sara Donna's work spans pageants, professional ring appearances, and trapeze performance. In this conversation, she shares the small-town experiences and personal changes behind that public life.

The Tragedy Academy

Candid conversations exploring the human experience through tragedy and triumph.

Hosted by Jay Hicks.

Be cool. Keep learning. 🌳

The Tragedy Academy is a show created to bridge societal divides in a judgment-free zone using candor and humor. 

Be cool. Keep Learning.