Sellers Grantham
@sellersgrantham
Sellers post-treatment, living her radiant life at the LuxYoga Retreat
Who is Sellers?
Describe yourself in 3 sentences.
I believe in the power of espresso and a well-tailored compliment. I formerly worked as a fashion PR for Oscar de la Renta in New York City, but am undergoing a massive career change; I am currently deep in the throes of applications for graduate programs in clinical social work. My favorite activity is a pile of books, a raging fire, and a Gingerade Kombucha spiked with raw coconut vinegar.
Tell me something most people don't know about you.
I carry Ketchup in my handbag and back seat of my car so I have some accessible everywhere I go. Also, I’ve read every Harry Potter book 43 times.
With the books she holds so dearly
What is your family like? How did that shape you?
I grew up watching my grandmother – the strongest woman I know – conjure up abundant meals on a budget of basically 0. Not only that. She also taught me the power of a good set of hot rollers, the importance of planning your outfits in advance down to the earrings, that the best farming is guided by the light of the almanac moon. And lifting up your voice to the Lord, no matter how awful it sounds. I always thought she was magic. Every Sunday we sit at Ma-Ma’s table for hours and hours after the meal is finished. Every Monday morning my abs hurt.
Sellers making Gingerbread Houses with Ma-Ma
Fitness with Sellers:
What is your favorite work out?
Pure Barre. Hands down. @purebarregvl
Who motivates you most in fitness?
All the credit to @Benjamin.sears, owner of the LUXYOGA retreat villa in the South of France, for introducing me to yoga. Ben is a truly great teacher. I also met one of my biggest heroes, @erica_mather, at LUXYOGA. Erica is a Forrest Yoga guardian and a champion of women’s empowerment. Seriously though. Erica has this spirit that reverberates. And her voice is balm. I revere that woman. Also Lauren Wilson, who owns Pure Barre Greenville. Owning a place where women become their best selves, and nurture growth and healing in other women. That’s something special.
What is one thing you can't live without in your practice?
Great music – I love fifties soul, and Drake, and bluegrass.
Describe the message you are working to instill in women through fitness?
Continue to exercise for happiness as opposed to exercising for aesthetic reasons. I don’t read any magazines anymore, and try not to follow any “fitspo” people on Instagram. All that stuff feels toxic to me. Like the air’s been sucked out of the room.
Today, she is stronger, more beautiful, and braver than ever before- physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Sellers' Influence:
What are the platforms in your life currently that allow you to share your heart?
Frazee Dream Center, where I work with children and teens living in impoverished situations. It’s made of magic, that place.
Triune Mercy Center, my church (whose mission is to empower the homeless and low-income community in Greenville). Our pastor is a former journalist named Deb Richardson-Moore. I see Jesus in Deb’s work. She is one of the most inspiring women I know.
LUXYOGA, Benjamin’s retreat center in the South of France where I’ve spent a few seasons past running PR and the retreats themselves!
**BONUS! Sellers is also a writer. Read more of her words, they are life: www.sellerssays.wordpress.com"**
How has the development of your writing changed the way you see yourself and other women?
I think for other women, my whole philosophy is, pour it out for them. Don’t hold back your love, or your appreciation, or your kindness. I want to be that girl that other girls look to for direction, or simply for a kind and personal word or two. Maybe a prayer. It’s funny. I used to want other women to envy me. To see me and think, woah. She has the best life, or the best boyfriend, or her clothes are SO GOOD. But now I want to lift them up. When other women think of me, I hope they feel comforted, and cherished, and uplifted. And seen.
The Beautiful Paradox inside [Sellers]:
If you could describe your heart for women in one sentence, what would that be?
"Being a woman means being the bravest."
What do you believe and how does that contribute to who you are as a woman?
I am a grateful Christian. My mantra? People, places, and things are exactly how they should be right now in God’s world. My prayer? Dear Lord, please let my will align with Your will for my life. Please grant me the capacity to carry Your light into this world.
How did this passion for freedom for women begin? How has it grown into what it is today?
I went to boarding school at 14 (voluntarily). It was incredibly hard to go through my teenage years away from my mom, my grandmother, and the other women who raised me up. I struggled to fit in from day one. I came from small-town South Carolina, and to that point, attended public school where I excelled academically and socially. At boarding school, I floundered in both. All my peers were, in general, SUPER liberal, inordinately vocal, and seemed lightyears beyond me academically. During this time, I began to experiment with bulimia and anorexia. I honestly can’t tell you for sure if it started out of a desperate desire for attention or out of sheer panic and lack of control. Probably both. I hated high school. Anyway, my experiments with disordered eating continued off and on throughout college. Meanwhile, I had a fabulous boyfriend for all of high school, and another wonderful one for most of college.
But then. Then I had one of those absolutely toxic, Wuthering Heights kind of relationships. You know? The kind that licks your insides and, in time, extinguishes any sparkle you may have possessed. I kept thinking if I lost enough weight or was successful enough in my impressive, glamorous career, perhaps he would finally love me enough to buck up. To make me feel seen.
I graduated from college, interned for rag & bone in New York City, was somehow accepted into the uberprestigious Neiman Marcus Executive Development program in Dallas, and was eventually recruited by the femme-fatale/guru/goddess Erika Bearman to work on her team at Oscar in New York City. All this incredible success before I was 25. It was amazing. Ultimately, though, I completely fell apart. Trying to be the absolute best at everything. And honestly? Having that kind of power. The kind of life that everyone supposedly envies. The kind of life that you think, haha, all those horrible girls that made my life a living hell in high school or whatever. Look at me now ya’ll.
That kind of power was too tempting. It was lethal. Poison for my soul. My flailing relationship ate away at me, I was passing out every other day in Bikram class, consuming so few calories it basically didn’t count as food. I flew home to South Carolina one May for a long weekend, and my wonderful parents dragged me into a doctor. They told me I was going to see someone about my stomach issues. But it turns out, the doctor was a woman who ran an eating disorder clinic, whom I now credit with saving my life. (Back then I thought she was a witch who wanted to ruin everything I’d worked so backbreakingly hard to achieve). She looked at me and told me that if I didn’t get treatment, it’s highly likely I’d go to sleep one day in the near future and never wake up again. Literally.
Anyway, even longer story short, I was beyond fortunate to receive the best treatment around from this incredible woman. This woman. Nancy. I can’t even describe her. (I am so blessed to have a few such women in my life. The kinds whose love, whose goodness is so potent they are virtually impossible to describe). I am in awe of her. Also of God’s incredible grace I was fortunate to receive through her.
What things in your life that first seemed to be obstacles have actually contributed to this passion and the woman you are today?
Nothing is wasted. You read my story above. Sometimes, when I am feeling low, nothing seems to fit together. Or maybe, it all fits together but I’m lacking the adhesive. Other times, I see so clearly the threads that weave this tapestry together. For example, had I not gone to boarding school and felt ostracized by my peers and professors, I may not have been anorexic. Had I not been anorexic, I may not have received treatment, or met Nancy, and I may not have been able to leave my role in New York to pursue (what I perceive as my calling in) clinical social work.
"Standing alone, these things feel like losses. Strung together, they tell a beautiful story of redemption and grace."
If you could say one thing to all women, what would it be?
"You are radiant."
Living her calling amongst the angels at Fra-Zee Dream Center