Rewired Sober

What happens when life strips away the things you thought made you valuable?

In this episode, I sit down with model, author, breast cancer survivor, and executive producer Christine Handy, whose bestselling novel Walk Beside Me was inspired by her own experience with breast cancer and has now been adapted into the feature film Hello Beautiful.

Starring Tricia Helfer, Hello Beautiful follows Willow, a successful model whose breast cancer diagnosis disrupts not only her body and health, but her sense of identity, beauty, relationships, and self-worth. The film is officially headed to theaters nationwide on September 25, 2026.

But this conversation isn’t simply about surviving cancer.

Christine began modeling at just 11 years old, entering an industry where appearance wasn’t only noticed—it had value. We talk about what happens when a woman learns to see herself through other people’s eyes, and what it takes to rebuild an identity when the external validation you’ve relied upon no longer feels solid.

Christine shares a phrase I absolutely love: “I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a vine.”

We explore what that actually means—not pretending that terrible things don’t happen, but learning how to grow around the things we cannot change.

We also talk about beauty after illness, aging and visibility, the complicated relationship women have with our bodies, and whether it’s possible to enjoy fashion and beauty without asking our appearance to prove our worth.

And we get into something I think deserves a much bigger conversation: Have we turned resilience into yet another expectation for women?

Sometimes life is devastating. Sometimes we’re angry. Sometimes we don’t need to immediately turn pain into gratitude, purpose, personal growth, or an inspirational fucking Instagram post.

Christine and I talk about making room for that reality while still choosing hope.

We also discuss the surreal experience of seeing your own life transformed first into a book and then into a film—and how Christine keeps breast cancer from becoming another identity she has to live inside.

Because ultimately this episode is about something much bigger than illness.

It’s about identity after disruption.

Who are we when the roles, bodies, careers, relationships, or identities we’ve depended upon change?

And instead of desperately trying to become who we were before, what if we allow ourselves to become someone new?

In this episode we discuss:

• Christine’s journey from modeling at age 11 to redefining beauty and self-worth
• Her breast cancer experience and the identity shift that followed
• “Be a vine, not a victim”
• Beauty as pleasure versus beauty as proof of worth
• Women’s bodies, femininity, aging, and visibility
• Returning to modeling with a changed body
• Why resilience shouldn’t require pretending everything is okay
• The pressure on women to turn adversity into inspiration
• The difference between allowing an experience to shape you and allowing it to define you
• Turning Walk Beside Me into Hello Beautiful
• Who Christine is beyond the labels of model, patient, survivor, author, and advocate

ABOUT HELLO BEAUTIFUL

Inspired by Christine Handy’s novel Walk Beside Me, Hello Beautiful stars Tricia Helfer and is written and directed by Ziad H. Hamzeh. Christine serves as an executive producer.

After screenings and recognition on the film-festival circuit, Hello Beautiful has been acquired by Freestyle Releasing and will open in theaters nationwide September 25, 2026.

This isn’t a story about cancer being the end of someone’s life.

It’s about what comes next.

Learn more about Christine and Hello Beautiful:

Christine Handy: www.christinehandy.com

Instagram: @christinehandy1

Hello Beautiful: In theaters September 25, 2026

Trailer: https://youtu.be/fVw3xG426-c?si=PhLyEAYtxzsiwfEn