Born Early: What My Story Taught Me About Self-Talk

by Luisa Hogan

I was born three months premature. 44 years ago, that was a much bigger deal than it is today (and it’s still a big deal today). I weighed about 900 grams and you can see how small my actual hospital leg band was in the picture below. I wasn’t expected to survive.

But my mother kept telling everyone I wasn’t going to die.

She said it out loud, over and over. She held her belief tightly, even when everything around her was fragile and uncertain. And she would repeat this to my brother Carlos and sister Tania (now also business partner). I’m sure people called my mother unrealistic or thought she was clutching at straws. But she held strong. I spent months in hospital attached to tubes, machines, and monitors. But more than anything else, I was surrounded by people who believed in me- my family. 

That belief came before my first words and before my first breath without help. Before I could speak for myself, others were speaking strength into the space around me.
And somehow—I think I heard them because I am here to tell the story today.

I still haven’t outgrown being impatient- nothing happens fast enough for me. I was eager to get out into the world and have been pushing ever since. Being born early became a kind of story about me. A personality marker.

“She was impatient to get out", my mother always says. And she shares how I grew up fast. My first words came early. I walked before I was one. I rushed (and I still do) with hitting milestones.

But here’s what I’m learning now: Even the driven ones—the ones who come out of the gate early, eyes wide and ready—need gentle words inside.

The kind that say:
“You’re allowed to slow down.”
“You don’t have to earn your worth.”
“You’re not behind. You’re right on time.”

These are some of the affirmations I repeat to myself when life and business feels like it’s moving too slowly around me. Self-talk isn’t just a practice. It's Protection. When life gets loud, when I get impatient, when I feel like I should be further ahead, I come back to knowing that just like when I was a micro-baby, I am alive, I am well, I am loved.

And I remember that the words surrounding me then weren’t about doing more. They were about staying here. Breathing. Becoming.

So when my inner critic pipes up with:
❌ “You’re falling behind.”
❌ “Why isn’t it happening faster?”
❌ “You should’ve done more by now.”

I try to answer with:
✅ “You’re still here.”
✅ “You’ve done enough for today.”
✅ “You’re still becoming.”

The people who loved me whispered life into me when I couldn’t do it for myself. Now it’s my turn. I get to be the one who chooses the words. Who notices when the tone gets harsh. Who softens the inner voice, not because everything’s perfect—but because I remember how powerful a whispered belief can be. I believe in being kind to the version of me who's still growing. And that’s why my sister and I started Whisper & Thread. 

What’s one belief someone held about you—early on—that you’d like to carry forward in your own self-talk today? Share in the comments!