Editor’s Letter: Issue 18, Aviva Romm, MD

Dear Best Selfers,

Aviva Romm grew up asking, ‘why?’…and has never stopped. It is this very inquisitive nature of hers that led her to spend a lifetime seeking far and wide and through myriad traditions for answers. Raised in a housing project by a single Mom, she never allowed those circumstances to deter or hinder her desire. At 14 years old she sat down and hand wrote a letter to one of the preeminent medical schools asking to be admitted (not down the road, but then as a teenager).

Aviva is a fascinating, ‘Hippie-at-heart’ powerhouse. To me, she embodies what it truly means to heed the stirrings of ones own soul call. Not afraid to course correct or change direction if necessary, her quest for answers bridged natural healing modalities and modern science.

It was never a quest for right or wrong — it was about truth.

She’s gone from being a doula to a Yale graduate MD, and found a way to roll the wisdom and most powerful essence of them all into her practice, her business, her writings and her life. And when systems and practices failed to provide her with answers that were sufficient to her…well, that 14-year-old moxie within her guided her to find her own. Sometimes that meant going into the system to be recognized by the system.

Her latest focus, beyond an already impressive body of work thus far, targets the adrenal thyroid crisis ravaging the modern day woman and society.

I’ve said this before, but one of my greatest joys is sitting down with our Best Self Magazine features in their own homes and in their own environments. It is truly an honor to be invited into that sanctuary of time and space — the intimate window into an individual’s life journey. This modern day woman hear me roar delighted our team when she pulled out the old photo albums with her crunchy granola hippie beginnings — flowy dresses, long hair with flowers, babies and all. She honors each part of the journey as a badge of courage understanding that it has all led to here, assembled into this rich tapestry.

Somehow she’s refreshingly held onto her ‘whys’ and I can tell you we are all the better for it. I think you will be delighted by her story and even perhaps inspired to tap back into your own ‘whys’ as well. Why not?

~ Kristen

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Return to Issue 18