This week we welcome Melanie C. Klein, M.A., empowerment coach, respected thought leader and influencer in the areas of body confidence, authentic empowerment, and visibility to the show in our newest episode, “A Journey of Purpose.”

Tune in to learn about the role of societal power, what it means to have agency, autonomy, and sovereignty of one’s body, yoga and empowerment, body image resilience, media literacy, diversifying media’s narrative, making room for ageism and ableism, and more.

Melanie C. Klein, M.A., is a sought-after empowerment coach, respected thought leader and influencer in the areas of body confidence, authentic empowerment, and visibility. Attributing yoga and feminism as her two primary influences, Melanie has been in the business of empowering women since 1994. With over 20 years experience and notable credits including advising the Santa Monica College Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, working closely with Global Girl Media and running the LA chapter of Women, Action and the Media; she has dedicated her passion, knowledge and coaching skillset to the empowerment of innumerable women through increasing confidence, self-esteem and worth. Based on over two decades of professional and personal work, Melanie integrates her backgrounds in mindfulness and embodied wisdom with her academic expertise and advocacy work. In this way, she offers a holistic and unique pathway to personal freedom and prosperity, one that is customized designed to each individual.

As an empowerment coach she is committed to raising consciousness, communal collaboration and facilitating the healing of distorted body images to promote positive body relationships; thus empowering female thought leaders, entrepreneurs, renegades, executive leaders, or anyone ready to step into their greatness, to make their voices heard and take new action in the world.

She is also a successful and highly acclaimed writer, speaker, and professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies. Her areas of interest and specialty include media literacy education, body image, and the intersectional analysis of systems of power and privilege.

She is the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery + Loving Your Body (Llewellyn, 2014) with Anna Guest-Jelley, a contributor in 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice (Horton & Harvey, 2012), is featured in Conversations with Modern Yogis (Shroff, 2014), a featured writer in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Mindful Living (Llewellyn, 2016), co-editor of Yoga, the Body and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis with Dr. Beth Berila and Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body (Llewellyn, 2018) and the co-editor of the new forthcoming anthology, Embodied Resilience through Yoga (Llewellyn, 2020).

Her work has been featured in outlets such as Yoga Journal, Yoga International, Mind Body Green, Mantra Yoga + Health Magazine as well as Gaiam and the National Eating Disorders Association.

She co-founded the Yoga and Body Image Coalition in 2014. She has been practicing yoga and meditation since 1996 and currently lives in Santa Monica, CA.