Writer, Entrepreneur, Scientist & Health Activist
Hi, I’m Kristina
I’ve always been a little “different”. I am freakishly intuitive and have often been told I feel too much. I have synesthesia, which means my brain fires colors at me all day long. Since childhood, I’ve been too multi-passionate to fit into one box, despite society’s constant urge to squeeze me into one. I am happiest halved-one foot on each shore of the ocean, half a heart in science, half in art. I am based in Montreal, in Canada’s French-speaking province of Québec, where I was raised by Armenian parents who immigrated from Egypt. Since my teens, I’ve suffered greatly from endometriosis, an underestimated and misunderstood health condition that the global medical system consistently fails to recognize and treat. Endometriosis does not only affect one’s uterus but every facet of one’s life and identity.
These traits have had a huge impact on how I navigate this world and fit into it. I constantly feel the magic and curse of being an outlier.
My path has been unconventional. I earned a PhD in neurolinguistics and conducted innovative research on the multilingual brain. My research led me to travel widely and to live abroad, learning new languages, filling journals, and discovering photography. I created a travel photography shop and wrote pieces for blogs (when I should have spent every waking moment on my thesis). I fell in love with the flexibility and drama of entrepreneurship.
But life got messy, as it tends to do.
My physical and mental health unraveled, tired of being ignored for so long. I had to redefine my life completely, from my daily choices to the way I advocate for change for myself and others. I founded a community to help break stigmas and isolation, and unexpectedly became an activist fighting for an inclusive world where vulnerable populations are not marginalized in healthcare and where success is not equated with cookie-cutter career paths, motherhood, or conventional brains.
Above and beneath all else, I’m a writer.
Author of UNREMARKABLE
Unremarkable: Life with my Brain and Uterus is a genre-blending memoir manifesto about an unconventional and neurodivergent young scientist who must rebuild her life completely, on her own terms, after it is completely derailed by endometriosis, medical trauma, and barriers she faces in academia and society. It is a universal story of learning to thrive and to belong, while being simultaneously inhabited by grief and joy. Appealing to both healing and healthy readers, the story challenges our damaging societal constructs of disability, motherhood, gender, race, toxic positivity, and mental health. It is about healing, without being cured, and honoring our differences, intuition and imperfections.
To request the proposal and manuscript for Unremarkable, please get in touch.
“Waiting for healing sometimes felt like lying on my back waiting to catch a glimpse of a shooting star. I’d stare, wide-eyed, convinced I’d seen one from the corner of my eye, then doubting I had.”
Kristina Kasparian, Unremarkable
I founded The Alba Journals, a community gathering those navigating what it means to live (un)diagnosed. Part love letter, part conversation, the newsletter is an exploration of being, healing, and belonging in a way that feels authentic to each of us.
I’m a regular contributor to publications and media articles about travel, life in academia, mental health, entrepreneurship, multiculturalism, life balance, reproductive health, chronic pain, and gender bias in medicine. I’ve taught writing to graduate students and bloggers. I’ve authored scientific publications about the brain’s ability to juggle languages and have given more presentations than I can count. I am a freelance copywriter, editor and translator offering consulting and writing services to academics and companies eager to change the world with their message.
Other Projects
WRITING
I write about
the pursuit of a fulfilling life,
neurodiversity,
being childfree by choice,
medical gaslighting, academia,
mindfulness, travel, entrepreneurship, and more.
SPEAKING
I speak about
all the same topics
that I write about,
but with a lot more preparation
and practice, very cold hands,
and a big nervous knot
in my stomach.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I take pictures of
breathtaking places,
ordinary moments,
and everything in between
as a form of mindfulness and poetry, and an ode
to color and feelings.
Kristina Kasparian, Author, Scientist, Endometriosis Advocate 