Today on Vulnerable, I sit down with actress and nurse Jennifer Stone. Jennifer began acting at age six, which led her on a journey where she became Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel Original Series Wizards of Waverly Place. In her early twenties, she was diagnosed with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). She took some time away from acting and went to school and studied nursing. She became a registered nurse in 2020 and joined the ER front lines during the pandemic. Brendan and I were excited to deep dive with Jennifer about how she balances her acting career with her nursing career. In this episode, Jennifer reflects how acting has always been something she was passionate about from a young age. As an adult, she realized that although the art of acting is something she continues to love, she needed to spend time doing something that wasn’t just about her. She didn’t want to become the narcissistic and self-involved side of the industry she was exposed to as a child. Being a nurse has allowed her to continue pursuing acting while grounding herself in the real world.It was so interesting to talk to Jennifer about how acting has informed the way she taps into empathy while navigating the ER, how patients sometimes recognize her, and how she has survived working on the frontlines during the pandemic. This episode highlights how it’s important to cultivate a resource that grounds you and supports your artistic expression. It doesn’t even have to be a career, it could be a mantra, an ethic, a community action, anything that guides you to be more fully you.You can follow Jennifer @jenniferstone on Instagram, Twitter, and @jenniferlstone on TikTok. Follow me, Christy Carlson Romano on Instagram @thechristycarlsonromano and TikTok @christcarlsonromano, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and follow Brendan Rooney on  Instagram @thebrendanrooney and TikTok @brendanrooney.Be sure to follow Vulnerable @thevulnerablepodcast on Instagram and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.