Monique Rodriguez—who has had to embrace turning pain into purpose and the beauty in becoming—now wants to help others find the glory in their stories.

On Tuesday, April 15, the Mielle Organics founder made her debut as an author with the release of “The Glory in Your Story: Activating a Fearless Faith to Change Your Life, Your Career, and the World.” The book, which is part memoir and part self-help, chronicles her life, career, journey with faith, and how she’s turned tragedy into a testimony and continues to find the beauty in her own story.

“I think when people look at me, and they look at the story, it looks like an overnight success,” Rodriguez told theGrio during an interview ahead of the book’s release. “You see the glory, but you don’t know the story.”

“It was a lot of hard work, lots of sweat and tears, a lot of faith, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain. And that’s why I say, like, don’t ever, you know, be jealous of someone else’s story because you probably wouldn’t have wanted to go through what they went through to get to where they are today,” she said.

Rodriguez founded the now iconic haircare brand Mielle Organics in 2014, growing the business to such heights that it culminated in a historic acquisition by Procter & Gamble in 2023. However, the entire brand came about after she embraced a pivot from nursing and transformed a passion project developed to cope with personal tragedy into a purpose. In her book, the wife and mother of two takes readers back to the fateful night in 2013 when she unexpectedly lost her baby son at eight months pregnant.

Her story, arriving in the middle of Black Maternal Health Week, stands as another example of a woman living on the other side of a tragic and, unfortunately, common experience for Black women.

“As a Black woman, the reality of race-based maternal health disparities is personal and heartbreaking,” she writes in her book. “Too many of us are not heard when we speak up about pain or complications during pregnancy, or we are dismissed by healthcare professionals who overlook our voices and concerns because of biases and stereotypes supported by their textbooks. This erasure costs lives — both of mothers and babies.”

While speaking to theGrio, Rodriguez, who now lives in South Florida with her husband and two daughters, said, “The Glory in Your Story” brings readers in close. From the tragic passing of her son that propelled her to launch Mielle Organics to growing up in Chicago and falling in love with her childhood sweetheart to being the daughter of a father who struggled with dependency, readers are let in on it all. Yes, she even addresses the controversy her brand has faced. She said writing the book was “cathartic.” 

“It was like a therapy for me because I told stories that I’ve never talked about before, stories that my husband didn’t even know,” she noted.

Her ideal reader is anyone who wants to feel empowered to take the next step in realizing their dreams.

“Someone that is in search of hope, someone that’s in search of wisdom,” she said, adding that it’s for those who want to “take their dream, their vision, their idea, out of their head, and actually bring that idea to fruition.”

Her book is also for those searching for a “deeper understanding and connection” in their relationship with God.

“You have the faith sector, but you also have the business entrepreneurial sector,” she explained.

Her book is also for her younger self. “The Glory in Your Story” kicks off with Rodriguez addressing her younger self in a warm and inviting way. She said she started there because, in a sense, her book is advice for that younger self.

“We always look back, and we look over our life and we think back to some advice that you would give someone [who] was you 20 years ago,” she said.

“If you’re reading this and you’re 20 years old, or, you know, if you’re 15 years old, this is what I would have told myself,” she continued. “So I think that starting there, the book is all about helping people also learn from my mistakes and advice that I wish I would have known when I was younger.” 

Ever the entrepreneur, Rodriguez is looking forward to seeing where this book takes her, whether that’s another book project, a movie, or even a series. By telling her story and helping others identify the glory in their own, “The book was the first milestone,” she said.