About Sarah

Sarah Gallucci (Ga-lu-chi) is an author, journalist, professor, and TEDx speaker. She has documented her discovery of sexuality and agency in the memoir, LAID: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Marriage.

She dismantles the ideas of what a “good” woman and “good wife” should look like and how they should be loved, in order to be chosen. She has written reported features and essays for The Atlantic, CNN, Harper’s Bazaar, The Washington Post, Business Insider, among 100 + publications.

A bold speaker, she delivered the powerful TEDx talk “Better Humaning with AI.” She also gave the TEDx talk “Not Sorry” on the stage in New Delhi, India encouraging women to use their unapologetic voices. She’s been interviewed on over 50 podcasts, YouTube shows, TV and radio shows, and panels.

Sarah knows the power of an authentic voice firsthand and has made it her mission to help others harness theirs.

Sarah teaches writers, professionals, and leaders how to transform their words into influence and change. Through narrative storytelling and engaging workshops she makes the observed- felt, real, and put into words for others to be transformed and heal.

Sarah Gallucci spent her girlhood trying to numb the pain of abandonment and violence through drugs, booze, boys, and sex. Now pregnant and newly married, she thinks she is building a more perfect life - until the traumatic births of her two children, just over two years apart, turn everything upside down. Overwhelmed by the crushing responsibilities of motherhood and pressure of performing her “wifely duties,” she gets angry and starts to rebel. Gallucci takes matters into her own hands, offering her husband a hall pass, an invitation to sleep with other women. The hall pass gives her a break from gender expectations, allowing her to connect with herself more, but ultimately leads to more disconnection in the marriage. She keeps up appearances, even moving abroad for her husband’s job, pretending everything is fine. When the real reason behind the hall pass comes out, her marriage starts to fall apart even more - pushing love, trust, healing, freedom, and forgiveness to their absolute edge.

Laid is a raw, powerful look at how our culture traps women in the roles of wife and mother, piling on unfair physical, mental, and sexual expectations. Gallucci draws from her own life to explore what women face in today’s world - the violence they endure, the anger they hold inside and how their bodies often end up screaming it before their mouths do. Ultimately, it’s about rejecting the pressure to always be the “good woman,” “good wife,” and “good mother” to reclaim your own life and agency.

Reviews for LAID

“Raw, brutal, brave, real, gorgeous writing. Sarah grows up witnessing dysfunctional heteronormative relationships and goes on to get married early and have two kids back to back. She struggles with the expectation to be the perfect mother and wife and cook meals every day and be skinny and want to have sex every night. Not ever figuring out who she is or facing her past trauma, everything implodes.” - Paria Hassouri

“I could not put this book down. Sarah writes with raw, unbridled emotion and honesty that hits the soul. Regardless of your martial status, sexual preference, whether you're a parent or not, this book is poignant and true. Read it and then share it with your friends, and then keep on sharing it.”- Jacqueline Parker

“I felt the anger, the despair, and the hope. This book made me live them all. This story awakened something dormant in me and made me reflect more deeply on my own relationships with the world, with men, and with myself.” - Ana