One mama’s response to a hurting church and world

Leah Darrow—international speaker, author, and host of the Do Something Beautiful Podcast—has announced registration for one of the first online learning programs for Catholic women. 

“Do something beautiful for God. Do it with your life. Do it everyday. Do it in your own way. Just do it.” – Mother Teresa

Every week for three years, Leah Darrow, mom of four (plus one on the way) has hosted a podcast interviewing someone who is doing something beautiful. She has a driving passion to inspire women, in particular, to do something beautiful with their lives to help make the world a better place.

Now, she’s taken this passion a step further, developing an online program and a new app aimed at helping women discover and share their gifts with the world by informing, inspiring, and empowering them in their faith. 

“Be a light in the world.”

Leah herself is a former Next Top Model contestant, who felt empty in her life as a model and wasn’t happy until she experienced a reversion back to her Catholic faith. Because it happened to her, Leah knows just how easy it is to lose sight of who you are and who you’re made to be.

Her life’s work has since been dedicated to helping women in this way—to recognize their self-worth and identity as daughters of God.

“Women have a special role in being a light to others,” Leah explained. “But you need to see the light in yourself to be able to share it with the world.” 

This is where Leah wants to help. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, working mom, young professional, entrepreneur, student, or anything in-between, she believes that you can do something beautiful and make a big impact on those around you.

Women have a special role in being a light to others, but you need to see the light in yourself to be able to share it with the world.

“I want to help you know your faith better so that you feel empowered to share it with others—maybe it’s just your spouse, your family, or it’s in your community.” 

The inspiration behind LuxU

“It all started with a dream,” Leah shared with Everyday Mamas.

In 2008, Leah was on her way home sitting on a Southwest flight when she started sketching out her dreams on the back of a napkin. 

“I remember sitting on that flight, and thinking about all these dreams I had,” she said, one of which was a strong passion for her Catholic faith and finding ways that she could share it with others. “I wanted to connect Catholic women all over the world. But I wondered: how I do this? How can I provide a way to both educate and connect them?”

At this point, she had recently begun her career as a speaker to young women. She spent a lot of time listening to what young women were saying—what they were looking for and what they needed. Over and over again, she heard that they were looking to know more about their faith and searching for a stronger faith-based community. 

“I felt God place this desire on my heart, and I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but this is where the idea got started.” 

As the years went by, she continued to think through this idea and pray about it, and as technology continued to evolve, she realized that the best way to make a program accessible to women all over would be to put it online.

“I wanted to give women easy access to the information they needed to become the leaders Christ made them to be,” she said, and an online community would be a resource at their fingertips. 

A community through courses on the faith

Today, Leah is thrilled to see LuxU, the product of her dreams and years of work, finally become a reality. She launched LuxU earlier this year—and there is no other program out there like it.

LuxU courses are composed of weekly video lessons and worksheets to accompany the lessons. The courses are meant for members to do at their own pace—with a new lesson released each week. In these video lessons, a variety of speakers, professors, authors and religious, are featured each specializing on various relevant topics.

There is also an opportunity to discuss and comment on the lessons as well. “By encouraging dialogue in this way,” Leah explained, “it provides a safe space for women to discuss their thoughts about what they are learning.” 

Over the summer, the LuxU team has been hard at work developing an app for the program to serve as the primary platform. The app will provide a more user-friendly experience, making it easier to communicate with other members in the program and the courses even more accessible.

The Lux U app will offer live weekly Prayer that includes live Sunday gospel reflections from Priests, a Community platform that easily allows women to connect with others and even find other Catholic women in their own city, Formation through the Lux University courses and News (coming soon). 

“Our Lux app allows you to meet other like-minded women from all over the world, who are there to support you along the way,” Leah explained. “This provides you with a great faith-based community so you won’t ever feel like you’re walking this journey alone.”

Especially in our world today, as women seek to find their voices and use them to make the world a better place, the Lux U app serves as an invaluable resource providing encouragement and support specifically for women. 

The Lux U app will be available for download on October 1st, and details for signing up can be found on her website.

“It’s my hope that because of LuxU, you’ll be better equipped to become more active in sharing your faith, wherever it might be,” Leah said. “We hope you’ll join us.”  

To find out more about LuxU and the membership options offered, please visit Leah’s website and follow her on Instagram @leah.darrow, where she regularly shares updates and details!