Simone Gordon was a young single mother with a nonverbal autistic son and no job when she turned to Facebook and asked a simple question: can anyone help? Four women answered. One called a hospital. One paid off a community college debt. One showed up with a Chromebook. That small, improbable circle of women became the seed of the Black Fairy Godmother Foundation, and Simone has been building on it ever since.

In this conversation, HeatherAsh and Simone talk about what it really took to go from desperate to determined, why the structure of giving matters as much as the giving itself, and how Simone learned — after a chronic illness, two volunteer deaths, and a public breakdown — that you cannot sustain a movement by running yourself into the ground.

This one is worth sitting with. Simone's voice is steady and real, and there's a lot of truth in it about what women carry, what we're afraid to ask for, and what becomes possible when someone finally says: I see you. I care.

Episode Highlights:

1. How a Facebook post in 2016 started what would become a 10-year nonprofit
2. Why Medicaid puts children with disabilities to the bottom of hospital waitlists — and what Simone did about it
3. The thinking behind the wish list, the Christmas Angel program, and why dignity drives every program design
4. What makes marginalized women say "no, thank you" to free help — and what that tells us about shame
5. Simone's chronic illness, losing two close volunteers, and the moment she stopped being a people pleaser
6. The new rebrand: named programs, rest days, and giving flowers to the women who built it with her
7. Why three minutes of conversation can genuinely change someone's life

Resources & Links:

• Learn more about Simone and the Black Fairy Godmother Foundation:theblackfairygodmother.org
• Follow Simone on Instagram:@theblackfairygodmotherofficial

Meet Simone Gordon

Simone Gordon is the founder of the Black Fairy Godmother Foundation, a New Jersey-based 501(c)(3) that has distributed over $250,000 directly to families in need and served thousands of women since 2015. She has appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Good Morning America, and The Daily Blast LIVE. She is also a nursing student, a domestic violence survivor, and a mother — and she will tell you, without flinching, that none of those things are separate from each other.