Jenny Mollen Says ‘No’ Has Lost Its Power Over Her—It ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything Anymore’
The actress says her dyslexia and decades of rejection taught her that every no is just the beginning of a journey
Key Takeaways
- Mollen says growing up with dyslexia forced her to work twice as hard and built her resilience.
- After years of rejection Mollen says the word no has completely lost its power over her.
- Mollen reframes every setback as the jumping off point of a hero's journey toward a happy end.
If the word “no” still has the power to stop you in your tracks, Jenny Mollen has a message that might just change everything. The actress, author and social media personality has built her career on being told she couldn’t, shouldn’t or wouldn’t—and then doing it anyway.
In a recent appearance on the podcast What Matters with Liz Mollen opened up about why failure no longer scares her, how a learning disability shaped her resilience and why every great story needs a setback before the triumph. Her perspective is one so many of us can relate to, especially those who have spent decades hearing that we’re too much, not enough or simply in the wrong lane.
For Mollen, those moments of rejection weren’t roadblocks. They were the beginning.
Watch Episode 15 right here! ‘What Matters with Jenny Mollen: Connection, Humor & Grit’
How a learning disability built her resilience
Mollen has been candid about the challenges she faced growing up with dyslexia, a learning disability that affects reading and language processing. For her, the struggle to keep up academically planted the seeds of a work ethic that would carry her through a creative career full of uncertainty.
“I’m fine with failing,” Mollen said. “I think it comes from having a learning disability, feeling like I had to just work twice as hard.”
That doubled effort, she explained, didn’t just build skills. It built a thicker skin. When you’re already used to pushing harder than your peers just to stay even, the sting of being told you’re not good enough starts to fade.
“I think it also comes from being rejected so many times,” she said. “I’ve been told no so many times that no doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s lost its power.”
For anyone who has ever taken a chance—applying for a new job, pitching a creative project, putting yourself out there in midlife—that idea of rejection losing its power can be truly liberating. It reframes “no” not as the end of a story, but as a routine part of any worthwhile pursuit.
Why every “no” is the start of a hero’s journey
Mollen’s perspective draws on a familiar storytelling concept: the hero’s journey. In nearly every great tale, the protagonist faces hardship, rejection or seemingly impossible odds before reaching their triumph. Without the obstacle, there’s no transformation.
“So, I’m just like, who cares? Who cares?” Mollen said. “What is the worst thing that can happen? They say no. That’s like the jumping off point. That’s the beginning of any good hero’s journey.”
She continued: “Because I want the story, I’m like, I have to have the no. I have to have that initial hardship, rejection, that insurmountable odd so that I can slay the dragon and have my fairy tale ending.”
That reframe—viewing setbacks as the opening chapter rather than the closing one—is something women in their 40s, 50s and beyond often arrive at through hard-earned experience. By midlife, most of us have collected our share of nos: jobs we didn’t get, relationships that didn’t work out, dreams that were deferred or rerouted entirely. What Mollen describes is the moment those nos stop feeling like personal verdicts and start feeling like plot points in a much bigger story.
Your fairy tale ending might be closer than you think
The takeaway from Mollen’s conversation isn’t that failure is fun or that rejection doesn’t sting. It’s that the meaning we assign to those experiences is within our control. We can treat a no as a closed door, or we can treat it as the inciting incident in a bigger story we’re still writing.
For women who feel like they’ve spent too long waiting for permission—to start the business, write the book, take the class, leave the relationship or try the thing—Mollen’s words are an invitation to keep going. The rejections you’ve already collected aren’t proof that you should stop. They might just be the setup for your fairy tale ending.
As Mollen put it: “I have to have that initial hardship, rejection, that insurmountable odds so that I can slay the dragon.”
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is decide that no is just the beginning.
What Matters with Liz airs every Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts, with highlights and behind-the-scenes clips shared on Instagram and Facebook.
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