Episode 298 - Davia Esther Bunch & Miranda Sturce Turning Care Into Careers: Holding Space & Healing Skin

Episode 298 of Where Brains Meet Beauty is one of the most emotional and human conversations of the season. Celebrity Esthetician Miranda Sturce and creator, former Miss South Carolina and Bachelor alum Davia Esther Bunch join the show for a raw discussion on ambition, burnout, healing and finding your way back to yourself.

Miranda shares how caring for others has been part of her identity since childhood, soothing her father’s hands after long labor-filled days. That instinct led her into luxury hotel spas and ultimately her own practice, where touch becomes both artistry and therapy. She talks openly about the emotional weight of being a solo esthetician, the pressure to hold everyone together and the importance of slowing down long enough to feel your own feelings.

Davia’s story mirrors Miranda’s in surprising ways. She trained for years to become a professional ballet dancer, performed in Russia, then had to walk away after injury. That loss spun into pageants, where she won Miss South Carolina and went on to compete at Miss America. Then came The Bachelor, a move that gave her visibility but also forced her to face everything she had been running from. Now she balances content creation with a full-time beauty marketing role, and she speaks candidly about negotiating fair rates, unlearning people-pleasing and finding grounding in storytelling. Her newest dream: writing a memoir, one memory and one messy truth at a time.

Together, Miranda and Davia explore what it means to hustle without losing yourself, how to stay human in an industry built on performance and the quiet courage of asking for a pause when emotions break through. It’s a reminder that careers anchored in care require caring for yourself too.