Happy Gals

TW: substance abuse, graphic descriptions, self-harm.

Episode 10 is a chat with Devon Johnson, a British-Jamaican actor and writer with a complicated history of eating disorders and laxative abuse. Devon is the first male guest on the podcast and he's incredibly inspiring in the way he breaks the silence around the difficulties of men suffering from eating disorders. Starting from the pressure of his child actor career all the way to the compulsive obsession for weight loss products as a teenager, Devon breaks down the way our capitalistic society and multi-million dollar companies actually gain money from preying on our insecurities. 

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TW: sexual abuse, victim blaming and trauma.

Episode 10 is a chat with Annie Wade Smith, a charity mental health worker specialising in abuse survivors. She also has a background in curve modelling. Today we chat about the stereotypes associated with "professional women", but also go into detail about her experience learning about trauma and helping her patients address it. Annie explains all the insidious ways trauma can manifest and addresses our cultural issues with victim blaming. 

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Episode 9 is a chat with Amee Tahir, a poet, writer and Instragram ambassador for body positivity. Aimee can be found at @aimeetahir and @thewayshespoke, an account solely dedicated to her poetry. Today we talk about the liberation from beauty norms through her ambassador work, brands that address issues such as chafing, but also about her experience with feminism as a student and the alarming lack of women authors in school curricula. The podcast includes an exclusive performance of an original poem by Aimee.

Episode 8 is a chat with Jennifer Adler, a feminist German photographer that works primarily with naked models. She runs a successful IG page @fotografin.fraun.feministin, where she showcases her photographs. She deals with many different body shapes and taboo topics such as vaginas and menstruation. Today we talk about the intention behind her slogan "Nudity is not sexual, your gaze is", how she builds a safe space on her sets and the work she has done to unlearn her white and cis privilege. 

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Episode 7 is a chat with Juliette from Linear Bodies, a rather new yet extremely successful instagram account where Juliette showcases her linear drawings of diverse naked women. She has just recently opened up a shop and is now taking commissions and selling prints. What's funny though is that Juliette is actually a musician (we can't tell you who, she's keeping it a secret) with a very established following. During the lockdown, she decided to step away from the negativity of her feed and sat with her body-related discomfort, which led to the creation of Linear Bodies. Today we talk about the risks and demands of online marketing, the power of reconsidering our aspirations and how to address our unhealthy relationship with social media.

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Episode 6 is a chat with Sarah Bryan, who runs @kindfulbodymind. Sarah is a mental health and body image coach from Melbourne, Australia. She supports clients who are struggling with negative body image by using a non-diet  approach and, instead, helps them focus on reframing their mindset and beliefs about themselves and their bodies. She is an eating disorder survivor herself and today we discuss binge eating and the struggle of getting a diagnosis in the face of medical discrimination. 

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Episode 4 is a chat with Elena Carraro.  Elena worked as Happy Gals' make-up artist but in her everyday life she is a therapist with a BA and Master degree in psychology. She has worked in the UK as well as in Italy. She runs an Italian Youtube channel @elenac. where she discusses topics surrounding psychology.  Today we discuss eating disorders: how to spot them, how to recover and the importance of therapy. 

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Episode 3 is a chat with Lucrezia Pollice, an Italian London-based filmmaker. She works as a color assistant for CHEAT mainly on short-form film/commercial content. This year she directed/edited music video “Strip It” which was selected for LIFF, ShortsonTap and for the Italian Directors Guild AIR3.  Today we discuss her work on the music video, the stigma around body hair and how cinema influences our ideas around beauty. 

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Episode 2 is a chat with Benedetta Lo Zito, a fellow Italian in London, Feminist and Body Positivity Lecturer, Social Media Strategist and Women of Brixton Co-founder. She's the face behind popular IG accounts @vitadibi and @WomenofBrixton. Today we discuss the need to call out hate, how diet culture has become an intrinsic part of our society and how healthy boundaries can make life easier when dealing with fatphobia. 

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Episode 1 is a chat with Rachel Vogler about her experience as a fat person eating out in restaurants and taking up more space than society sees fit. Rachel works in sexual violence  prevention but can mainly be found in the pub, dancing to Lizzo or  swimming in open water. She is the proud owner of a TEDx talk, 'Shame  and Me: Adventures in Fat Land' and mum to a brand new arrival, @FatChicksRunning on Instagram.
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