What About Women Intro Statement

This transcript was auto-generated by Substack and may contain errors.(00:00:01):I'm Erika,(00:00:02):and I started this because I think we have an opportunity to talk about a lot of(00:00:05):things.(00:00:05):It's a hobby.(00:00:06):I have another job.(00:00:07):I work in finance.(00:00:09):But I really wanted to try to open up more of a discussion.(00:00:15):I don't want to be teaching and instructing all the time.(00:00:18):I don't feel like I know enough about things to be telling people how things work.(00:00:24):The only thing that I'm able to share are my own experiences.(00:00:27):But...(00:00:29):More than that,(00:00:29):I think that often we're taught not to talk about health,(00:00:33):not to talk about mental health,(00:00:35):not to ask questions.(00:00:38):How many of you have been to the doctor and the doctor has said, oh, have you been on WebMD?(00:00:43):You know, where they kind of dismiss whatever you come in with.(00:00:47):And I think that's wrong.(00:00:49):And I think that if we have more discussions,(00:00:52):if we stop treating some of these things like taboo,(00:00:55):if we stop treating some of these things like challenging topics,(00:01:01):then we can open up discussions and help each other,(00:01:03):not just with health and mental health,(00:01:06):but with physical fitness,(00:01:07):with aging,(00:01:08):with relationships,(00:01:09):with maybe giving ourselves a little bit more forgiveness and grace.(00:01:14):At the end of the day, parenting challenges.(00:01:17):If you have kids,(00:01:18):relationship challenges,(00:01:19):whether you're single or married,(00:01:22):I think that having that kind of community and having discussions around it is(00:01:26):really helpful.(00:01:28):And I think that what's not helpful is when people are taught that they shouldn't(00:01:31):be talking about things.(00:01:32):I think that there are influencers that will talk to you about traveling and(00:01:36):they'll talk to you about the clothes that you wear or the things that you should(00:01:40):eat or the way you should work out.(00:01:42):And all of it is really(00:01:45):clean and sanitized and perfect.(00:01:49):And it's more an image that's trying to sell you a lifestyle brand more than it is(00:01:56):an authentic discussion.(00:01:57):So I want to talk about all these topics like perimenopause and the horrible symptoms of(00:02:04):Um,(00:02:04):of all the things that women go through,(00:02:07):because I think it just is like a brick wall when you slam into it sometimes.(00:02:12):And if we can all ready each other by sharing our experiences for all the things(00:02:17):that we encounter in life,(00:02:18):then maybe we'll all be better off for it.(00:02:21):You know?(00:02:23):When I was in junior high,(00:02:24):middle school,(00:02:26):I definitely made some poor makeup decisions,(00:02:30):might have worn the wrong lipstick shade.(00:02:32):I think at one point in time, I bought some blue mascara because I thought that would be cute.(00:02:38):I had a haircut one time that really looked like a mushroom,(00:02:41):which is not ideal with a strong jawline.(00:02:45):Don't get me wrong, the girl did a great haircut.(00:02:48):I chose a haircut that wasn't really meant for my head shape.(00:02:52):And I had a friend that called me mushroom head for a while.(00:02:55):Now you look at girls that are the same age and they look better than I looked even(00:03:01):into my 20s because they have influencers that help them with their aesthetic,(00:03:06):that teach them how to do makeup.(00:03:08):They're more on trends with their fashion.(00:03:11):And my thought is,(00:03:14):why can't we have a better womanhood by sharing the same kind of quality tips with(00:03:22):each other and learning from each other?(00:03:24):So my goal is really to drag everyone from over to Substack where everything is(00:03:32):open and it's free because this is just a hobby.(00:03:34):And for us just to have a dialogue around different topics,(00:03:38):we can create a group chat if you'll want,(00:03:40):or when I post different topics,(00:03:42):you're welcome to comment,(00:03:44):discuss things in the comments.(00:03:46):And maybe we can learn things from each other.(00:03:48):Give me feedback on what you want to learn about, what you want to talk about.(00:03:52):If you have something that you've gone through, let's discuss it.(00:03:56):And that really is what I want to try to...(00:03:59):build with everyone here.(00:04:02):I know nothing about medicine.(00:04:04):The only thing I know is based on my own experience.(00:04:07):So if I add something here,(00:04:10):it's just based on what I've learned,(00:04:12):on the mistakes I made and not advocating for myself correctly or not knowing that(00:04:16):I should be advocating for myself correctly.(00:04:20):And the years that I went through of difficulty in dealing with that and how long(00:04:27):it took me to recover afterwards,(00:04:29):These are the kinds of things I want people to share because people don't always(00:04:34):expect to enter perimenopause when they're in their mid thirties,(00:04:38):but it happens.(00:04:39):And there are all these other things that we can talk about.(00:04:42):We can talk about relationships.(00:04:43):We can talk about fitness.(00:04:44):We can talk about parenting.(00:04:47):If you've got kids, if you can't hear the dog snoring, it's a miracle.(00:04:53):I just talk about divorce.(00:04:56):People go through all these things(00:04:58):It would be so nice to have a place where women can talk openly and not feel like(00:05:03):what they're discussing is taboo.(00:05:06):And so give feedback and let's all learn together.(00:05:09):But I wanted to make this video just to explain to you exactly what I'm trying to(00:05:15):accomplish right now,(00:05:16):what my goal is,(00:05:17):and see how we can move forward.(00:05:21):So anyway, I'm Erika.(00:05:22):Nice to meet you.(00:05:24):And I hope that we have lots of opportunities to talk about things down the road. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whataboutwomen.substack.com