What I Learned When Comparison Made Me Want to Quit: An Interview with Mariah Hlatywayo

Thanks for listening to Season 1, Episode 8 of The After Dinner Mint podcast. The After Dinner Mint is a podcast of Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner. We bring Christian women in Western Australia together through honest stories.We are interviewing all our regular contributors in Season 1 for you to get to know them better. Mariah is a singer-songwriter and drummer from Perth, Western Australia.In today’s episode, we explore: The joys of writing and performing music, as well as feeling close to God through music. Growing up in a musical family in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a mother who was Catholic and a father who was Pentecostal. In her twenties, Mariah attended a Bible teaching church with her family and came to realise how deeply God loved her. Mariah’s struggles with comparison in relation to her body image and music, and wanting to quit music because of this. She shared how God met her in this and what helps her fight discouragement and comparison. How these periods of struggle have influenced her new EP, I’ll Be Counting Still, releasing in July 2025.You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get podcasts.Check out the show notes for everything mentioned in the show.Mariah is launching her new EP, I’ll Be Counting Still, live at The Ellington on Tuesday 1 July.About MariahMariah Hlatywayo (lutch-why-oh) is a singer-songwriter and drummer from Perth, Western Australia. She grew up in a musical family and enjoys writing, singing and playing songs inspired by her  Christian faith and life experiences. When she is not making music, you can find her teaching music to teenagers, drinking coffee, and annoying Felicity – her fluffy rag-doll cat. Find more at mariahhlatywayo.comWant honest stories from Christian women in Western Australia in your inbox on Wednesdays? Sign up here.Music: Come Back by Ketsa. Licensed under a Creative Commons License Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives 4.0 International License.