Look What We Did!
Can you believe we reached 100 episodes?! I’m beyond excited, I’m still pinching myself, but I’m also so incredibly proud of what we’ve created and accomplished together.
When I launched this podcast just over three and a half years ago, I didn’t know how many episodes I’d do, or how many girls would listen, or how long I’d keep working on it. I just knew there were important messages girls needed to hear and I wanted to help. If even just one girl heard the podcast and felt better about herself, that would be amazing. Based on the number of downloads thus far (over 850,000), plus the feedback you’ve sent me, I’m overjoyed that thousands of girls, ALL across the world, have benefitted from listening to this podcast.
Talked About Topics
Some episode topics have come up once, but other topics were revisited in multiple episodes–topics like self-love, friendships, body image, stress, social media, gratitude, confidence, families, mental health, self care, coping strategies and asserting yourself.
The most-listened to episode BY FAR is number 01 You Are Enough, with currently more than 106,000 downloads. And I’m so glad that one specifically is the one being heard more than the rest.
I reviewed episode data, and some of your other favorite episodes are:
21 For when you’re sad
15 Manage Stress + 30 Self care for stress
33 Perfectionism
42 Crushes + ships – I’ve had several requests for a part 2
45 Puberty: periods + menstrual cycles – also had requests for more on that.
51 Friendship red flags
Some of MY favorite episodes are:
76 It’s not you, it’s the clothes
99 Don’t get in the box
01 You are enough and 95 You are still enough
Guest Highlights
Here are a few of my favorite moments we’ve had with guests on the podcast:
Ep. 28 No Boundaries with Gabby Salazar: “Persistence, you know, and that to me is the thing that I’d love for girls to take away from this is, even though social media makes it look like everything is easy, you know, life has challenges and being a woman in science and exploration is challenging, but if you’re able to stick with it and overcome those little failures, the payoff is enormous.”
Ep. 036 Turn Confrontations into Conversations with Sharon McMahon: “You cannot lose what you do not play. I can’t lose a hockey game today because I’m not playing a hockey game today, right? I cannot lose a game I am not playing. And so refusing to play the game, refusing to get into the arguments means you cannot lose the argument. So you’re not a loser if you refuse to play. You cannot lose what you are not playing.”
Ep. 029 Reclaim the Rebel with Lizzy Cangro: “I think the diet industry is founded on this belief of “not enough.” You’re not pretty enough. You’re not skinny enough. You’re not fit enough. So the idea is to just rebel against that BS and say, ‘Well I am enough and I have a right to feel good in my body. I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Ep. 089 Clashing w/ Parents with Brooke Romney: “I think we have such a tendency, whether we’re teenagers or adults, to define ourselves, to let others define us, to let our achievements define us. And the more quickly we can transition to letting our character define us, the happier we can be when our situations are less than ideal.”
Ep. 092 Underestimated with Chelsey Goodan: “I often actually say like, how do we lean into our weirdness? Like what actually makes us weird. I use the word weird and I know people often get scared of that, but I embrace weirdness, I like it. When you start finding that for yourself, that’s a portal into what makes you unique. Then you start affirming that–whether it’s a parent affirming a daughter, or you just affirming it in yourself–and pursuing those interests. That is when you get really connected to your authenticity, and who you feel your most whole self.”
Ep. 050 Athlete Mental Performance with Lorrine Headrick: “We repeat beliefs, these thoughts over and over again, that we start not even acknowledging that it’s a thought, and we just think it’s a fact. And it could be, I’m just not good at this, or I’m a really bad player, I’m not a good athlete, whatever it is. Like just notice and then the next step would be, Is that true? Start to question your beliefs and ask yourself, Is this serving me? Do I want to stay here? Is there another option?”
Ep. 047 Social Media with Dr. Jacquline Nesi: “We know that on Instagram, a lot of what you tend to see is these sort of highlight reels. So posts may be more curated kind of photos, a lot of fashion. And for some people, especially those people who know that they might already be kind of sensitive to comparing themselves to other people and are really focusing on appearance, that might amplify that concern for them when they use Instagram. But of course there’s different things like that that happen across all the different platforms. So it’s just important to know for you, what you think is helpful and harmful. And to test it out with different platforms–what’s making you feel good and what’s making you not feel as good.”
Ep. 097 Anyway Magazine with Jen Swetzoff and Keeley McNamara: “What you’re going through is totally normal. It feels really abnormal. It feels really like, you can’t believe this is happening and it must not be happening to anyone else. But it is happening to everyone. Our goal is to just normalize what feels weird and awkward and abnormal so that everyone kind of knows, like, we’re all doing this together. It’s fine.”
Topic Requests
As of today, you’ve sent me 150ish topic requests from emails alone, plus around 100 more via apple podcast reviews and spotify q+a replies. Topics that are requested most often are about body image, friendship conflicts, crushes + relationships, and anxiety–which we will be covering soon. Other future topics I’m planning on are divorce, studying, rejection, and protecting yourself.
My Podcast Approach
Over the past 100 episodes, I grew as a writer, interviewer, editor, content creator and business owner. I made mistakes, failed even, tried again, shifted my approach, adapted to change, improved, and found my rhythm. I started out covering more basic topics, and as your requests came in, I expanded into more complex and difficult topics. I know as a parent, some things are awkward or hard for us to talk about with our kids. But considering the hundreds of topic requests you’ve sent me, clearly you want to talk about these things, you want to know more, you want to learn how to handle these tough topics.
Whatever’s going on in your life, at home, at school, with friends, the future, my hope was that these episodes, even just 10ish minutes long, could help you feel seen, hopefully feel better about yourself or situation; and they might even open the door for conversations between you and your parent, or a trusted adult, or a mental health professional if needed. There are people in your life who care about you, who want to support you, and who are cheering you on. And I am one of them.
I say it in the podcast intro and I absolutely mean it–I want to help you girls grow curiosity, compassion, and confidence. I want to empower you girls so you can embrace yourself, trust in your abilities, and know you can take on whatever lies ahead of you in life. I want you to face challenges and conquer them. I want you to bounce back from epic fails with spectacular successes. I want you to go get your goals and absolutely crush them.
Let’s Reach 1 Million
I actually have a BIG AUDACIOUS GOAL–I want this podcast to reach 1 MILLION downloads by my birthday! It’s at the end of September. And you know it’s not because I care about likes or numbers–it’s because that would mean 1 MILLION times a girl heard a message that helped her feel understood, encouraged, empowered, and enough.
As of right now we’re at 850,000+ downloads. If you’d like to help me reach this goal, I’d SO appreciate you sharing an episode with someone–a friend, cousin, sibling, even an adult! You can text an episode to them, listen to the podcast together, tell them about your favorite episode, etc. Thank you also for your Apple reviews, Spotify q+a replies, for subscribing to the newsletter or Youtube, following Empowerful Girls on Insta or TikTok. Your support truly means the world to me. It’s because of you gals this podcast exists–all 100 episodes of it!
Resources
If you have a topic suggestion, I’d love to hear from you! Send an email (tweens get the OK from your parents) to hello@EmpowerfulGirls.com .
If you have social media already, follow me on Insta or tiktok @empowerfulgirls. I’m not encouraging or endorsing social media, but I’m on there to offer an unfiltered, uplifting alternative to what’s in your feed. Remember to get on the email list for the newsletter!
