Reading Her Diary

In this episode I have a beautiful chat with my good friend Lily Bunce Redding. Lily is a yoga teacher and about about to start a Masters degree in Nutrition. She is very raw & honest in sharing how she developed an eating disorder after being bullied as a teenager and how it's affected her physically and emotionally. She shares her experience of recovery and how she's now incredibly proud to say that she loves herself, especially as she struggled with self acceptance in the past. Lily wants to help spread the 'anti-diet' message, as she believes restrictive eating will only get you so far and often does more harm than good. From her experiences, Lily is now on a mission to help others build healthy, sustainable relationships with food and their bodies. Trigger warning: This episode discusses themes which may be triggering to some listeners. Themes around eating disorders, Orthoexia, Bulimia, bullying.

This week's guest is Maddie Ross, Founder and Director of Girl Code Theatre - an award winning, Brighton based theatre company that aims to ask difficult questions through verbatim storytelling. The company's latest documentary 'Still Not Getting It' shares the stories of people who were sexually harassed in the Brighton area during lockdown. Maddie shares insights on what sexual harassment really means and why any type of harassment should never be tolerated or normalised. We also have a discussion around therapy and how it has helped both us to deal with challenges, as well as helping us better understand & accept ourselves. We talk about the different kinds of therapy and how it isn't always rainbows & butterflies(!) but why we'd still highly recommend it. TRIGGER WARNING: This conversation may be triggering for some listeners. We talk about sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual trauma, eating disorders.Instagram links: @girlcodetheatre@readingherdiary@jessjones108

My beautiful friend Richa Ekka shares her story of growing up in India and fearing sex, to now living in Australia and supporting people in their healing around trauma and sexual shame. She has recently moved to Port Macquarie and works as a breathwork facilitator and sex, love and relationship coach. She is raw and honest in sharing the challenges she's faced, in particular around the shame she felt from contracting herpes in her early twenties.Richa has an incredible energy and she's an example to me of how you can rise above challenges and traumatic experiences. In fact, those experiences can be a force for positive transformation and they can even equip you with the tools to support others in their healing. Instagram links: @richaekka@readingherdiary@jessjones108

In this episode I have an open and honest conversation with Lu Madden, a successful social media & brand strategist based in Austin, Texas.Lu shares powerful insights into what it means to have a healthy relationship with social media and why authenticity is key if you really want to engage with people online.She shares her personal experience of becoming more comfortable with self expression on social media. Her journey has included sharing dance videos, inspiring others by talking about mentoring & sharing epic Spotify playlists. Instagram links:@lu_madden@readingherdiary@becomingmorejess

In this week’s episode I speak with Amy Louise Cash, a transformational coach who specialises in relationships. In this conversation she shares so much wisdom about self love, vulnerability, soul contracts and trusting your instincts. Amy openly shares how being raped when she was 16 was the catalyst for her journey of self love & choosing a career as a coach. Even though trauma is awful and messy, Amy believes it can be a huge gift for us to learn and grow as humans. As always, listen to the end of the episode for journal prompts that you can use yourself to reflect on this conversation.Instagram links:@amylouisecash@readingherdiary@becomingmorejessDisclaimer: As mentioned above, this podcast does include reference to sexual trauma. Explicit language is used in this episode.

In this week's episode I speak with Meg Allin, who openly shares their journey of coming out as Non-binary. We discuss navigating pronouns, labels and the difference between gender and sexuality. Earlier this year Meg decided to quit University and is now involved in activism as a Greenpeace speaker on the radio and they're also training to become a facilitator in Relationships & sex education (RSE).As always listen to the end of the podcast where I share some journal prompts for you. I hope you enjoy this episode! If you like it please do follow it and leave a rating & review, it really helps!Jess xxInstagram links:@enrich_rse@meg_allin@readingherdiary@becomingmorejess

In this week’s episode I speak with Exotic Empowerment Coach Kylie Bee. Kylie shares her story of becoming a stripper to now coaching others in the adult entertainment industry. Kylie really does bare all on this episode, sharing the challenges she’s faced in being a stripper and how it’s played a role in her personal development & relationships. Instagram links: @_kylie_bee @readingherdiary @becomingmorejess

The topic of Relationships & sex education (RSE) is really close to my heart. My guest Shannon Reddin is an RSE Facilitator and she’s the founder of Enrich RSE. She’s been teaching young people about relationships & sexual health for 13 years and she has so much to share on this topic that is just not spoken about enough. We talk about communicating boundaries, enthusiastic consent, understanding contraception options, sexual libido, how dating has been affected in 2020... we cover a lot of ground! And the lovely Shannon has also been very honest about what advice she would give her younger self and what lessons she’s learnt in her own relationships. As with each episode of Reading Her Diary, listen out for the journal prompts at the very end. Big love xInsta links: @enrich_rse@readingherdiary

In this week's episode I speak with Transformational Life & Leadership Coach Natasha K. Richardson.Natasha shares her story of learning to listen to her heart & intuition from a young age and how it's lead her on a journey to seek joy in the most humble of experiences. She offers us guidance on how to build a deeper connection with our hearts, encouraging us to ask our heart what it thinks and feels. We discuss the importance of vulnerability, how intimacy comes in many forms and why we all deserve to enjoy pleasure on a daily basis. I hope you love this chat! If you do please follow, review and share this episode to help spread the lessons & stories we share here. Natasha's instagram: @natashakrichardsonThanks so much for listening!Big love, Jess Xxx@readingherdiary@becomingmorejess

In this episode I chat with my friend Hettie Allen, co-host of podcast The Thing About That. Here she shares her story of proposing to her boyfriend, popping the question after 10 years of saying she never wanted to get married.We discuss the pressures that women face around ‘tying the knot’. From the expectation to get married by a certain age, to the stress of looking ‘picture perfect’ on your wedding day, it’s no wonder that weddings can be a huge strain on mental health. This, alongside the notion that this is meant to be ‘the happiest day of your life’ can make it feel quite overwhelming.Hettie’s vision for weddings of the future includes more diversity, democracy & equality. Her message is that wherever you are in your journey and whether you do or you don’t get married, you have to do what is right for you. This podcast episode is a big fat permission slip for you to tear up the old rule book and create your own version of what celebrating love looks like.Hettie’s podcast is ‘The Thing About That’ (@ttat_podcast)

In this episode Taigen shares her own identity journey of growing up off-grid in Australia, developing an eating disorder during high school, finding solace in yoga, choosing to be single and how she’s radically shifted her relationship with social media.Both myself and Taigen are big fans of introspection and exploring the different concepts that make up our own identity. Together we break down what it means to be both masculine & feminine and how these energies co-exist within all of us. We also discuss how trauma from the past, if left unprocessed, can stay stored in the body and lead to dis-ease.Listen to the end of the episode for journal prompts to help you reflect on your own identity journey.I hope you enjoy! Please follow, leave a review & share the episode to help spread the message that every woman has a story worth sharing.Instagram links:@ahamtai@readingherdiary

This week my dear friend Kayleigh and I have a juicy heart to heart about what self love means to us. We both share stories of how we’ve learnt to cultivate more love for ourselves & specifically for our bodies, including.... how we learnt to get comfortable with nudity!Kayleigh opens up about her surprising reaction to being diagnosed with cancer at age 22, body image pressures, following fitspo accounts on Instagram and how her 8 year partnership has supported her self love journey.As usual, listen to the end of the episode for journal prompts for you to reflect on your relationship with the most important person in your life... YOU! Follow & tag us on Instagram... Xxx@readingherdiary@jessjones108@kayleigh_michelle_norrisDisclaimer: This episode includes discussion around nudity and body image.

In this first episode I reflect on events in my twenties that lead me to interview women from around the world about their stories. I'll share my own journey of being in back-to-back long term relationships, being a stressed out Londoner who bought a one way ticket to Australia, embracing the single life, dealing with sexual trauma and how journalling helped me manage feelings of anxiety & overwhelm. Follow the podcast on here & on instagram via @readingherdiary. DISCLAIMER: This is an adult podcast and in this episode there is reference to sexual trauma. No explicit language is used.