Introducing a brand new podcast: Love Letter To My Friend

Writing a love letter is usually reserved to declare undying love in our romantic relationships, but in this brand-new podcast hosts and friends, Lisa Smosarski and Alix Walker, are reclaiming the language of love and asking their guests to write one of the most important people in their lives: their friend.

In each episode, a new guest will write and read - for the first time live on the podcast - a letter of love and thanks to one of their closest friends, before coming together to discuss the intimate details of their relationship. The letters are affirming, emotional and will have you reaching for both a box of tissues and a pen to write your own friendship love letter.

To hear the new show, please head to: https://play.acast.com/s/love-letter-to-my-friend

Or search 'lovelettertomyfriend' on Instagram for more

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by award-winning presenter and author Vick Hope. There are some people in life who you are convinced must have more hours in their day, such is their impressive list of achievements. Vick Hope is one of those people. Born in Newcastle, Vick was so adamant that she wanted to go to Cambridge to study Modern Languages that she paid for her own evening courses and shocked her parents and school when she won a place. A similar pattern has followed ever since - if she sets her mind on something, she makes it happen.

Today, Vick is not only a hugely successful TV and radio presenter - she currently hosts Radio 1's much-loved Life Hacks show - she also speaks four languages, has worked with Amnesty International since she just sixteen years old, has written two children's books with her former co-presenter Roman Kemp, and she came fourth in Strictly Come Dancing in 2018. She is clearly a woman with unfathomable amounts of energy and drive. 

But it's also that desire to impress, to always say yes, to seize every opportunity and to please everyone around her, that lead her to have a complete burnout a few years ago. Something so many of us can relate to in a world that equates busy-ness with success.

This is Vick's story in her own words...

Vick Hope is on this year's judging panel for the Women's Prize for Fiction. The winner will be announced on 16th June.

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by Rachel. Rachel was diagnosed with MRKH when she was just sixteen. It's a female reproductive disorder that presents differently from person-to-person, but in Rachel's case meant that while she has ovaries and produces eggs, she cannot carry a baby herself.

She kept her diagnosis mainly to herself and carried on with life, going to university to study Drama & Theatre Arts, and forging a successful career in events. 

It wasn't until she met her now-partner, Sam, that she began to face how she really felt about motherhood and starting a family, and began to look at her options.

Shortly afterwards, after finally revealing her fertility struggles to her best friends from University, Rachel got a phone call that changed her life. Her best friend Abi was offering to be their surrogate.

One year later, Abi was pregnant with Rachel and Sam's baby, and their son was born on the 8th June, 2019. 

This is Rachel's story in her own words...

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode we're joined by TV presenter AJ Odudu. Aj is one of Britain's most exciting young presenters and personalities, most recently fronting Don't Rock The Boat with Freddie Flintoff, along with hosting Big Brother's Bit On The Side and Bake Off: An Extra Slice. 

Not content with simply fronting the nation's most popular TV shows, she's also a qualified personal trainer and sports nutritionist, and her YouTube exercise tutorials have gained her a huge online following. And, if that's not enough, she's an accomplished DJ too.

But her route to success has been neither easy nor straightforward. Growing up, she had her sights set on being a TV presenter from an early age, but as a black girl from Lancashire, she's used to not fitting in, experiencing racism almost daily. But she wasn't prepared for the discrimination to continue as she tried to forge her career. She feels it wasn't simply the colour of her skin, but her northern accent and her gender at that held her back. Undeterred, she refused to change herself, and has proven that her talent, passion, and enthusiasm for everything she does is more than enough.

This is AJ's story in her own words...

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by beauty influencer and creator and host of the podcast 'What would the auntie say?', Anchal. Anchal is a British-Indian make-up artist, who has built up a large online community through her brilliant digital make-up tutorials and honest reviews. After leaving University with a degree in special effects make-up seven years ago, she spotted, in her words, what little visibility and representation brown girls had in the online beauty world, and subsequently began producing her own content - quickly gaining traction with an audience who had previously been neglected.

Today, brands clamour to work with her and thankfully the pool of beauty influencers is becoming far more diverse. But Anchal has always wanted to talk about more than just beauty. At the end of 2020, she launched her first podcast 'What would the auntie say?'. On this, she invites guests to talk about topics away from the fear of judgement by the aunties - a catch-all term for the judgemental elders in the South Asian community. 

So far in the first series, she's covered everything from mental health and marriage to anti-blackness and colourism. She believes strongly that the only way to tackle outdated and judgemental views is for younger generations to feel they have the tools to educate and challenge the older generations. One of the big issues she tackles is navigating life as a single woman at an age when she is expected to be married.

This is Anchal's story in her own words...

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by journalist, author, and mental health campaigner, Bryony Gordon. Bryony began her career in journalism at eighteen - building up a name for herself as a successful columnist and features writer for publications including The Sunday Express and The Telegraph and she won 'Young Journalist of the Year' in 2007. She married her husband Harry, a financial journalist, in 2013, and together they have a daughter.  

In spite of an incredible successful professional life, Bryony's battle with mental illness has plagued her since childhood. She's suffered from OCD since she was just twelve, and struggled with bulimia, depression and anxiety since her twenties. She went to rehab in 2017 to tackle her alcoholism and has now been sober for over three years. In 2014, she began sharing her struggles with her readers and social media followers and has since written four best-selling books; interviewed Prince Harry about his own mental health struggles on her podcast 'Bryony Gordon's Mad World'; and started Mental Health Mates, a peer support group which encourages people with mental health issues to meet up and walk and talk without judgement.

This is Bryony's story in her own words...

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by the remarkable Sinead Burke. Sinead is a teacher, writer, broadcaster and campaigner, and is on a mission to change the fashion industry from within. Sinead, who has also spoken at The White House and The World Economic Forum, is a little person - the term she favours when referencing her achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism that means she has shorter-than-average limbs.

Sinead grew up in a big, happy family in Dublin, Ireland. One of five children, who's parents taught her that she could do and be anything, and she took their message seriously. At just sixteen, Sinead was so frustrated by the exclusive nature of the fashion industry - an industry she loved and wanted to be a part of - that she began a popular blog, Minnie Mélange. She's used her platform to challenge the lack of inclusivity in the fashion and design industries ever since, and the world has listened.

Sinead is a woman who wants everyone to be heard, everyone to be included, and everyone to feel important. This is Sinead's story in her own words...

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're joined by businesswoman and beauty influencer Gina Knight. Gina was diagnosed with stress-induced alopecia in 2013, after twelve months of visits to GPs and trichologists to find an answer to why where hair was falling out in handfuls.

Despite the blow to her confidence and sense-of-self that losing her hair caused, she generously shared her story online. Gina subsequently built a loyal community of women going through the same thing, providing a safe space for women to tell their stories too. After struggling to find textured wigs for women like her who were suffering with hair loss, the former salon manager found a solution, launching her own business Gina Knight Wig Design to provide confidence and comfort to thousands of women. 

This is Gina's story in her own words.

*This episode is sponsored by Clinique. Promotion ends 31/01/2021 at 11:59pm whilst stocks last. Offer may vary and will be communicated at checkout. No minimum spend required. Only one use per customer and cannot be redeemed alongside any other promotions. All promotional products will be marked and cannot be returned to store or online for exchange, credit, or monetary value. Sale items are excluded from discount and all offers are not redeemable on gift card or egift card purchases. Clinique reserves the right to withdraw the promotion at any time. The offers are as stated, are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.