Grace Beverley

And I think the older I get, the more I noticed how much those kind of expectations shaped how we see ourselves and even what we allow ourselves to think or what we're allowed to think from an outside point of view.

So today's episode is a bit of a big kind of honest conversation about all of that.

I am joined by the broadcaster and writer Ashley James, and we get into identity, confidence, motherhood, and what it actually looks like to start unpicking some of those narratives and seeing them for what they actually are.

We talk about shame, we talk about body image, speaking up, and how your relationship with yourself evolves over time.

And I think if you're in a phase where you are questioning things a little bit, or you are going through a big life change like me, this episode was designed for you.

So think of it as a bit of a guide to surviving your twenties and then thriving in your thirties.

But before we get into it, if you could just make sure that you are following the podcast on whatever app you are listening to it on, that would be a huge help.

And it means that we can continue to keep the podcast, all the bonus episodes and everything with it completely free for you.

So let's get into it.

Ashley James, are you currently more working hard or hardly working?

Yeah.

Like trying to do both at the same time and show up as your full self to both.

Good.

That's a good place to be.

I feel like it's like you're doing the hard work, you feel challenged by it, but you also feel like skilled, you know where it's going, like it's something that you want to do.

I feel like that's such an exciting place to be.

And I'd love to speak all the way back to your first ever job.

You know, you speak a lot now about being labelled and being boxed in.

When was it that you first, I guess, realised that labels were being put on you?

It's so true, I think, that like what you kind of described in terms of the fact that when these labels are first put on you and you're first told, well, to be taken seriously, you have to do this or you have to do more of this or you can't do that.