Lael Stone

And it's really, really tricky.

And I think if we had more grace around it of who is this beautiful person in front of me and what's going to help them thrive and how do we do that?

And I hope that that's what we've kind of created a bit of a foundation for you to do.

um we were talking just off the back of the pressure of society and stuff like that like what's your take for both of you on social media now we've i kind of feel like i dodged a bullet with both of you just with all of you you know we kind of got through most of those teen years until social media became even more intense of what it is now what's your relationship to that how do you feel about that because it's a massive influence on people's lives isn't it because

Yeah, I think that's a whole beast in itself too.

I think that I'm very lucky because when that kind of started coming into play, it was very much more connection and it was a way to connect with friends and talk.

And there was obviously still yuckiness within that.

Sorry.

But...

yeah it was always just a way to connect I know for me during lockdown that was major um let's not get too deep into that but when yeah when you couldn't connect with anyone and you couldn't see anyone that was such a saving grace to be able to facetime my friends to message my friends and that was the only way we could connect but I think with that there's so many expectations and things that are put on social media that are so damaging for young people to see

because you look at these things and these people living these kind of fake lives and you go, why don't I look like that?

Or why don't I have that?

And it can be so damaging for one's mental health, for their self-esteem.

You know, I definitely know there were times where I'm looking at models on Instagram going, why don't I look like that?

But I think again, the way that you and dad kind of phrase it when social media was introduced, like, and to us, I guess, I think a big thing was always a lot of conversations around if you come across something that is scary or that feels yucky,

always come and talk to us about it and I remember having conversations with you sitting down going I saw this and it really rubbed me the wrong way and I don't know what to do about that now and we talked about it and it was always this you know again openness to talk about it if something was to come up that was scary but I think yeah it's it's tricky I have mixed emotions about it because on one hand

I think it's amazing as a way to connect and bring people together, like-minded people, create communities.

But at the same time, there's a lot of damaging stuff there that is really scary that young people have their hands on.

I think for me, I kind of, yeah, just missed that mark of it being really hectic, but it was definitely bigger for you and your cohort.

I actually haven't asked you two this.