Speaker 1: M how many things are different since we met, since
Speaker 1: before the pandemic, how my life has changed, and how
Speaker 1: a lot of people's life and how things that you
Speaker 1: didn't realize were so important are really the important things. Right.
Speaker 1: It's not just your career, and it's not just you know,
Speaker 1: how you show up at work. It's just it's really
Speaker 1: the words that come out of your mouth and how
Speaker 1: you live your life. I'm so excited to talk to Christy.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a fun one. You guys are friends, right,
Speaker 1: you guys are friends? We are? Yeah? I mean, whoever
Speaker 1: would have put that together? I can tell you. My nerdy,
Speaker 1: suburban Chicago schoolgirl never would have thought there'd be a
Speaker 1: scenario where I would end up meeting Christy Turlington Burns
Speaker 1: as an adult and become friends with her, obviously not
Speaker 1: because of our parallel modeling careers, but because we met
Speaker 1: through sort of nonprofit stuff and bonded over that and
Speaker 1: her work with Every Mother Counts, which I am excited
Speaker 1: to hear more about what she's up to. And also
Speaker 1: we met when we both spoke at TED, so we
Speaker 1: spoke the same year and became buddies, and so just
Speaker 1: sort of got introduced over and over again and finally
Speaker 1: just started hanging out. She's awesome. I first met Christie
Speaker 1: when she was a young model and I was a
Speaker 1: young makeup artist, and every time I would do her makeup,
Speaker 1: I thought I was the most talented makeup artist in
Speaker 1: the universe because all I had to do was put
Speaker 1: clear lip gloss on her lips and pinch her cheek,
Speaker 1: and she was stunning. And honestly, I think I learned
Speaker 1: a lot about choosing makeup by looking at faces, and
Speaker 1: especially hers, because she had such natural, beautiful coloring in
Speaker 1: her skin, and that's how I ultimately like to do makeup.
Speaker 1: But she was always kind and I really haven't, you know,
Speaker 1: seen her as often as I would like, so I'm
Speaker 1: pretty excited to talk about everything. She's doing. Awesome, And
Speaker 1: if you can protect me from running a marathon, I
Speaker 1: would really appreciate it. I have a feeling she's gonna
Speaker 1: hit me up again. Let's get into it. Excited for
Speaker 1: our conversation with Christie. Hi, Christie, Hi, and Julie. It's
Speaker 1: so good to see you, well to hear you. Hi, Bobby,
Speaker 1: Hi Christie. First of all, she knows your real name.
Speaker 1: A Julie. She knows how to pronounce your she knows
Speaker 1: how to say it. Yeah, oh yeah, because we're pals.
Speaker 1: We're pals from the neighborhood. We are. But I knew you.
Speaker 1: I knew you'd eight or ten years and you never
Speaker 1: corrected my pronunciation, So I know, what did you say
Speaker 1: on Jolly? Oh? I know? And I it's a really
Speaker 1: bad carry over from childhood and being like a first
Speaker 1: generation immigrant where you're just like, yeah, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say is fine, and I didn't correct people, and
Speaker 1: now even as an adult, like I don't know why
Speaker 1: I don't just say it right away. But I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she means it with love. It's not like she's being disrespectful.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't know how to say it's I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's fine, but yeah, now I'm I'm supposed to be
Speaker 1: of it. I know. I'm trying to be better for
Speaker 1: the next generation. I get called Cindy all the time.
Speaker 1: You don't you do do not I do. There's no
Speaker 1: way anyone's mistaken you for Sunday. They're like starts at
Speaker 1: the sea, ends of the hy You you all look alike,
Speaker 1: well you don't. You're stunningly beautiful as always, And um,
Speaker 1: I feel like my first girl crush might have been
Speaker 1: on Christy Turlington Burns when I was Yeah, when you
Speaker 1: were in what and like what like fifth grade? What
Speaker 1: are you trying to say? Well, it's just as a teenager,
Speaker 1: you know, when she came on the scene, it's like
Speaker 1: you were the closest thing we had to like ethnic
Speaker 1: beauty being represented on on the main stage, you know,
Speaker 1: in Vogue and on the pages of my favorite magazines.
Speaker 1: And I just you know, I probably had a little
Speaker 1: girl crush, don't I don't want to make you on comfortable,
Speaker 1: but it's true. One thing, one thing about her, because
Speaker 1: I met her during those times. I was lucky the
Speaker 1: times I got to work with her because as one
Speaker 1: of the big models, she was the nicest she was,
Speaker 1: you know, and so with Cindy, But she was always
Speaker 1: the nice I believe that. Thank you, Gosh. I want
Speaker 1: to hang out with you every day. We're here. We're
Speaker 1: here every day just doing this. This is what we do,
Speaker 1: just that I'm recording. But has anyone ever called you
Speaker 1: other than nice? I mean, I'm proud of having the
Speaker 1: reputation of being the nice model of my peer group,
Speaker 1: but I I also felt like sometimes it was a
Speaker 1: little boring and bland, like just to be nice. I like,
Speaker 1: come on, I've got more than that. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: I wasn't always nice. I mean, I'm sure I had
Speaker 1: my moments, like anyone does. But I definitely saw there
Speaker 1: was opportunity to um, I don't know, make myself remembered,
Speaker 1: or or to be liked, right, And we all want
Speaker 1: to just be liked on the set and like welcomed,
Speaker 1: and so to be nice was the easiest way to
Speaker 1: um to get that. Yeah, but the answer is no.
Speaker 1: Back then, people did not want to be nice. It
Speaker 1: was cooler to not be nice. I was always nice.
Speaker 1: And there was a hairdresser I don't even remember her
Speaker 1: name who literally stopped working and she was awful. And
Speaker 1: I saw her again about a year later, and she said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take something out of your playbook. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be nice to everyone. That's my new thing. There
Speaker 1: was no chance this girl was ever going to be nice.
Speaker 1: There was no chance that we won't name names. I
Speaker 1: don't even remember her name. That's how much of a
Speaker 1: remember I remember. Then. I'm curious, Yeah, yeah, exactly, Maybe
Speaker 1: that's yeah. I guess it's the extremes, right, the divas,
Speaker 1: and then the nice ones. I feel like kindness, right,
Speaker 1: that's sort of the that's the goal. That's what I
Speaker 1: want my children to be. Kind are they? They are? Um,
Speaker 1: they're also funny. I think that's the other thing that
Speaker 1: you want your kids to be because that keeps this going. Um.
Speaker 1: But kind and funny two good qualities. I totally agree.
Speaker 1: I think funny is a really great sign of intelligence too.
Speaker 1: That's what I keep telling myself, and I am really
Speaker 1: hard to be funny. And then I was told recently
Speaker 1: in a meeting that I shouldn't tell people that I'm funny.
Speaker 1: I should just tell a joke. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that burns. That hits a little too. Quotes when people
Speaker 1: will ask the question like what is something that nobody
Speaker 1: knows about you? Or what's something that's not on Wikipedia?
Speaker 1: Like first, I never look at Wikipedia. But secondly it's
Speaker 1: like I was like, well, I think I'm funny, and
Speaker 1: I think it's a weird thing to say about yourself, right,
Speaker 1: Like when you say I think I'm funny, You're like,
Speaker 1: you can't possibly be funny, but you are funny. I
Speaker 1: know that. Thank you, Christie. I think you're pretty funny.
Speaker 1: You're funny, and you're kind. I would agree with all
Speaker 1: those ones. So funny and kind, and you're imparting that
Speaker 1: to your children as is Bobby, also funny and kind.
Speaker 1: Look at us, we're just quite the trio, aren't we?
Speaker 1: Just the most wonderful, nice, kind giving people in America? Okay,
Speaker 1: so people are listening to think this is really not
Speaker 1: worth my time, this is boring. So let's get out
Speaker 1: to the to the meat of this podcast, which is
Speaker 1: basically it's called The Important Thing because look, everyone knows
Speaker 1: you're amazing career. We don't know enough about you, know
Speaker 1: what you're doing now, I mean the world doesn't. But
Speaker 1: what has changed for you personally since the pandemic? Like,
Speaker 1: what are the important things to you now? I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it's it's all the cliches. Really, I think
Speaker 1: the sort of slowing down piece of it. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's the truth that I that I knew, but
Speaker 1: I didn't have a choice but to really like surrender
Speaker 1: to it um during the pandemic. I think that's sort
Speaker 1: of your family and your your home being where your
Speaker 1: heart is, and your your heart being or your home
Speaker 1: is that was very evident, like I couldn't be traveling,
Speaker 1: I couldn't be moving at the pace that I normally do,
Speaker 1: and I fully embraced it, like and I embraced it
Speaker 1: quite quickly. I realized like this was not a situation
Speaker 1: where I like there was any reason to fight it.
Speaker 1: It just was and it was out of our control.
Speaker 1: And so not that it was like smooth every day,
Speaker 1: but I I early on was like, this is bigger
Speaker 1: than me and all of us, and you would have
Speaker 1: to write it. And luckily I'm here under the same
Speaker 1: roof with the people that I love the most in
Speaker 1: the world. So can't be can't be that much. And
Speaker 1: are your kids still in the house? Are there? I
Speaker 1: don't know how they are. They're back at school. They're
Speaker 1: back at school. Um so oh so, Grace's eighteen, she's
Speaker 1: a senior, uh in high school and finished sixteen years
Speaker 1: of sophomore and so you know, early days pandemic, we
Speaker 1: were on Long Island in our house there because spring break,
Speaker 1: and then we came back to the city and the
Speaker 1: fall of of of last year. Um, and then they've
Speaker 1: been out in school back and forth a bit. Um.
Speaker 1: But they're in now, which has been really nice for everybody.
Speaker 1: I also spent a lot of the pandemic in the
Speaker 1: Hampton's and it was for us personally. Having the family
Speaker 1: was you know, a blessing. But it was hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna say it
Speaker 1: was hard. Three boys, three dogs. How many dogs did
Speaker 1: you guys have in the house? A lot? Three boys,
Speaker 1: four or five dogs, fiances, then wives, and then nephews,
Speaker 1: so you know, it was amazing. She had a full compound,
Speaker 1: going wow, wow, Yeah, I had two kids, two dogs,
Speaker 1: and then I didn't even see in that first lockdown
Speaker 1: my sister and her kids and her husband lived you know,
Speaker 1: ten minutes away. We didn't even see them during that
Speaker 1: first you know, eight weeks or whatever, so we really
Speaker 1: just were the four of us for the very first time,
Speaker 1: I think, without anyone. Um. Yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: kind of magical. Though. There was a lot that I
Speaker 1: really really loved and I still love, especially I feel
Speaker 1: like them at these ages where I don't think I
Speaker 1: would typically get that kind of quality time, certainly, not
Speaker 1: evenings around the table or watching movies together, you know, weekend.
Speaker 1: It's like they they would normally be just like a
Speaker 1: shadow of themselves. Um, I think during these years, but
Speaker 1: lots of quality time and what were you doing? Mostly
Speaker 1: were you I was still working as they were going
Speaker 1: to school after that initial spring break time and we
Speaker 1: were all off and trying to figure out things. My
Speaker 1: my mother in law was down in Florida and she
Speaker 1: was quite ill and ultimately passed from COVID. So that
Speaker 1: was early days. So I feel like we very much
Speaker 1: were in that space that um. But we were reading
Speaker 1: about in the news and seeing on television like we
Speaker 1: lived it, you know, caregivers on the phone and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was intense. Um. And then
Speaker 1: also my kids really hadn't lost anybody before, so to
Speaker 1: have that be their first big loss during the pandemic
Speaker 1: while they were home, it was it was pretty intense. UM.
Speaker 1: But then once everybody kind of started to find their
Speaker 1: their routines, we all found our corner of the house.
Speaker 1: We don't have great WiFi out there, so that was
Speaker 1: a challenge. You know, crash and we'd all be screaming
Speaker 1: like turn on. I guess if anyone really had any
Speaker 1: control of that either. But it was kind of also
Speaker 1: nice to know, like if they were down. I was down,
Speaker 1: like what could we do? I was outside as much
Speaker 1: as I could. That was the beauty of being able
Speaker 1: to be outside of the city during um those few months,
Speaker 1: and so to go for a walk or go for
Speaker 1: a run or something like that. I really felt like
Speaker 1: the pool of nature even more than I normally do.
Speaker 1: UM and I think my kids did too, like bike rides, walks,
Speaker 1: um even alone just to like get the space that
Speaker 1: we needed to be able to kind of come back
Speaker 1: together again. UM. That was kind of critical to clear head.
Speaker 1: And you're you're a major marathon or correct major? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I completed my ninth full marathon last November. I've done
Speaker 1: all the six world marathons as well. Um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: I've found that I love running now. I now, I
Speaker 1: kind of wish that I discovered it earlier. But maybe
Speaker 1: that's why I'm surviving as a runner now, is that
Speaker 1: I didn't discover it earlier, and so far my joints
Speaker 1: and bones are intact. So will you share with us
Speaker 1: the the tips that you were giving me to start running,
Speaker 1: which I admittedly have not started doing. Bobby will enjoy this.
Speaker 1: Christie was I think it was last summer You're or
Speaker 1: maybe last spring, She's like, would you should run the
Speaker 1: marathon with me? And I was like, we obviously don't
Speaker 1: know each other very well, because if you knew me better,
Speaker 1: you would know that's not something I want to do.
Speaker 1: But I was really inspired by the idea that you
Speaker 1: had asked me to do it that I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe someday, I promise I will run it for you
Speaker 1: if I do it, but I don't know that that's
Speaker 1: happening even a five k. Honestly, the walking walking is
Speaker 1: probably the best exercise you can do, and it's probably
Speaker 1: the healthiest for your body. Um, and anyone could do
Speaker 1: it anywhere, right like whatever of your urban or suburban
Speaker 1: or in rural rural part of the world, I think.
Speaker 1: And if you do it at a pace like I think,
Speaker 1: that's actually the healthiest for all of us and you
Speaker 1: get all the benefits of the like solitude and meditation
Speaker 1: and bree thing. Um. Yeah, I think a five k
Speaker 1: could be okay for you. Okay, k Unsually do you walk?
Speaker 1: I do? I walk a ton. I can walk for
Speaker 1: like days. I mean, I would like traverse the country
Speaker 1: if I had to walking. I can walk with no problem.
Speaker 1: But it's the running I've never you know, it's interesting,
Speaker 1: I think because as a kid, I feel like you
Speaker 1: guys have different narratives around this. But for me as
Speaker 1: a kid, because I wasn't traditionally athletic and like the
Speaker 1: American school system, like I didn't play American sports well,
Speaker 1: like basketball or volleyball or whatever. I wasn't good at that.
Speaker 1: So I had a very strong narrative that I wasn't athletic.
Speaker 1: I conflated the two and it was really hard for
Speaker 1: me to then grow up and be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: was athletic in a different way. But I really was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fast runner, or I'm not the best
Speaker 1: on the basketball team, even if I'm tall or whatever,
Speaker 1: So that means I'm not athletic. So it's been hard
Speaker 1: to to change that narrative. Christie, how do I change
Speaker 1: that narrative? Tell me? We sort of tell yourself right, like, um,
Speaker 1: we are what we say we are actually, But my
Speaker 1: dad had three girls with my mom, and he had
Speaker 1: two children before he was married to my mom. But
Speaker 1: there are three sisters, and he had us do every sport,
Speaker 1: and I would say I was not the most natural athlete,
Speaker 1: but I had to still you know, plague, soccer, um, softball,
Speaker 1: ski and he had us do some track and field
Speaker 1: as well at little like community college nearby. And I
Speaker 1: was I got tall, and I learned that I was
Speaker 1: fast when I was young, and so I did think
Speaker 1: of myself as a runner, and so then dropped it
Speaker 1: for many, many years. And when I came back to
Speaker 1: start running, um for for every mother counts, it was
Speaker 1: like I discovered or rediscovered that I actually love it.
Speaker 1: And it's like human beings, they run for play, they
Speaker 1: run like we We are runners, Like human beings are
Speaker 1: naturally runners. We just in our sort of more sedentary Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know devolution, I would say, have become a
Speaker 1: lot more still in static and tied to our seats.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know. If you can get that
Speaker 1: mentality that it's actually playful, that it's fun as opposed
Speaker 1: to a chore like work or exercise, then um, you
Speaker 1: can start to kind of discover that part of yourself
Speaker 1: that you probably forgot. And were you a runner when
Speaker 1: you were modeling a little bit sometimes, but again more
Speaker 1: for exercise. I would say, like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember, there was like no gyms anywhere, especially in
Speaker 1: Europe at the time, hotels didn't have gyms, or if
Speaker 1: they did, as like a teeny tiny room um in
Speaker 1: the basement of a hotel, and so I would sometimes
Speaker 1: bring shoes and go out for a run if I
Speaker 1: was jet lagged or there was a park nearby. Um.
Speaker 1: But I can't say I loved it. It was more
Speaker 1: like the something that I should be doing that I
Speaker 1: you know, I should be doing it like a chore
Speaker 1: like part of my job, but not necessarily what I loved.
Speaker 1: Did you love modeling? No, No, you didn't. You knows
Speaker 1: you didn't love modeling. You just kind of sucked, know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I liked a lot of things
Speaker 1: about the job that had nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: actual job. Um. I like the people. I like the
Speaker 1: playfulness again, I guess like to me when I, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was a teenager and started working, I would
Speaker 1: come to New York and you know, you have this
Speaker 1: creative group of people playing dress up essentially, like it
Speaker 1: was so much more fun than my friends in high
Speaker 1: school doing whatever they were doing, Like it like trying
Speaker 1: to be trying to go to clubs. And I did
Speaker 1: a little bit of that too when I got here.
Speaker 1: But for the most part. The work part of the
Speaker 1: day was more like fun, like what are we gonna
Speaker 1: do today and what's the going to be? And like
Speaker 1: playing and trying and scratching it and starting something again,
Speaker 1: Like there was something that was so kind of I
Speaker 1: don't know, it really felt like a collaborative, fun, creative
Speaker 1: process that even as a model, because I don't always
Speaker 1: find the model role of the whole team and fashion
Speaker 1: to be the most creative one. I mean, certainly there
Speaker 1: are some that are very creative, but I always kind
Speaker 1: of found like I'm supposed to be sort of I
Speaker 1: don't know, playing back in a way another person's or
Speaker 1: company's fantasy as opposed to being like an active participant
Speaker 1: in it. But there were so many instances early on
Speaker 1: that I think I really like that feeling of being
Speaker 1: a part of a team and then going on a trip,
Speaker 1: Like for me, that travel was always the most fun
Speaker 1: part about the whole job and the most exciting part.
Speaker 1: And I always love to, like go to a new country,
Speaker 1: go to a new city, and so you know, when
Speaker 1: you travel with people, you bond, you connect, you have
Speaker 1: these shared experiences, and to me that was everything. So
Speaker 1: the actually like okay, you gotta get up at five
Speaker 1: in the morning and get ready and then go stand
Speaker 1: in the cold or do whatever we have to do.
Speaker 1: That was like the but the fun part is like
Speaker 1: the getting there, the meals in between, the just the
Speaker 1: adventures that happened when you get on the road. That
Speaker 1: was so Now you're gonna laugh at me because to me,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a lawyer by training, and but to me,
Speaker 1: what you're describing doesn't actually sound that different from what
Speaker 1: I loved about being a young lawyer in London or
Speaker 1: in Paris or wherever. Was the travel and it was
Speaker 1: the people, and there was an aspect of it that
Speaker 1: was fun. The job stank like that was not the
Speaker 1: fun part, but it was. I mean, I would rather
Speaker 1: have been a model, I think in a direct video,
Speaker 1: but um, you know, you take what you can get.
Speaker 1: But it's uh, I think at that age there is
Speaker 1: something so opening through your job. It's just like it
Speaker 1: was a different time or like that was really the
Speaker 1: portal for me to experience so much was that first
Speaker 1: those first work experiences. Absolutely, the people that Christie was
Speaker 1: working with. I mean, I'll tell you from being in
Speaker 1: the same industry, the top of the top, you know,
Speaker 1: the orbit the photographers like honestly, like the top of
Speaker 1: the Top. I mean, I don't think you did much
Speaker 1: catalog work, Christie, Well that that's actually the funny thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like there was a lot of catalog work
Speaker 1: then remember Spiegel did you ever work? So there was
Speaker 1: like the German clients and the German catalogs right where
Speaker 1: you get there, and literally you couldn't sit down for lunch.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, the clock is ticking, and
Speaker 1: how I think could get ten shots? I mean like
Speaker 1: it was just a machine, and so that's no fun.
Speaker 1: I mean you'd hope that you could have a laugh
Speaker 1: in the makeup and hair, you know, chairs, because otherwise
Speaker 1: it was a bit of torture. And then there was
Speaker 1: every now and again the fun shoot, which you're right.
Speaker 1: I got to work with some of the most amazing people,
Speaker 1: many of them are no longer with us um, but
Speaker 1: to have had that experience to get to I think
Speaker 1: the beauty also being a model or or on the
Speaker 1: hair makeup team, is that we get to come in
Speaker 1: and out of those crews and those teams all the time,
Speaker 1: work with the different magazines. You get kind of insight
Speaker 1: to it all. Whereas the photographers. You know, they only
Speaker 1: know what they know, They only know their own universe.
Speaker 1: And and I think that can I don't know, for
Speaker 1: like the assistance in the groups that are so tightly
Speaker 1: connected to at one team. I think you miss a
Speaker 1: lot of the fun because you only know that one team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see you on Instagram, you know with all the
Speaker 1: other models, you know, the same models of the same
Speaker 1: You know, you seem to be friends with a bunch
Speaker 1: of the girls. Do you keep in touch with a
Speaker 1: bunch of them? Yeah, I mean I I don't see
Speaker 1: too many in person these days, just because of COVID.
Speaker 1: But then also not everybody lives in New York anymore. Um,
Speaker 1: I you know, I'll see Cindy sometimes. She lives in
Speaker 1: l A, but she comes to New York quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Uh Naomi is still moving at the pace that she
Speaker 1: always did, even in the pandemic somehow, And I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, unbelievable. I know, she's she's a hero, amazing.
Speaker 1: So when did you start, every mother count what was
Speaker 1: happening in your journey when you started at Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I get, I mean I still model sometimes, so
Speaker 1: I can't say I stopped her, but I stopped in
Speaker 1: my mind working as a full time model. About ten
Speaker 1: years in, I went back to school to just get
Speaker 1: my undergrad degree at n y U UM in like
Speaker 1: ninety five or ninety six. So that sort of was
Speaker 1: the break off to kind of figure out who I
Speaker 1: wanted to be and what what were my I had
Speaker 1: a ton of interest, but it was like, let me,
Speaker 1: let me explore those parts of myself, because I could
Speaker 1: see how twenty years could get sucked away if the
Speaker 1: industry even would have me. To be honest, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't really have a big future plan with my
Speaker 1: modeling career. I was always like, oh, wow, here I
Speaker 1: am five years in or ten years in. I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe actually that I lasted that long. And so then
Speaker 1: school I went full time for four years. UM. I
Speaker 1: was feeling like, you know, my mid twenties, I I
Speaker 1: felt like I was behind and so I was trying
Speaker 1: to catch up and I graduated at thirty. What did
Speaker 1: you study? Initially? It's I took a liberal arts degree
Speaker 1: at the Gallatin School, which is an individualized study program
Speaker 1: at n y U. And I initially was interested in
Speaker 1: like art history and the things that my sister was
Speaker 1: studying in college, like literature, and and then I started
Speaker 1: studying comparative religion, and I kind of and I was
Speaker 1: practicing yoga a lot at that time in my life
Speaker 1: or just starting too, and so my studies kind of
Speaker 1: went into comparative religion, Eastern philosophy, and then I got
Speaker 1: to still touch on all those parts of the liceral
Speaker 1: arts degree that I was already interested in. So it
Speaker 1: was so much fun, like the whole experience, not traveling
Speaker 1: as much for for the first time in ten years,
Speaker 1: sort of creating a home for myself in this city
Speaker 1: that I called a home already, you know, from the
Speaker 1: age of like sixteen or seventeen, and then like really
Speaker 1: making a home. You know. I think I had a
Speaker 1: boyfriend in those years, but I wasn't living with anybody,
Speaker 1: so it was really creating my own space, my own home,
Speaker 1: walking to school, walking home from school, making friends outside
Speaker 1: of the industry, and it was a really magical time.
Speaker 1: I also started doing other things, you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: I guess philanthropy started to kind of become more of
Speaker 1: a choice. I think, you know, our industry has always
Speaker 1: had since I've been in it, philanthropic side obviously, HIV.
Speaker 1: AIDS was a big problem when I became a model
Speaker 1: in the mid eighties, and I grew up in the
Speaker 1: East Bay area, so outside of San Francisco, so I
Speaker 1: felt like I knew people who were dying of AIDS
Speaker 1: before I came to New York. And then of course
Speaker 1: when I got to New York, you know constantly UM
Speaker 1: and so I was aware of that issue, and the
Speaker 1: industry really rallied. I would say around it, um, I'd
Speaker 1: say soon after that, you know, breast cancers. A lot
Speaker 1: of work and activity around that. So I would kind
Speaker 1: of play my role but more as a sort of sure,
Speaker 1: I'll show up to that thing, yeah, you know, donate.
Speaker 1: And then I started to um have more opportunities to
Speaker 1: kind of explore for myself, like what what did I
Speaker 1: really really care about? And for me, it was pretty straightforward,
Speaker 1: like my mom's from Central America, she's from El Salvador.
Speaker 1: And I got asked in the very early nineties if
Speaker 1: I when the war had ended, there would I, you know,
Speaker 1: help out to try to create some I don't know,
Speaker 1: positive publicity around the country. And it's a country that
Speaker 1: I had grown up going to have been and so
Speaker 1: to be able to go back after the war and
Speaker 1: have you know, I don't know, for people to realize
Speaker 1: that I was actually from that part of the world
Speaker 1: was also like a really I think important thing for
Speaker 1: me as a young adult. And then my next thing
Speaker 1: was my father had cancer and he died from lung cancer.
Speaker 1: And I had been a smoker in my teens in
Speaker 1: early twenties, so I had an opportunity to kind of
Speaker 1: share my testimony and share my dad's story and advocate,
Speaker 1: and um, that was a pretty exciting time because you know,
Speaker 1: tobacco cessation and prevention was very much in the culture
Speaker 1: for the first time. When I look at that public
Speaker 1: health nightmare, it's amazing where how far we've come. And
Speaker 1: my kids have grown up kind of like they see
Speaker 1: a cigarette, they're like what is that. They're seemingly making
Speaker 1: a comeback, but for most of their lives they've been
Speaker 1: like what is that. I know, if my daughter smells
Speaker 1: it on the streets, she's like taking it back, She's like,
Speaker 1: what is what's happening? Like, Oh, that's a cigarette, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a cigarette smoke, and she's really that's It's like,
Speaker 1: that's the normal weed smell that we smell. Anywhere that
Speaker 1: she's used to. Unfortunately, in the streets of New York.
Speaker 1: I think that she doesn't notice. But cigarette smoke is
Speaker 1: quite charring. It's interesting. We didn't know it was bad
Speaker 1: for you back then, you know. I mean I smoked
Speaker 1: in high school. No one said you shouldn't be doing this,
Speaker 1: it's not good for you, which is crazy. I kind
Speaker 1: of think I knew it was bad for me, but
Speaker 1: I I also was attracted to it for those reasons.
Speaker 1: You know, my dad smoked always and said there was
Speaker 1: always cigarettes around. I feel like most of my friends
Speaker 1: parents one or both smoked. So when we started like
Speaker 1: sneak cigarettes or you know, try to look like we
Speaker 1: were older or cool, we would be smoking. And I
Speaker 1: also grew up horseback riding, and everyone around the horses
Speaker 1: smoked like everyone. So yeah, I started smoking in my
Speaker 1: I don't know, twelve thirteen a little bit. And then
Speaker 1: by the time I was modeling at fifteen, I would
Speaker 1: like carry my pack of cigarettes around and I was
Speaker 1: smoking all the time. And I think in those early
Speaker 1: years too, when I was a bit more shy and
Speaker 1: trying to kind of get the lay the land, it
Speaker 1: gave you this sense that you were doing something when
Speaker 1: you weren't doing anything when you're sitting like now people
Speaker 1: would be on their phone, but back then, you'd sit
Speaker 1: in a studio in a corner while they were like
Speaker 1: ignoring you or like making you wait to have an appointment,
Speaker 1: and you just like smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes
Speaker 1: and sit there as if like you're you're doing something. UM. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I I quit when I was about twenty five, right
Speaker 1: before I went back to college, and my dad died
Speaker 1: two years later, and so I felt very confident by
Speaker 1: the time I started advocating on that issue that I
Speaker 1: was done done and that I could be trustworthy UM
Speaker 1: public person advocating on that topic. And and that's where
Speaker 1: I kind of got excited about public health and advocacy
Speaker 1: really UM. And that sort of prepared me for when
Speaker 1: I became a mom. And when I became a mom,
Speaker 1: I experienced a postpartum hemorrhage. And that's really what brought
Speaker 1: me into this work around internal health. Wow, So what
Speaker 1: your did you what did you found it two thousands? Oh?
Speaker 1: I found the organization two thousand and ten, but I
Speaker 1: became a mom in two thousand and three. But you
Speaker 1: realize the power of your voice in that different way
Speaker 1: must have been pretty incredible. I mean, because it's you know,
Speaker 1: you're where where you're talking about how you were. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're modeling that you're bringing somebody else's vision to
Speaker 1: life or your kind of acting in that way. But
Speaker 1: then to be able to take that attention in the
Speaker 1: spotlights that's being shown on you and shine it on
Speaker 1: things that you care about, it's pretty powerful. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I think there's when you're at all in the public,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a sort of pressure or there's
Speaker 1: the questions like, oh, and you should feel like you
Speaker 1: you should be doing these things. And yet to me,
Speaker 1: there's nothing worse than having somebody in an obligatory way,
Speaker 1: I guess, put themselves out there just to do it
Speaker 1: because it's the right thing to do. It's to me,
Speaker 1: it really had to feel grounded in like an experience
Speaker 1: um for me to find my voice in that. And
Speaker 1: I think going back to school also gave me confidence.
Speaker 1: Just like I had to talk in the classroom, I
Speaker 1: had to share my thoughts and my ideas, I had
Speaker 1: to introduce myself every semester in every class like that
Speaker 1: gave me a certain kind of confidence outside of my career,
Speaker 1: which was a success, and I didn't have to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of earn your stripes right in
Speaker 1: the industry. Like at a certain point you can say
Speaker 1: more because your experience, your experiences inform you that, Like
Speaker 1: you see somebody else with me, you're like, hey, I
Speaker 1: didn't know I could do that, but now I can.
Speaker 1: Like remember the first time I said I'm not going
Speaker 1: to wear fur. I didn't know I could say that.
Speaker 1: I figured, like, I'm hired, it's not my choice, but
Speaker 1: I of course I had choice within the realm of um,
Speaker 1: you know, a certain amount of choice. But it also
Speaker 1: must have been such a transition for you because you
Speaker 1: were known for your face. You couldn't go anywhere without
Speaker 1: people either staring at you were saying something or you know,
Speaker 1: there were no phones back then, so maybe pull out
Speaker 1: their camera and take a picture. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're going back to school and be mean
Speaker 1: someone that talks about the things that matters. I just
Speaker 1: think it must have been maybe subconsciously like empowering for
Speaker 1: you that it wasn't just about the way you look.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, And yet I also feel like it happened
Speaker 1: gradually enough that it never felt like something that happened overnight.
Speaker 1: And I also felt I don't know, I never felt
Speaker 1: like I attracted the kind of attention that some of
Speaker 1: my peers did. Like I wasn't followed around with a
Speaker 1: camera outside of work. I really wasn't. I didn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't have a very um I don't think I had
Speaker 1: such an exciting, uh like personal life. So for me
Speaker 1: being able to like look like I did if I
Speaker 1: wasn't at work with makeup and dressed up, I kind
Speaker 1: of ease in and out of life very easily. The differences.
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a last name that is
Speaker 1: a little unique. It's not something you hear all the time,
Speaker 1: so it's not like Christie Smith sitting in the background class.
Speaker 1: But mostly it didn't matter. I think the age difference
Speaker 1: that I was, even from my student peers, was enough
Speaker 1: that they weren't as in the weeds of what I did.
Speaker 1: I feel like my peer group if I was with
Speaker 1: people that were my age, maybe, but I already feel
Speaker 1: like students eight years younger than me, like they were
Speaker 1: in the whoever was next? Like you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It wasn't like they were preoccupied. That was I didn't
Speaker 1: know what it was going to be like, and it
Speaker 1: was much more comfortable than I realized. And then it
Speaker 1: just got more and more comfortable, as like a muscle
Speaker 1: you practice, you know, you just you just do and
Speaker 1: then you're like, oh, I can get outside of my
Speaker 1: comfort zone or I can blend in and I you know,
Speaker 1: no one's looking at me in thinking why am I
Speaker 1: talking about this or why do I have this opinion?
Speaker 1: It just sort of you know, all of us have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do that if we feel confident in
Speaker 1: doing it, and should have the voice and place to
Speaker 1: do it. And so tell me just a little bit
Speaker 1: more about what every mother accounts does I mean besides
Speaker 1: education and awareness, yeah, we UM. I mean our mission
Speaker 1: is really to make pregnancy and child worth safe for
Speaker 1: every mother everywhere, which is a massive mission UM. But
Speaker 1: what that entails is educating the public in a big
Speaker 1: way through UM films and storytelling, UM, through working on
Speaker 1: policy and advocacy changed so that people can sort of
Speaker 1: demand for change, UM, advocate on behalf of themselves for
Speaker 1: what they need in that moment um, to advocate for
Speaker 1: support for respectful care. I think it's sort of assumed
Speaker 1: that you know, even if you have access to healthcare
Speaker 1: that that's like quality care, but actually, like quality care
Speaker 1: is really quite um interesting, Like, you know, we sort
Speaker 1: of expect a very low standard of quality, I think
Speaker 1: in terms of our interaction with um with medical providers.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, we all are intimidated by doctors.
Speaker 1: And I know, Angelo, you you're married to one, so
Speaker 1: you will see this in a different way. But I
Speaker 1: feel like most people kind of again talk about surrender.
Speaker 1: They see somebody that's in a white coat or that
Speaker 1: has doctor next to their name, and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know best, you're the boss. I feel that way too,
Speaker 1: And the thing, yeah, I've been married for twenty some
Speaker 1: years and I still feel that way when a doctor
Speaker 1: walks in the room, but to the point that actually
Speaker 1: it's it's weird. My husband will even like when we're
Speaker 1: going through our medical stuff trying to have a baby, um,
Speaker 1: the doctor would walk on the room and I would
Speaker 1: completely clam up. And I'm not shy for talking and
Speaker 1: advocating for myself, but in that scenario, you're so vulnerable,
Speaker 1: you're so nervous. I was, at least, and I would
Speaker 1: completely clamb up. I wouldn't ask questions. I wouldn't, you know,
Speaker 1: it was really unlike me, and so I'd have to
Speaker 1: write them all down and make him as that, which
Speaker 1: was so great. It's so not how I am in
Speaker 1: any other part of my life. But in a medical setting,
Speaker 1: I felt super nervous. Yeah, I think you do. I
Speaker 1: think everyone feels that way to an extamp. But I
Speaker 1: think then put on put add onto that you're a woman,
Speaker 1: add onto that, if you're a woman of color, um
Speaker 1: add on to that. You know, like there's just these
Speaker 1: different layers. And so I think our system has really
Speaker 1: sat people up for not feeling their most confident, not
Speaker 1: feeling that they know how their bodies work, or feel
Speaker 1: that connection to themselves enough to be able to know
Speaker 1: what questions to ask. And I really think healthcare needs
Speaker 1: to be a partnership. It needs to be like patient
Speaker 1: and provider coming together and working together to have the
Speaker 1: best possible outcome. So we do a lot of just
Speaker 1: like sharing of resources and information, just making it in
Speaker 1: this world of so much information, especially around pregnancy and childbirth.
Speaker 1: Right like you go googling, and you know you'd be,
Speaker 1: you know, beside yourself, terrified of what could possibly happen,
Speaker 1: and yet a healthy amount of fear and maybe just
Speaker 1: being aware of the possibilities is also really empowering. Um.
Speaker 1: I was very very prepared coming into pregnancy. It was
Speaker 1: like I was ready to become a mom. I felt
Speaker 1: like I'd had one career, i had gone back to school,
Speaker 1: I started a few other kinds of careers, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm ready. I'm in my thirties, I'm not
Speaker 1: a baby. I'm like, I'm informed. I have a supportive
Speaker 1: like husband and like a system around me to like
Speaker 1: get me the support I needed. And and then the
Speaker 1: annex spect it happened, which was to have that experience
Speaker 1: of the postpartum hemorrhage after my baby was born. So
Speaker 1: when you think, like healthy child, she's out of my body,
Speaker 1: surely this is over, and then it's like, no, they're
Speaker 1: just starting. Yeah, exactly exactly. So I feel like I
Speaker 1: feel like I was informed and I wasn't completely. And
Speaker 1: I just know how many other people don't have any
Speaker 1: sexual reproductive education at school. We don't allow it to
Speaker 1: be taught in most states, um, you know, most counties
Speaker 1: in the country. So like people are really not that
Speaker 1: aware and sort of fighting themselves pregnant oops sex pregnant,
Speaker 1: not having a savings because it's very expensive to become
Speaker 1: a parent UM, as you both know, and UM to
Speaker 1: support a child and a family through UM, through pregnancy
Speaker 1: and childbirth, and then to raise them for the rest
Speaker 1: of their life. UM. Like these are things that need
Speaker 1: a lot of thought and care and planning, and most
Speaker 1: people in the world, but in this country, enter it
Speaker 1: not prepared and so part of our I would say,
Speaker 1: our role as an organization is making sure that people
Speaker 1: know their rights, know their options, UM, utilize those options,
Speaker 1: learn to use their voice, ask the questions UM, and
Speaker 1: then advocate so that others can have a better experience UM.
Speaker 1: Because I truly believe, like you know, this has to
Speaker 1: get better UM, and in order for it to get better,
Speaker 1: we all have to be sort of out there talking
Speaker 1: and advocating together. Where is the focus of your work
Speaker 1: works countries and you do a lot more in the
Speaker 1: US than I knew about. Yeah, we increased a lot
Speaker 1: through COVID. Actually, I would say before before COVID, we
Speaker 1: were about maybe of our funding went to programs here
Speaker 1: in the US, all community based UM. And then we
Speaker 1: also have pritners in Guatemala, Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, uh Nepal,
Speaker 1: and Indonesia. UM. And you know, like I'm actually leaving
Speaker 1: for Africa on Sunday, and so we're going to be
Speaker 1: adding to our African partners, you know, through a few
Speaker 1: new relationships in Kenya most likely, but also visiting Tanzania.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so much neat around the world that's
Speaker 1: like a very like tiny tiny amount of countries to
Speaker 1: be focused on. And yet it's always been really important
Speaker 1: that there is a kind of global perspective on this issue. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first started learning about the magnitude
Speaker 1: of the problem that you know, hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 1: girls woman die every year from pregnancy and childbirth related complications.
Speaker 1: You know, of those deaths do happen in the global South,
Speaker 1: in the developing world. UM. But the United States is
Speaker 1: ranked fifty five in the world, Like we are doing
Speaker 1: so badly and we've fallen behind from forty one in
Speaker 1: the world since I became a mom. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're of two industrialized countries with the highest matroal mortality
Speaker 1: like ratio on the rise, Like why how is that possible?
Speaker 1: So the stats are shocking. Those those stats are so
Speaker 1: and I think people really just assume it's another place
Speaker 1: problem as opposed to it's happening in our own backyards,
Speaker 1: and people are not aware of it, and I don't
Speaker 1: know what resources are needed and all that into the
Speaker 1: work you're doing. It's really incredible to shine a light
Speaker 1: on it and to really, you know, just to get
Speaker 1: everyone to understand that there's not a a problem happening
Speaker 1: to other people. It's happening right here too. And you're
Speaker 1: taking care of the world. You're taking care of your family.
Speaker 1: How does Christie take care of Christie? Tell us some
Speaker 1: of your like tangible secrets, like what do you eat?
Speaker 1: What do you you know? Do take baths? What are
Speaker 1: your things? Oh? I love baths. My whole family are
Speaker 1: big bathsakers. Think goodness? Wit of live in California anymore?
Speaker 1: Um I I yoga. I mean I discovered yoga at
Speaker 1: eighteen years old, and it has been the kind of
Speaker 1: that keeps giving in the pandemic. I went from practicing
Speaker 1: like two times a week, where I would like squeeze
Speaker 1: those classes in on my busy work week or when
Speaker 1: I was traveling. I went to like practicing six days
Speaker 1: a week, I practiced from home. I'm still doing like
Speaker 1: zoom classes with a group two groups from California that
Speaker 1: just started in those early weeks and have just been
Speaker 1: my like steady, steady, consistent, like reprieve in my day
Speaker 1: that keeps me going. What kind of yoga? Um, it
Speaker 1: is like a vinyasa practice. Um. You know, I've kind
Speaker 1: of over the years done at all from Mashtonga to
Speaker 1: I younger. But I found that, like I like to
Speaker 1: have more precision around post years after doing it for
Speaker 1: so many years. But at the same time, I like
Speaker 1: to have sort of flow in the practice. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like it's been my favorite. And what about food? Food?
Speaker 1: Do you have a practice in food? Not really? I
Speaker 1: mean I I mean I try. I think I'm a
Speaker 1: pretty healthy eater. But I was vegetarian for a few
Speaker 1: years but before I became a mom and then I
Speaker 1: just kind of listen to my body. I feel like moderation.
Speaker 1: I mean, I try to eat things that are seasonal.
Speaker 1: I don't like indulge too much, but not because I
Speaker 1: not because I don't allow myself to. Just I feel
Speaker 1: like moderation is the way. Um, I do have guilty
Speaker 1: pleasure and fried foods I love. I mean, like, if
Speaker 1: it's fried and it's in front of me, I will
Speaker 1: eat almost anything. Um, but I am, but I don't
Speaker 1: tend to have it that much like temporo will be
Speaker 1: like on the edge for me in my normal life.
Speaker 1: My daughter became a vegan over a year ago, and
Speaker 1: so she's been introducing more plant based foods in our
Speaker 1: all of our lives that I think is beneficial to
Speaker 1: us all um. It's also made her a better cook,
Speaker 1: and so that's been really nice that she kind of
Speaker 1: wants to share and she wants us to sort of try.
Speaker 1: And you know, if she see I cleanse sometimes like
Speaker 1: once a year or so, she'll be like, Mom, don't
Speaker 1: just cleanse, just just do vegan. Just do vegan with me.
Speaker 1: You don't have to do a juice cleans like, you
Speaker 1: don't have to just just be vegan. So I'm kind
Speaker 1: of open, I believe, and maybe yoga helped me get there.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I listen to my body, and
Speaker 1: my body typically tells me what I need. Um, And
Speaker 1: if I eat something that isn't great for me, it's
Speaker 1: easily eliminated, you know what I mean. It doesn't stick
Speaker 1: very long so quite literally, you are so balanced. I
Speaker 1: think it's quite something. But so there's one question I
Speaker 1: ask everyone that's on the show, and I think it's
Speaker 1: the most important one, which is if people listening could
Speaker 1: do one thing that you're gonna recommend that could change
Speaker 1: their life, one thing, what would it be? I would
Speaker 1: say initiative practice, a meditation practice, a yoga practice, a
Speaker 1: practice um, something that has you sort of sitting with yourself,
Speaker 1: getting comfortable, sitting in solitude or in peace quiet um.
Speaker 1: And I think that could be in movement to I suppose,
Speaker 1: but just that sort of you know, when I run,
Speaker 1: I don't take music with me, I don't listen to podcast.
Speaker 1: Sorry for your daughters, but hey, I want to be
Speaker 1: That's like one of the few times of the day
Speaker 1: where I'm not connected, where I can just breathe and
Speaker 1: I can just take in what's around me and the
Speaker 1: noises of the city or the noises of the country
Speaker 1: wherever I am. And so I don't know, I think
Speaker 1: building a practice figuring out how to be alone with
Speaker 1: yourself is a really healthy practice. I like that a lot,
Speaker 1: being alone with yourself as Yeah, but you can take
Speaker 1: us with you listener, don't listen to question. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. It's been amazing to
Speaker 1: you know, to first of all to see you and
Speaker 1: always one of my favorites, one of my favorite humans,
Speaker 1: not just favorite models, so I will say that here here,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much, such a joy, joy
Speaker 1: to be with you both. To doto dot to be
Speaker 1: inher