Speaker 1: Before we get into the episode, we want to issue
Speaker 1: a trigger warning as the episode does touch on themes
Speaker 1: relating to eating disorders. Episode one, The Rise of Sarah's Day.
Speaker 1: Sarah Stevenson is one of Australia's biggest influences. Her YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: Sarah's Day has over one point five million subscribers, while
Speaker 1: her Instagram account boasts one point two million followers.
Speaker 2: Good morning guys, an official walk back to my channel.
Speaker 1: The self proclaimed holistic health princess cultivated a devoted following
Speaker 1: for her raw approach and passion for health and fitness,
Speaker 1: but in twenty seventeen, the tide began to turn when
Speaker 1: Sarah claimed she had healed her cervical displacire through healthy eating.
Speaker 2: The rest of this video is just telling you all
Speaker 2: of the healthy ways that I cured my cervix and
Speaker 2: how I am now free, pretty much free from cervical displacure.
Speaker 1: She was slammed by the press was spreading medical misinformation,
Speaker 1: and followers began to turn some.
Speaker 2: Of the messages I'm getting you guys like full on
Speaker 2: like hate, death threats.
Speaker 1: Controversy has followed the thirty year old ever since, with
Speaker 1: explosive reactions online to her every.
Speaker 2: Move, one dollar will go towards Saint Vincent's bushfire appeal.
Speaker 2: I just got so much hate on that post.
Speaker 1: She's been accused of cultural appropriation, targeting people with eating
Speaker 1: disorders and taking down small businesses. We are journalist Amy
Speaker 1: Kay and Sophie Torber and we're fascinated by the world
Speaker 1: of influencers and the psychology of cancel culture. In this series,
Speaker 1: we will delve into Sarah's Day's biggest scandals, her fall
Speaker 1: from grace, cancel culture, and the dangers of influence.
Speaker 3: This is outspoken plus.
Speaker 1: When you say the name Sarah's Day, it attracts one
Speaker 1: of two reactions. People either love her or hate her.
Speaker 1: When Sarah first started out on Instagram in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: she was this very relatable twenty year old girl who
Speaker 1: came from a middle class family in Cranulla and originally
Speaker 1: her channel was all about documenting her day, hence the
Speaker 1: name Sarah's Day. Her channel name has led to so
Speaker 1: much confusion because people think that Day is her last name,
Speaker 1: when it is in fact Stevenson. I must have meant
Speaker 1: I was one of those people to begin with. It
Speaker 1: is really confusing and I feel like It's almost worked
Speaker 1: in her favor since all these controversies have happened, because
Speaker 1: people are calling her not by.
Speaker 3: Her actual name.
Speaker 1: Now. When Sarah first broke into the social media scene,
Speaker 1: it was just her side hustle. She was starting to
Speaker 1: become a teacher and also working in retail, so I
Speaker 1: don't think that she ever envisioned that this was going
Speaker 1: to be a huge business for her. Well, at the time,
Speaker 1: there weren't really influencers like there are now. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't think the word influencer was even around. It was
Speaker 1: so weird watching her first video on YouTube from twenty
Speaker 1: thirteen and hearing her describe her channel.
Speaker 3: Let's throw to what she said.
Speaker 2: Everything, you know, I really believe in the power of
Speaker 2: Fritz vegetables and the Earth's you know, natural ingredients.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty much what my Instagram's about. Second YouTube video,
Speaker 1: Sarah shared a recipe for a ducee that she claimed
Speaker 1: would make you look good in a body con dress
Speaker 1: but also turn your pooh red. This just says what
Speaker 1: sort of time it was, though, the fact that it
Speaker 1: was a body chondress those were very popular in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: I do love the disclaimer though, because how many people
Speaker 1: would have actually drunk it and gone oh shit. Well,
Speaker 1: it sounds like Sarah did the exactly same. I think
Speaker 1: we need to wind the clock back ten years ago
Speaker 1: and take a look at what was happening in the
Speaker 1: health and fitness space in Australia when Sarah emerged on
Speaker 1: the scene. So the year was twenty thirteen, Instagram was
Speaker 1: entering its prime and a new era of beauty standards
Speaker 1: were quickly being established online and the word fitzbo was
Speaker 1: dominating our social media feeds. The term is short for
Speaker 1: fitzpiration and it began trending as a response to the
Speaker 1: concerning thinsbow trend that dominated the early naughties. So harmful
Speaker 1: mottos and posts were being shared across blog sites and
Speaker 1: social media channels, motivating dramatic weight loss. And with this
Speaker 1: in hindsight, it's interesting to look back now and see
Speaker 1: that fitspo was actually created to counteract thinspo by shifting
Speaker 1: the focus to achieving fitness instead of thinness. So whilst
Speaker 1: it was first intended to promote health.
Speaker 3: Audiences were bombarded.
Speaker 1: With these perfect bodies and clean eating on social media sites,
Speaker 1: so the trend triggered obsessive behaviors, and it also created
Speaker 1: impossible beauty standards to live up to. It even sparked
Speaker 1: a new form of eating disorder known as orthorexia, which
Speaker 1: is a condition that includes symptoms of obsessive behavior in
Speaker 1: pursuit of a perceived healthy diet. So this ideal body
Speaker 1: had changed amongst society. The new era of beauty was
Speaker 1: epitomized by six pack abs, a peachy bum, and a
Speaker 1: ripped body. I'm not sure if it's much of an
Speaker 1: upgrade there from finspo. It's just another form of body
Speaker 1: that's really hard to achieve now. Fitness influences were of
Speaker 1: course at the heart of the fitspo movement, offering food
Speaker 1: and fitness advice and often selling ebooks filled with eating
Speaker 1: plans to encourage the strict avoidance of food like meat, sugar, dairy,
Speaker 1: and wheat, and despite having no formal training, influencers advice
Speaker 1: was being sought after more than medical professionals. The two
Speaker 1: biggest names in the fitness space at the time were
Speaker 1: ash Binds and Kayla at Cenus. Now, Ashy's online Bikini
Speaker 1: Body Challenge launched in twenty eleven, while Kayla at Senus
Speaker 1: launched her Bikini Bodyguide. In twenty fourteen, the pair became
Speaker 1: instant millionaires. Both fitness plans included the word bikini and
Speaker 1: it was all about flogging yourself in the gym to
Speaker 1: be hashtag bikini ready. This was, of course, well before
Speaker 1: the body positivity movement. Who now promote the fact that
Speaker 1: you just need a bikini to be bikini ready? Now?
Speaker 1: I want people to be honest. Who had which guide?
Speaker 3: I had the Kayler at Cenis Guide and I.
Speaker 1: Didn't purchase it. It was a copy that seemed to
Speaker 1: be passed on to a lot of people in our
Speaker 1: friendship group. I had a few tatty pieces of paper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the risk at the time, wasn't it. That
Speaker 1: they're selling pdf so basically anyone could just send them around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had the said copy, but I actually got mine
Speaker 1: bind so I have it still to this day. I
Speaker 1: actually paid for mine. I'm guessing that's where we got
Speaker 1: our copies from. Well. In twenty twenty one, Kayla announced
Speaker 1: that she would be renaming her Bikini Bodyguide workouts to
Speaker 1: High Intensity, as she felt the name represented an outdated
Speaker 1: view of health and fitness, and this was after the
Speaker 1: birth of her daughter Anna. She said that she felt
Speaker 1: it was time to evolve and use language that feels
Speaker 1: more positive for women today. So you can just see
Speaker 1: how far we have come. And when you compare somebody
Speaker 1: like Sarah to Kayla, I think one initially attracted people
Speaker 1: to Sarah was that she was an oversharer. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: all we really saw from Kayla were her incredible apps,
Speaker 1: and at the time Instagram was really just a photo app.
Speaker 1: We didn't see much video. So the fact that Sarah
Speaker 1: was able to use YouTube to her advantage that early on,
Speaker 1: and she has so much about her life is the
Speaker 1: reason I think she is still very popular today exactly.
Speaker 1: And so many people were drawn to her YouTube channels
Speaker 1: because she spoke a lot about her struggles with hormonal acne.
Speaker 1: But it was her breakup in June twenty sixteen with
Speaker 1: her long term boyfriend Match that started gaining her a
Speaker 1: lot of traction.
Speaker 2: Half day done at the snow, I have had a
Speaker 2: bit of a hiccup. The reason I'm here by myself
Speaker 2: is to, I guess, do some soul searching and find
Speaker 2: who I am again by myself being single. When I
Speaker 2: was running down one of the mountains, I rode past
Speaker 2: my ex boyfriend, so that didn't give me the best vibes. Ever,
Speaker 2: I can't really get the fact that he's here out
Speaker 2: of my head.
Speaker 1: This clip went viral, and this is how so many
Speaker 1: of her diehard supporters originally came across her content. In
Speaker 1: a recent interview with influencer Grace Beverly, Sarah said that
Speaker 1: this video pushed her channel onto YouTube's recommended page and
Speaker 1: it actually led to her gaining over forty thousand new followers.
Speaker 1: I always wondered what video it was that went viral
Speaker 1: for her, because when you go back and look at
Speaker 1: some of the old videos about her hormono acne, it's
Speaker 1: not really interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she went there with her content.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing stuff talking about like her periods, about
Speaker 1: her discharge, like nothing is off limit when it comes
Speaker 1: to Sarah. I do find it also interesting that Sarah
Speaker 1: very much in that interview with Grace Beverley, was saying
Speaker 1: that you had to have abs and look a certain
Speaker 1: way on YouTube and Instagram. But it's ironic that it
Speaker 1: was actually her revealing all these details about her personal
Speaker 1: life is actually.
Speaker 3: What got her notice.
Speaker 1: And I feel like she is still to this day
Speaker 1: trying to rebel against that we saw her earlier in
Speaker 1: the year not wanting to do vlogs anymore, but she
Speaker 1: quickly always goes back to that medium because she knows
Speaker 1: that's what people want to watch. And she really had
Speaker 1: this ability to make followers feel like they were genuinely
Speaker 1: her friends. And she does this by using specific language
Speaker 1: on her channel, so she references her audience as being
Speaker 1: her sissies. And she's also constantly using her own nickname Okay,
Speaker 1: I just.
Speaker 2: Want to bring it back to her original deasy.
Speaker 1: It sort of becomes endearing because you feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's Sezi, that's my friend. Yes, ironic that she's the
Speaker 1: one pushing that name to you.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: A big turning point in Sarah's life and her YouTube
Speaker 1: career came in November twenty sixteen, and this is when
Speaker 1: she met her now husband.
Speaker 3: Kurt tills So.
Speaker 1: Just five months from her breakup with Mitch. She met
Speaker 1: Kurt So. He was a carpenter by day and a
Speaker 1: budding photographer on the weekends, and the pair had a
Speaker 1: whirlwind romance. They became official after just a few weeks
Speaker 1: of dating.
Speaker 2: I normally want Baker eggs and he wants save because
Speaker 2: he's a girl.
Speaker 1: Look so great.
Speaker 3: Hashtag comp golf.
Speaker 1: There has been a lot of speculation online about how
Speaker 1: Kurt and Sarah actually met, and the official line has
Speaker 1: always been that they met organically, but word on the
Speaker 1: street is that it was a Tinder meeting. I definitely
Speaker 1: think that's correct because in her pregnancy announcement with her
Speaker 1: first son, Fox, she said that her and Kurt met
Speaker 1: up at ten o'clock for a coffee at a random
Speaker 1: coffee shop in the city. That to me is the
Speaker 1: epitome of a Tinder date. Nochee, because I feel like,
Speaker 1: at this time and now everyone meets online. I think
Speaker 1: it's funny that they're trying to hide it. And I
Speaker 1: remember in lots of log Sarah was saying that she
Speaker 1: used to go walk down at the esplanade at Cernulla
Speaker 1: to try and meet her husband. I think Tinder seems
Speaker 1: like a much better spot other than just like smiling,
Speaker 1: it passes by well. While their early relationship did look
Speaker 1: magical online, Sarah recently revealed during an interview that she
Speaker 1: was initially suss about Kurt's intentions, so on their second date,
Speaker 1: Kurt basically love bombed her, and this led Sarah to
Speaker 1: question his intention I actually.
Speaker 3: Can't believe he said I love you on the second day.
Speaker 1: Well, it makes it pretty interesting because in this pregnancy announcement,
Speaker 1: Sarah was saying that she thought she'd been friend zoned
Speaker 1: and Kurt said it was love at first sight. And
Speaker 1: I always thought that it was Sarah pushing the relationship
Speaker 1: more than Kurt.
Speaker 3: So this added a really interesting element.
Speaker 1: Well, I think Sarah really was in the driver's seat
Speaker 1: and calling a lot of shots in this relationship, because
Speaker 1: she recently said on the Grace Beverly podcast that she
Speaker 1: tried to break things off with Kurt only four months in,
Speaker 1: which makes this timeline really interesting because they moved in
Speaker 1: together after four months, so he must have either been Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to try and make this work or we're
Speaker 1: going to end things. And at the time they were
Speaker 1: complete couple goals. I remember watching their YouTube and being
Speaker 1: single and being jealous of this beautiful relationship we were
Speaker 1: seeing unfold. Well, you can see why Sarah was questioning
Speaker 1: his intentions because at the time Kurt was living such
Speaker 1: a different life to Sarah. He was a party boy
Speaker 1: who had recently come out of a bad breakup, and
Speaker 1: he found himself in debt and revealed on his podcast
Speaker 1: The Health Coat that there were some weeks he couldn't
Speaker 1: afford it tuna or rise.
Speaker 3: And that's his staple, isn't it? For the six pack?
Speaker 1: Really was that while he was hanging out with Sarah,
Speaker 1: she had an abundance of.
Speaker 3: General ross Well.
Speaker 1: Kurt made the shock admission in twenty twenty two that
Speaker 1: he was so poor at the time he looked into
Speaker 1: drug dealing before meeting Sarah, and he also revealed he
Speaker 1: was offered a job as a male stripper but couldn't
Speaker 1: go through with it because he didn't have the confidence
Speaker 1: to do it.
Speaker 3: Or the rhythm. It seems like I think that was
Speaker 3: a big factor.
Speaker 1: Too, and this is perhaps why Sarah asked Kurt to
Speaker 1: sign a contract on their second date. So after Kurt
Speaker 1: professed his love to her, he also offered to help
Speaker 1: her shoot the content for her very first e book,
Speaker 1: and Sarah responded by getting him to sign a contract,
Speaker 1: saying he wouldn't get a cut in it.
Speaker 4: I was so suss of him.
Speaker 2: I was so suss because he was a photographer and
Speaker 2: I remember telling him I had this idea that I
Speaker 2: wanted to make this fitness ebook right, and he was
Speaker 2: a PT. He was a photographer. He was like, I
Speaker 2: believe in you. I believe in your brand. Let me
Speaker 2: sign off. Because I'm not a PT. You have to
Speaker 2: have a PET sign off. He's like, let me look
Speaker 2: at all your workouts. I'll sign it off and I'll
Speaker 2: take all the photos. And I was like, what do
Speaker 2: you want from me?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Like this was like a week. Literally.
Speaker 2: I was like, you're not getting a cut of anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, So I made him sign a contract. This
Speaker 2: was like our second date and I was living in
Speaker 2: my parents' house. I had no money, I had nothing,
Speaker 2: and he was like, who do you think you are?
Speaker 2: Like I was, and I was like, I'm gonna be massive, Okay,
Speaker 2: So I made him sign this contract, which still we
Speaker 2: talk about it and I'm like, you still get no
Speaker 2: cut of it.
Speaker 1: But when I heard that, it surprised me. But then
Speaker 1: when I reflect on Sarah's behavior around money, it always
Speaker 1: really has been her money and Kurtz money. It's always this.
Speaker 3: Is my house and this is my offers.
Speaker 1: But do you blame her? Like this is this second
Speaker 1: date she's on with this guy. I just told her
Speaker 1: he loves her. When he's meant to be this bad
Speaker 1: boy like she's obviously thinking, what the hell's going on? Well,
Speaker 1: I think even if you're not a bad boy, not
Speaker 1: too many normal people drop I love you a second date.
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty ballsy of her to rock up
Speaker 1: and be like, sign this before we go any further,
Speaker 1: particularly because she said she was just living at home
Speaker 1: at the time, she had one hundred thousand subscribers. She
Speaker 1: wasn't really a big deal like she is now. Makes
Speaker 1: me think do they have a prenup? Probably? Well. After
Speaker 1: making things YouTube official in late twenty sixteen, Kurt was
Speaker 1: a constant feature on Sarah's channel, and Sarah and Kurt
Speaker 1: became hashtag couple goals. So now she had the hot boyfriend,
Speaker 1: a new beachside apartment, and she was living this very
Speaker 1: esthetic couple goal Instagram life. I really enjoyed this time
Speaker 1: during her content.
Speaker 3: So did I.
Speaker 1: I think it was the most aspirational part of Sarah's
Speaker 1: life so far. I think the craziest part of this
Speaker 1: timeline is just days after moving in together, Sarah launched
Speaker 1: her first ebook, Sweat.
Speaker 3: To Shred It.
Speaker 1: And I think it was a little bit premature picking
Speaker 1: out this sort of modest apartment because she quickly made
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Yes, sales came in so quickly
Speaker 1: that her PayPal account got shut down because they deemed
Speaker 1: it as suspicious activity. And while she didn't confirm how
Speaker 1: much she made, she said she was able to.
Speaker 3: Instantly wipe her UNI debt.
Speaker 1: Well. She did say that over one thousand people wrapped
Speaker 1: up to the ebook release, and this was actually at
Speaker 1: her gym. She was worried no one would turn up,
Speaker 1: so it was shocked when so many people arrived. But
Speaker 1: think about it, sixty nine dollars a pop for Sweated
Speaker 1: to shred It. That's over sixty nine thousand dollars if
Speaker 1: each person bought an ebook, and that's just in person
Speaker 1: as well. I did love the tidbit that her ex
Speaker 1: boyfriend Mitch had noticed the crowd forming and did a
Speaker 1: little well done text to her, Yeah.
Speaker 3: He'd be spewing.
Speaker 1: Well. With Kurt now by her side, Sarah quickly brought
Speaker 1: in sponsorship deals with Loving Earth, Trepeka, Lebang, White Fox Boutique,
Speaker 1: and Mazda. She seemed to be living the dream, but
Speaker 1: as we know with Instagram, it is a highlight reel
Speaker 1: and whilst her life appeared perfect, it was far from reality.
Speaker 1: So What people didn't know at the time was that
Speaker 1: Sarah was suffering from what she has described as disordered eating.
Speaker 3: Here's what she said.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I thought, how embarrassing that, like I'm on social
Speaker 4: media to be this fitness person and like I look
Speaker 4: like this. I honestly thought I had so much weight
Speaker 4: to lose and I was so flabby and squishy, and
Speaker 4: I look back, I'm like I look twelve. I was
Speaker 4: so I was so lean, and not in a cool way,
Speaker 4: in like a oh set, like what are you doing.
Speaker 4: I truly eat for beautiful skin and beautiful hair and
Speaker 4: a mind that can concentrate, like I eat so much
Speaker 4: for my mind now.
Speaker 1: So, whilst writing her e books, Sarah said she lost
Speaker 1: her period and admitted in a recent interview that she
Speaker 1: looked like a ripped twelve year old who was living
Speaker 1: off a diet of chicken, pumpkin and protein shakes. She
Speaker 1: even admitted to being shocked this year when an old
Speaker 1: video of her popped up on YouTube as a recommendation,
Speaker 1: and in this video, Sarah made toast with protein bread,
Speaker 1: which she topped with protein powder. She obviously realized that
Speaker 1: there was something wrong with the video, but it's not
Speaker 1: as if she's deleted any of the offending videos, but
Speaker 1: she's mentioned publicly how they were wrong, or they're clearly
Speaker 1: making her money still and attracting an audience of people
Speaker 1: who connect with her. I found it particularly disappointing that
Speaker 1: she didn't say she regretted making that content, nor has
Speaker 1: actually deleted it. They're all still monetized. Yeah. Well, the
Speaker 1: reality is that so many health and fitness influencers actually
Speaker 1: suffer from eating disorders, and while their initial intentions to
Speaker 1: share their lives online may not be negative, they need
Speaker 1: to understand the power of social media and just how
Speaker 1: many people they're impacting by sharing their unhealthy habits and
Speaker 1: lifestyles online.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like Instagram and YouTube was a real breeding
Speaker 1: ground for people who had eating disorders, and it was
Speaker 1: almost a way to connect with like minded people, and
Speaker 1: that's what was so dangerous about it, And now they
Speaker 1: were looking back at it from ten years ago. I
Speaker 1: just think it's really confronting that this sort of information
Speaker 1: is one still allowed online and two not being removed
Speaker 1: by the content creators. So another big theme of Sarah's
Speaker 1: channel in the early days was PCs and period the
Speaker 1: two piece, and in twenty fourteen, as she was documenting
Speaker 1: her process of trying to naturally heal her acne, her
Speaker 1: natural path diagnosed her with PCs via a saliva test.
Speaker 1: Not sure how accurate that actually is now. Of course,
Speaker 1: Sarah had a fix for it, which was car cycling,
Speaker 1: and this was quite a common thing for Sarah to do.
Speaker 1: She always seemed to have some kind of natural remedy
Speaker 1: on hand to fix any illness. Yeah, and then you
Speaker 1: fast forward two years later and Sarah was back at
Speaker 1: the doctors because she had missed her period for eight months. Again,
Speaker 1: this provided content for a YouTube series about how she
Speaker 1: got her period back naturally. It's pretty wild to watch
Speaker 1: this YouTube series back because Sarah said in one of
Speaker 1: the videos that she was sixteen percent body fat and
Speaker 1: weighed forty seven kilos when she lost her period. And
Speaker 1: in the video she showed herself getting an ultrasound and
Speaker 1: read out her blood test results, which was going into
Speaker 1: way too much detail. She also filmed herself getting acupuncture,
Speaker 1: and she later revealed that the doctor said her ovaries
Speaker 1: indicated that she had PCOS, but the blood results didn't
Speaker 1: reflect PCOS. So this PCOS diagnosis seems to have been
Speaker 1: very sketchy. Well, it's something that people still talk about
Speaker 1: online now, they still query whether she in fact had it.
Speaker 1: And whilst I think it is wrong to be going
Speaker 1: into these details, the truth is that Sarah let people
Speaker 1: in by oversharing about her life. Who reads their own
Speaker 1: blood tests out in a YouTube video, which is why
Speaker 1: you can see why so many people were hooked to it.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you guys remember, but at
Speaker 1: the time, Sarah blamed the stress of releasing her first
Speaker 1: e book coupled with training for her ebook, as the
Speaker 1: reason for losing her period. However, in March this year,
Speaker 1: Sarah provided an insight into this time of her life
Speaker 1: on Grace Beverly's podcast.
Speaker 4: I lost my peers and I look back and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, CEIs, you weren't eating enough. You weren't eating enough.
Speaker 2: I was going through a breakup. My job was to
Speaker 2: work out. I was at the gym for three hours
Speaker 2: a day, and I only ate protein, bread, protein, powder, fish, pumpkin.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: That is it. I didn't have my period, but I
Speaker 2: was so encapsulated in that life and I thought, I
Speaker 2: genuinely thought I was being so healthy and so hashtag
Speaker 2: wellness that I was doing these videos saying I've lost
Speaker 2: my period.
Speaker 4: I don't know why I have amn area.
Speaker 2: You have amen area because your body's in flight or
Speaker 2: flight and you're working out for three hours a day.
Speaker 2: You're not eating enough calories, you're not sleeping enough, you're
Speaker 2: getting up at five am to train, You're going to
Speaker 2: bed at two am.
Speaker 3: Because you don't have an editor, you're editing your own blogs.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I look back and I'm like, I just wish I
Speaker 2: could talk to her and say, go and eat some sourdough. Yeah,
Speaker 2: go for a walk.
Speaker 3: You don't have to do that now.
Speaker 1: At this time, although Sarah's following was rapidly growing, she
Speaker 1: hadn't yet made a name for herself in the mainstream media. Already,
Speaker 1: her followers were young women who were so invested in
Speaker 1: her always esthetic and picture perfect life, just.
Speaker 3: Like they did with their products.
Speaker 1: They bought in big time, and there was a thirst
Speaker 1: for her to let them in more. And whether she
Speaker 1: liked to admit it or not, Sarah positioned herself as
Speaker 1: a health expert and followers came to her for advice. Now,
Speaker 1: despite her audience being vast, there was little to no
Speaker 1: discourse in the mainstream media about whether the information she
Speaker 1: was putting out to her impressionable audience was in fact
Speaker 1: harmful and triggering eating disorders. In late twenty seventeen, however,
Speaker 1: Sarah's name broke through to the mainstream for one of
Speaker 1: her most memorable and harmful scandals. In late December of
Speaker 1: that year, Sarah left her audience on a cliffhanger. At
Speaker 1: the end of hervog, she wrote, I received a call
Speaker 1: from my doctor. What she told me has shaken my
Speaker 1: entire life. I needed time to understand and accept the
Speaker 1: news before opening up. Thank you for caring. I will
Speaker 1: share more in my next vlog. She left her audience
Speaker 1: on edge for a week before releasing a YouTube video
Speaker 1: entitled Heartbreaking News with a thumbnail of her crying, and
Speaker 1: In this video, she revealed her perhaps smear had come
Speaker 1: back with abnormalities and after follow up test, she had
Speaker 1: been diagnosed with high grade cervical displasia. Now, despite her
Speaker 1: gynecologist telling her to have the pre cancer of cells
Speaker 1: surgically removed, she begged him to give her three more
Speaker 1: months to see if she could cure it herself. I
Speaker 1: want to highlight the use of the word cure here
Speaker 1: because we are using it in quotations, but this is
Speaker 1: in fact how she phrased.
Speaker 3: It to her very impressionable audience.
Speaker 2: A couple of months ago, I got my perhaps three
Speaker 2: results back, So I have SIN three, which is high
Speaker 2: grade circul displays. Sure went and got a biopsy. Your
Speaker 2: kopos could be all this stuff, and you wanted to operate,
Speaker 2: so obviously I wanted to see if my body could
Speaker 2: heal itself on its own. Because if you have SIN one,
Speaker 2: if you have the lowest grade of what I have,
Speaker 2: your body can actually overcome it by itself heal itself.
Speaker 2: So I was hoping that maybe if I ate in
Speaker 2: a way and supplemented in a way that supported healing,
Speaker 2: that maybe my steps could heal itself. I talked to
Speaker 2: my gundacologists about it, and he gave me two months
Speaker 2: to try to heal.
Speaker 1: It on my own. And of course, Sarah decided she
Speaker 1: would share this journey with her audience of over one
Speaker 1: million people. And it was at this point Sarah's online
Speaker 1: behavior began attracting mainstream criticism. And that's where we leave
Speaker 1: today's episode. Next week, we will be diving head first
Speaker 1: into what happened next as we unpack Sarah's biggest controversies.
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
Speaker 1: Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes.
Speaker 3: We pay respects to elders past and present.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to our first episode
Speaker 1: about Spoken. Plus, we'll be back in your podcast feeds
Speaker 1: next week with our second installment in our Sarah's Day
Speaker 1: deep dive series.