Speaker 1: This is Outspoken.
Speaker 2: The podcast is not afraid to say exactly what you're thinking.
Speaker 1: Our names are Amy Kate and Sophie Torber.
Speaker 2: We're identical triplets, but we often don't have identical opinions,
Speaker 2: so sometimes things can get heated. Outspoken covers all things
Speaker 2: reality TV, influencers, entertainment and issues facing women that is
Speaker 2: so fat.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Welcome to our under the influenced edition of Outspoken. Today
Speaker 2: on the show, we're joined by the amazing Scherie Luise.
Speaker 1: The twenty eight year old from Melbourne is a model,
Speaker 1: writer and.
Speaker 2: Disability advocate who isn't afraid to stand up for what
Speaker 2: she believes in. At just six years of age, Chari
Speaker 2: sadly lost her leg to cancer, and just last year
Speaker 2: she was cast into the media spotlight after vile trolls
Speaker 2: bullied her for merely revealing the fact she's an amputee.
Speaker 1: Cherie's model in life is simple.
Speaker 2: She's not here to inspire abled bodied people, but she's
Speaker 2: here to help those that are disabled. We spoke with
Speaker 2: talented and funny and kind twenty eight year old fresh
Speaker 2: from her first virtual runway show for lingerie brand Bluebella.
Speaker 2: We thought we'd get into today's episode by firstly asking
Speaker 2: how you've been navigating your ISO life so far.
Speaker 3: I've been doing pretty well, thanks Considering. You know, obviously
Speaker 3: I speak only of my little bubble, which is my
Speaker 3: own home. I know there's not so great things going
Speaker 3: on out there, but myself, I've been doing quite well.
Speaker 3: I've I get fatigued quite quickly, so I've been able
Speaker 3: to get a lot of resting and ISO you know,
Speaker 3: really working on just taking care of myself and working
Speaker 3: on little projects and so on. So I've been even
Speaker 3: quite well. Thanks Considering.
Speaker 2: And are you able to fill listen a little bit
Speaker 2: about your situation work wise, because we were speaking off
Speaker 2: microphone about it and it's absolutely shocking what's going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So basically I was working at a front of
Speaker 3: house position, so dealing a lot with the public, and
Speaker 3: we had a few staff members that got confirmed and
Speaker 3: we were asking for some protective measures like screens and
Speaker 3: stuff to be put up, and unfortunately we didn't get them,
Speaker 3: and due to my you know, lacking immune system, I
Speaker 3: decided that it would be best to me to stay
Speaker 3: home somewhere that's safe. So, yeah, I had to leave
Speaker 3: my job, and as so I've been focusing on writing.
Speaker 3: I started a Patreon, and that's honestly how I am
Speaker 3: living right now. I would not really be getting by
Speaker 3: if it wasn't for that. So it's really pushed me
Speaker 3: to kind of work on my own writing and my
Speaker 3: advocacy as well. So it's a little bit of you know,
Speaker 3: I hate saying blessing in disguise when it's a terrible
Speaker 3: thing that's happening with COVID, but it's helped push me
Speaker 3: in the right direction personally as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, that's a great way to look at it,
Speaker 2: as I suppose of blessing in disguise, because sometimes such
Speaker 2: positive things do come out of awful situations. For anyone interested,
Speaker 2: what are you writing about in particular?
Speaker 3: So I've started just writing about my life. So as
Speaker 3: an ampute I get a lot of questions about what's
Speaker 3: happened and what it was like and so on, and
Speaker 3: I do. It can be quite draining to be answers
Speaker 3: all the time and to have to repeat yourself when
Speaker 3: you're not really in a position where you're prepared to
Speaker 3: answer those questions. So I started my Patreon as a
Speaker 3: way to kind of document my experience and people who
Speaker 3: are interested and are supporting me, I can share that
Speaker 3: with them. Certain I decided to do that with a
Speaker 3: Patreon because it's kind of a It's still on the
Speaker 3: internet and so on. Anyone could share it if they
Speaker 3: really wanted to, but the people that have immediate access
Speaker 3: to it are people that are actually financially supporting me,
Speaker 3: so I feel safer sharing them more intimate details with them.
Speaker 3: If that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Well, that's such a great idea because I know, being triplets,
Speaker 2: we get asked some really bizarre questions and quite invasive questions.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure it's probably nothing to the extent that
Speaker 2: you get asked, but it's astonishing some of the questions
Speaker 2: people feel the right to ask you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like the most common one is what happened to
Speaker 3: your leg? And although people think that that is innocent
Speaker 3: or well meaning, it's actually it can be quite It
Speaker 3: can throw you off. Like, for example, I can be
Speaker 3: out at a bar with my friends and someone comes up.
Speaker 3: They don't say hello, they don't ask what my name is,
Speaker 3: they just go what happened? And then it's like, okay, well,
Speaker 3: I'm just having, you know, a cheeky drink, and now
Speaker 3: you're bringing up the worst of my life. And it's
Speaker 3: just like all you're going to do if I tell
Speaker 3: you the answer, you're going to go, ah, that's so sad,
Speaker 3: Like no one's going to hear cancer and go oh cool.
Speaker 3: You know, they're just going to go, oh, that's so sad.
Speaker 3: They've got to look at me with a look of pity,
Speaker 3: and then they're going to walk away and carry on
Speaker 3: with air night. And you know, it's just unnecessary. I'm like,
Speaker 3: you didn't gain anything out of that part from satisfying
Speaker 3: your own curiosity, but you sprung me off of you know,
Speaker 3: wherever I was at with enjoying myself. So people, you know,
Speaker 3: think it's well meaning to ask those questions, but they
Speaker 3: don't realize that it's like asking for your medical history
Speaker 3: is asking it a really of trauma just out of
Speaker 3: nowhere and without actually showing any interest in you. That
Speaker 3: they don't know anything about me. They just won't know
Speaker 3: about that one thing, and then they walk away. And
Speaker 3: then I'll also get questions, like fairly questions, you know,
Speaker 3: like can you have sex and can you drive? Those
Speaker 3: kinds of things, But it's just kind of like it's
Speaker 3: all very I don't know, they just shallow question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't believe people can actually think they have
Speaker 2: the right to come up and ask you that, because
Speaker 2: I know, as Amy said, on a small scale, we
Speaker 2: can understand because we have had the weirdest questions like
Speaker 2: were you guys joined by the head?
Speaker 1: Did you get your period at the same time?
Speaker 3: What? Oh my god?
Speaker 2: And we have our best friend who is normally around us,
Speaker 2: and she I think is more tired of the questions
Speaker 2: than we are. Do you have that friend that kind
Speaker 2: of just answers them for you because you're just sick
Speaker 2: of answering the question.
Speaker 3: Like when it comes to the questions, most of the time,
Speaker 3: my friends will kind of just like raw their eyes.
Speaker 3: They kind of look for me because they know that
Speaker 3: I will respond however I want to respond, And it
Speaker 3: does very a lot. It depends on the situation I'm in,
Speaker 3: if I'm what mood I'm in, If I'm in a
Speaker 3: situation where I don't want to cause any like tension,
Speaker 3: like I'm at a house party or something. You know,
Speaker 3: when you've got to spend the rest of the night
Speaker 3: around these people and you don't want to kill the vibe,
Speaker 3: I'll kind of just tell them and then live on.
Speaker 3: But if I'm out and I'm like around people, and
Speaker 3: I can just kind of move on and get away
Speaker 3: from whoever I don't like, I can just like it's
Speaker 3: any business, or you know, just not tell them, where
Speaker 3: I can just bullshit them and say something completely false.
Speaker 3: But it's just it depends. Like my friends usually look
Speaker 3: to me to answer, but they more get bothered by
Speaker 3: things that I ignore, Like when we're walking and about and
Speaker 3: people are staring at me, my friends will get more
Speaker 3: bothered than I am because I'm I taught myself how
Speaker 3: to just block all of the staring out, whereas they're
Speaker 3: not used to it, so they just see all of
Speaker 3: it and they just kind of take it all in,
Speaker 3: whereas I'm just like, whatever, this is part of it.
Speaker 3: If that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel a little invasive asking this question now,
Speaker 2: But I suppose for those who haven't heard your story,
Speaker 2: are you able to tell us, I suppose about that
Speaker 2: life changing moment when you were six years old?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course. I think it's important to note in
Speaker 3: these situations where you know we've talked about that we're
Speaker 3: going to be talking about these things. I'm prepared to
Speaker 3: answer these questions, so I don't want you to feel
Speaker 3: bad about asking these questions when there's something that I've
Speaker 3: voluntarily gotten into as well. So basically, when I was
Speaker 3: six years old, I started to experience Haines and my
Speaker 3: hip and I was getting all kinds of temperatures and
Speaker 3: so on. So we had a bunch of tests done.
Speaker 3: I just remember lots of scams and lots of doctors.
Speaker 3: I was six years old, like so, I don't remember
Speaker 3: a lot, but I remember those things. And then I
Speaker 3: remember being lunch Auckland that was a New Zealand at
Speaker 3: the time, and Aucklands where the kind of country's biggest
Speaker 3: children's hospital is, so I got fun there. And then
Speaker 3: I was sitting in the corridor at the hospital and
Speaker 3: my parents were in a room with the doctors, and
Speaker 3: they came out and then they told me I had cancer.
Speaker 3: And I only knew what cancer was because not long
Speaker 3: before that, I was watching TV and I saw a
Speaker 3: little girl on TV with cancer, and I probably janxed myself.
Speaker 3: I was like, how did I never get cancer? And
Speaker 3: then next minute, so I got told that and I
Speaker 3: knew what that was. And the only thing I knew
Speaker 3: about cancer was that you lose your hair, So that's
Speaker 3: what I immediately thought, I was, I'm going to lose
Speaker 3: my hair, freaking out. And it was a pretty messy time.
Speaker 3: Like my parents were recently divorced, so they were dealing
Speaker 3: with that, and then all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 3: your daughter's got cancer. So it was a very messy
Speaker 3: time trying to navigate everything with my family as well.
Speaker 3: And from there, you know, I was in hospital for
Speaker 3: three months before my surgery, and they told me before
Speaker 3: my surgery, they pulled me into a room to tell
Speaker 3: me what could happen on the other end. So they
Speaker 3: talked about having I, guess the cancer removed, and then
Speaker 3: I would have issues with my leg and I would
Speaker 3: spend a long time in a cast and that kind
Speaker 3: of thing. So they started with the best case scenario,
Speaker 3: and then I started to freak out and I stopped
Speaker 3: listening because I was just panicking, I guess, and I
Speaker 3: didn't actually hear them when they told me that I
Speaker 3: could actually lose my legs. So I went into my
Speaker 3: surgery not knowing that that was a possibility, and they
Speaker 3: went out. Woke up, I found out that I had
Speaker 3: lost my leg, and I was sort of freaking out
Speaker 3: to my mum, being like, you didn't tell me, you
Speaker 3: know that I could lose my leg and what's going on?
Speaker 3: And she's something you know, we did, you just w
Speaker 3: And I was only I was in ic you when
Speaker 3: that happened. So but I was only in ICU for
Speaker 3: a day, and I just remember. I just remember that.
Speaker 3: I just remember I kept coming in and out of
Speaker 3: sleep and just like feeling my hip and being like,
Speaker 3: what's going on? Because I gotn't quite comprehend it. Something
Speaker 3: wasn't there. It felt like something was there, if that
Speaker 3: makes it, because it felt different, So I was like,
Speaker 3: what's on my hip? But it was like month nothing there,
Speaker 3: but so the weird feeling doing that, and then when
Speaker 3: I got out it was just I don't remember much
Speaker 3: after getting out of ICU in regards to being I
Speaker 3: guess sad about in shock about losing my leg. I
Speaker 3: think after that it was more just how do we
Speaker 3: keep moving? What am I going to do? Like do
Speaker 3: I get a leg going? How am I going to
Speaker 3: get around? And that kind of thing. So I also
Speaker 3: didn't really yeah I did, because I feel like I
Speaker 3: was just kind of going with it. I don't really
Speaker 3: know what was going on. I didn't have a certain
Speaker 3: way of life that was being interrupted, and I was
Speaker 3: just taking it as it came. It didn't feel I
Speaker 3: don't know, it probably would have been a bit surreal
Speaker 3: as opposed to being older and you've got a way
Speaker 3: of life and you've got all your habits and things
Speaker 3: that you do, and then you get thrown out of that.
Speaker 3: So I feel like being a kid, it was probably
Speaker 3: a lot easier for me to manage because I didn't
Speaker 3: really understand the implications of life and death and loss
Speaker 3: and all of that.
Speaker 2: Well, definitely, I mean, what was that like for you
Speaker 2: having to go back to school and I suppose you
Speaker 2: hadn't really thought about the fact you might lose your leg,
Speaker 2: that this was obviously you're still processing all of this news,
Speaker 2: because I feel like school can be horrendous enough without
Speaker 2: having something that makes you stand to stand out from others.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So when I went back to school, so I
Speaker 3: think I was about I think I was like seven
Speaker 3: by that I was seven and a half, maybe eight.
Speaker 3: I can't remember. I'm like, I'm terrible with time. But
Speaker 3: now on the chemo because it affects your memory. So
Speaker 3: I complained that. But so I was in the hospital
Speaker 3: for ten months all up. Then I got out, went
Speaker 3: home full clearance, like I didn't have the cancer comeback,
Speaker 3: so I got through remission as a clean sweep, So
Speaker 3: that was great. But I went back to school primary school,
Speaker 3: and the biggest thing I was worried about was that
Speaker 3: I had a wig, and I was really scared that
Speaker 3: everyone would know that I had a wig. And then
Speaker 3: I went back and primary school was pretty chill, like
Speaker 3: because I was already in primary school when I got diagnosed.
Speaker 3: So when I got diagnosed and I left, they had
Speaker 3: like a school assembly where they talked about me and
Speaker 3: what was happening and stuff. So the whole school kind
Speaker 3: of already knew and they knew me before, and I
Speaker 3: think that that made it more personal of a story,
Speaker 3: Like they knew that I was going through something horrible
Speaker 3: and then I come back, so it was kind of
Speaker 3: I guess they were less likely to bully me because
Speaker 3: they'd all been waiting to hear what happened. So I
Speaker 3: didn't have too much difficulty in primary school. Then a
Speaker 3: New Zealer we have intermediate school, which is like two
Speaker 3: years between primary and high school. Yeah, so that's when
Speaker 3: you're like eleven twelve. So then I went on to
Speaker 3: intermediate school and things were okay there. I didn't really
Speaker 3: get bullied there. Oh actually I liked I got bullied
Speaker 3: that I got like anonymous letters, really yeah, from a
Speaker 3: girl in my class. I totally know who it was now,
Speaker 3: but back then I didn't know. Like it was so
Speaker 3: obvious now that I look back on it, but like
Speaker 3: back then, it was this big mystery and everyone was
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out, like all the teachers and stuff.
Speaker 3: But she just wrote me like these anonymous letters, and
Speaker 3: she was like pretending to be someone else, like she
Speaker 3: was trying to frame this other girl. It was really nasty,
Speaker 3: and she was just telling me how ugly I am
Speaker 3: and because I have one leg and I'm just like
Speaker 3: just like super nasty, like really long leaders. So like
Speaker 3: she really went in. But she was obviously a very
Speaker 3: sad girl. Like she wasn't you know, popular or anything
Speaker 3: like that, so obviously a very sad, sad kid. And
Speaker 3: when the kids are not older classes, they got shann
Speaker 3: a letter as well, and they were all mortified and
Speaker 3: they all stood up to me and you know, made
Speaker 3: sure I was okay and stuff. So that was nice.
Speaker 3: But I did get bullied, but it was always behind
Speaker 3: my back or anonymous. The only time people would bully
Speaker 3: me to my face, like even through high school. Right
Speaker 3: got to high school and the people that would bully
Speaker 3: me would be like strangers. So I'd be walking home
Speaker 3: from school when a little kid would yell out names
Speaker 3: at me, or my friends bullied me but behind my back,
Speaker 3: like they would never like they would never ever talk
Speaker 3: about my leg in front of me, and and I
Speaker 3: later found out that I were all just like constantly
Speaker 3: making leg jokes whenever I wasn't around. That kind of
Speaker 3: really fuck because we were really close. You know.
Speaker 2: Well, it broke my heart because I read somewhere that
Speaker 2: you said when growing up you felt like you had
Speaker 2: accepted the fact that you wouldn't end up with someone
Speaker 2: and you'd be alone.
Speaker 3: Can you tell us.
Speaker 2: Through why you felt that way and why you felt
Speaker 2: like you wouldn't find love during your teenage years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think when I like when I came
Speaker 3: to terms with it, I was probably more like I
Speaker 3: was around ten years old probably when I came to
Speaker 3: terms of it, Like there was a phase probably from
Speaker 3: like you know, ege to ten eleven where I was
Speaker 3: just every night or it was a set in bed
Speaker 3: and I would look on old photos of myself and
Speaker 3: just be sad and just be like, what the hell
Speaker 3: was going to happen when I'm older? And so I
Speaker 3: came up with this plan in my head. I was like, Okay, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I'd never seen an amptity girl in a
Speaker 3: relationship or in love, so I was like, Okay, that's
Speaker 3: probably not gonna happens. So what we're going to do
Speaker 3: is we're going to get rich. I'm going to get
Speaker 3: a really cool job. It's not gonna matter. I love
Speaker 3: that I had the whole plan. I was like, we're
Speaker 3: gonna be alone, We're going to have like lots of pets,
Speaker 3: and we're.
Speaker 2: Going to be sweet, because that sounds pretty amazing. I
Speaker 2: don't know a guy when you're rich with pets of me.
Speaker 3: So that was my plan. But yeah, I definitely just think.
Speaker 3: I definitely thought that I would never fall in love.
Speaker 3: And like, my mum had a new partner around that time,
Speaker 3: and I was just like seeing them fall in love
Speaker 3: like really upset me because I was like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: never going to have that. So yeah, I spent a
Speaker 3: lot of time being upset about that. And it was
Speaker 3: obviously just because I'd never seen it before, Like it
Speaker 3: just wasn't a thing, you know. I was the only
Speaker 3: time I ever saw amputees was once a year on
Speaker 3: the Paralympics, and that was it. I never saw any
Speaker 3: love stories or anything. And the way I was kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess treated like it, you know, boy,
Speaker 3: you know you want if people have school yard crushes
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, it was never me. So I
Speaker 3: was just like, well, all right, well I need to
Speaker 3: come up with another plan. And that's what I did.
Speaker 3: And obviously I was wrong, like that's not how things
Speaker 3: were going to be when I got older, but that's
Speaker 3: definitely what I thought when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you just to put it out there.
Speaker 2: We've e gauged from social media that you do have
Speaker 2: your own love story, is that right. We've still you
Speaker 2: on social media and really very loved in a really
Speaker 2: awkward way, like I've seen your loved up photos.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So back when I think I was twenty at
Speaker 3: the time, So they were talking like eight years ago.
Speaker 3: So I was loving the Gold Coast and I was
Speaker 3: visiting my best friend in Melbourne and she's telling me
Speaker 3: about a friend who just moved to the Gold Coast
Speaker 3: and this is is quite a goods that I was
Speaker 3: actually in the process of moving to Melbourne, right, So
Speaker 3: I'm like hanging with my best friend in Melbourne and
Speaker 3: I've got a few months in till I move. And
Speaker 3: she's like, oh, so, yeah, my friends moved up there.
Speaker 3: I should hang out and I'm like, oh, yeah, cool,
Speaker 3: and she's telling me about him and then I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I know that we follow each other on Twitter, so
Speaker 3: we actually already kind of knew each other. So I
Speaker 3: felt like, oh, that's cool, Yeah, invite him over for
Speaker 3: drinks and we became friends. And then you know, I
Speaker 3: still moved to Melbourne even though we were like got
Speaker 3: along so well. I was like, I'm moving to Melbourne,
Speaker 3: like I can't, you know, I'm not going to stay
Speaker 3: on the Golf Coast for some casual thing. And then
Speaker 3: I thought kind of thought that it wasn't going to
Speaker 3: go anywhere because we're in different states at that point.
Speaker 3: But we still kept casually dating for quite a few years,
Speaker 3: and then I ended up moving back to bet with
Speaker 3: him and we've been together for about four years now.
Speaker 3: Stay and then we moved back to Melbourne, so we've
Speaker 3: been like back and forth a lot. But yeah, things
Speaker 3: we're going really well. We lived together and now there
Speaker 3: we've got I've still got all my pets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have the pets? What kind of pets
Speaker 1: do you have?
Speaker 3: You got a cat and two dogs, so yeah, one
Speaker 3: was the cat was astray. He found us and we
Speaker 3: cann't find a zioners. We adopted him. We got one
Speaker 3: dog from a rescue and then we got another dog
Speaker 3: from a friend's litter unexpected letter. So just a bunch
Speaker 3: of lost babies that we again.
Speaker 1: And the world comes next. That's the next.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned that you didn't feel represented, and I
Speaker 2: feel like you've spoken a lot in the past or
Speaker 2: you've been interviewed in the past about the representation of
Speaker 2: disabled women in the media and fashion.
Speaker 1: What's your viewpoint on that? Do you are you? Do
Speaker 1: you see it changing at all?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So I've always, you know, wanted to get
Speaker 3: into it. You know, this is why I've gotten into
Speaker 3: modeling and that kind of thing, because the more disabled
Speaker 3: people that we have involved, the more we can shape
Speaker 3: our own stories and the way that we're portrayed to they.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm seeing it changed now, but basically before
Speaker 3: I did. It was always just the best and worst
Speaker 3: case scenario. You know, all I'd see on TV is paralympian,
Speaker 3: you know, talking about elite athletes. You know, like that's
Speaker 3: that's not for me. You know, I'm not an athlete.
Speaker 3: It's just like you know, looking at Olympians, it's a
Speaker 3: huge achievement. Or you'd see the other end of it,
Speaker 3: which is like a SOB story, a kittie party. So
Speaker 3: you'd have a disabled character on TV and it's just
Speaker 3: like a plot device. You know, it's about something tragic
Speaker 3: that's happened to them and now they're depressed, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's this big sub story about this person. And we
Speaker 3: don't see the most common lives of disabled people, which
Speaker 3: is you know, everyday people who live full lives and
Speaker 3: you know, the fashionable. They're in love, they're working an
Speaker 3: office job, you know, they're doing everyday thing. But we
Speaker 3: never see that. We never see a disabled leed who
Speaker 3: is just hanging out with their friends, going and getting
Speaker 3: starbucks and got something about boys and having you know,
Speaker 3: you know, school drama and stuff like that. It's always
Speaker 3: the extremes. So I found that super unrelatable because I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: none of these people in me and it just seems inaccurate,
Speaker 3: which I found a lot of people feel as well.
Speaker 3: And a few years ago I found a woman called
Speaker 3: Mama Cuts on Instagram and she's unfortunately passed away last year,
Speaker 3: which is very sad. But she has the same amputation
Speaker 3: as me, which is quite rare to have the whole
Speaker 3: egg plus the left half of the pelvic phone removed.
Speaker 3: So it's yes, quite rare. I've never actually found someone
Speaker 3: else that had that amputation. And I found her on
Speaker 3: Instagram and she's this She was a model, she was
Speaker 3: like a lifestyle blogger. She had this huge following. She
Speaker 3: she was in the Rihanna's Savage Menu runway show, like
Speaker 3: she was just kicking gold. And she was the first
Speaker 3: person that I saw and she was like she was
Speaker 3: like posting photos like in a swimsuit at the beach
Speaker 3: and stuff, and I was like, oh my god, like
Speaker 3: this is this is what I want, you know, like
Speaker 3: this is what I need. And you know, she was
Speaker 3: the person that, you know, I've never in my whole
Speaker 3: life up until well, I think last year gone to
Speaker 3: the beach and a swimsuit, Like I just didn't go
Speaker 3: to the beach and yeah, last year I went, and
Speaker 3: it was because she had posted photos in a swimsuit,
Speaker 3: her scars were showing and she looked great, and I
Speaker 3: was like, man, like what am I doing? You know,
Speaker 3: like I'm just wasting so much time. I haven't been
Speaker 3: because the beach with my friends and my whole life, like,
Speaker 3: so it was just yeah, just seeing her do it,
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, this is so great.
Speaker 3: And it's yeah, it's so sad that we lost her,
Speaker 3: but just seeing people that are like accurate to what
Speaker 3: I aspire to be, it's no important, but even.
Speaker 2: That story just shows how powerful it is to have
Speaker 2: somebody like you, as in, like all of us represented
Speaker 2: in your way. And I saw you and also, you know,
Speaker 2: doing a stalk of your Instagram, a deep stalk, I
Speaker 2: saw the photos of you at the beach and you
Speaker 2: were bloody killing it. You looked amazing, And there's going
Speaker 2: to be so many young girls who follow your Instagram
Speaker 2: as well that might be in a similar position and
Speaker 2: be like, oh my god, like that is like that's
Speaker 2: me and I'm being represented and.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: Going into that kind of that food of feeling represented
Speaker 2: in the media is that what enticed you do appear
Speaker 2: in the Cleo magazine back when you were twenty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Honestly, I think I was at a point in
Speaker 3: my life where, like I I was kind of stuck,
Speaker 3: and I was just I really wanted to just make
Speaker 3: a move that makes sense. Like I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: moving to Melbourne and I'm doing this magazine feature. So
Speaker 3: like I went and tracked down one of the writers
Speaker 3: for Cleo and I like slid in her DMS and
Speaker 3: I was like, Hey, do you want to do a
Speaker 3: story about me? And she was like yeah, and my
Speaker 3: best friends are photographers. So we did a shoot and
Speaker 3: we did the shoe, just gave them everything they needed
Speaker 3: to do a feature on me, right, And it was
Speaker 3: pretty cool because I like did the shoot myself. I
Speaker 3: kind of had control about what images were going to
Speaker 3: them as opposed to them doing the shoot and then
Speaker 3: picking everything. So for my first feature, it was pretty comfortable.
Speaker 3: They sent me like a preview of the article before
Speaker 3: it came out, so I got to, like, you know,
Speaker 3: ask for any changes. So there was peper accommodating, which
Speaker 3: was really nice. And I was just I was, yeah,
Speaker 3: I was just at a point where I felt a
Speaker 3: bit restricted because I most of my life was like
Speaker 3: long line and I felt like a lot of people
Speaker 3: book didn't know my story, and I felt like a
Speaker 3: lot of people didn't even know that I was in
Speaker 3: an amputee, and I was just kind of tired of
Speaker 3: being self conscious and kind of yeah, apprehensive about what
Speaker 3: would happen if they did know. I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: what if you know, they found out I've got one
Speaker 3: leg and then their attitude towards me kind of changes.
Speaker 3: And I just got tired of that, and I was like, look,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to to do this. I'm just going
Speaker 3: to drop this article and then people can deal with it,
Speaker 3: and however they take it was up to them. And
Speaker 3: it got received well, Like obviously, it's all I had
Speaker 3: that people would be mean to me and I would
Speaker 3: lose friendships or anything like that. So it was received
Speaker 3: super well. Everyone loved it, and yeah, so it kind
Speaker 3: of it was just the way of me just breaking
Speaker 3: through my own fear, and That's what I've kind of
Speaker 3: kept doing. It's like, whenever I'm self conscious about something,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to I just kind of break through.
Speaker 3: Like with that Beag story, I just like lant out
Speaker 3: get it, took a photo, dropped it on Instagram and
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, you can all deal with it.
Speaker 3: I've seen it now.
Speaker 2: I love that you did it through Cleo magazine as well,
Speaker 2: the biggest magazine, just a low key well for obviously
Speaker 2: some positive, like lots of positive attention came with it,
Speaker 2: but I've read that there also came a little bit
Speaker 2: of strange attention. And for those who haven't heard of
Speaker 2: it before, can you tell us about what I don't
Speaker 2: know if I'm pronouncing it right?
Speaker 1: A devotee? Is that the right way to pronounce it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's not a devote Sorry, okay.
Speaker 3: A devotee is essentially a person who has a fetish
Speaker 3: towards amputees. So I didn't know that this group of
Speaker 3: people existed up until the Cleo article came out, because
Speaker 3: prior so that I had no digital presence of being
Speaker 3: an amputee. It was all, you know, just kind of
Speaker 3: private conversations. So this article comes up. It came out
Speaker 3: in print first, So it came out in print that
Speaker 3: was pretty chill, but then it went onto their website afterwards.
Speaker 3: But when it went digital, that's when I started getting
Speaker 3: all these Facebook friend requests, and I'm like all these
Speaker 3: profiles were a bit suss, Like I would go on
Speaker 3: there and it would be someone who is presenting as
Speaker 3: an amputee when they were very obviously not like they
Speaker 3: would be like an obvious photoshop job or like just
Speaker 3: like sharing different photos of different amputees and obvious.
Speaker 1: So the alarm bells were going right now at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was just like, well, these people are
Speaker 3: adding me, and then they were messaging me. Some of
Speaker 3: them were actually like pretending to be amputees to message
Speaker 3: me and start a conversation with me. You know, there's
Speaker 3: in me a message like oh hey, I lost my
Speaker 3: leg and I hate my life? Can you help me?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, no, that's not That's not how we
Speaker 3: talk to each other, like you know, like like we
Speaker 3: don't send each other messages being like I hate my life,
Speaker 3: please help.
Speaker 2: No catfish, Like yeah, had a.
Speaker 3: Catfish me into like helping them, And I'm like, you're
Speaker 3: faking trauma to try and strike up a conversation with me.
Speaker 3: That's fucked up. But then and like I don't judge,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, people for having fetishers. I'm not
Speaker 3: like judgmental about that at all. People are into different things.
Speaker 3: It's when they're projecting that onto me and they think
Speaker 3: that they're entitled to things from me because they're fetish.
Speaker 3: That's where I get a bit annoyed. I'm like, look,
Speaker 3: just because you have a fetish for people like me
Speaker 3: does not mean that I owe you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like you're some sort of special object
Speaker 2: or something. And when they're catfishing you too and then
Speaker 2: trying to pretend that they've got you know how you feel, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's very deceptive. That's very I'm so interested to hear that,
Speaker 2: because you know, I've never heard of that before. That's
Speaker 2: an underbelling of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll try anything to get in the door kind
Speaker 3: of thing. And look, a lot of I do have
Speaker 3: a lot of people who I'm pretty sure are devoted you,
Speaker 3: who are very respectful, and they do not ask me
Speaker 3: for things. They just observe follow my Instagram. I'm like, cool,
Speaker 3: Like just that's fine. But when they send me, you know,
Speaker 3: like dams and they're like, oh, give you one hundred
Speaker 3: dollars if you stand me a video of you like walking,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh.
Speaker 1: My gosh, like no, thank you.
Speaker 3: The line I'm like don't demand things with me. Just
Speaker 3: you can just watch.
Speaker 1: This is how you could get rich. Just charge the
Speaker 1: well at the end.
Speaker 2: Well at the end of last year were caught up
Speaker 2: in a media storm of sorts because of one tweet
Speaker 2: that you put out.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about what happened?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So basically I made a joke. I was just
Speaker 3: having a bit of a laugh. So I was on
Speaker 3: Twitter and someone tweeted us coming your age and something
Speaker 3: you cannot do, and so I just tweeted a little
Speaker 3: inside joke with my followers. I don't have many followers,
Speaker 3: so I was just like, oh, I'm twenty seven and
Speaker 3: I can't cross my legs. And then I was like
Speaker 3: ha ha, and I went to sleep. And then someone
Speaker 3: who followed me but didn't obviously I didn't pay enough
Speaker 3: attention to know that I was an empty tea. They
Speaker 3: retweeted it. You know, you quote tweet yeah, and you
Speaker 3: like kind of yeah, like quote tweeted it, and they
Speaker 3: were like lmao, why and I was like, I was
Speaker 3: just like and all I did was quote tweet it again.
Speaker 3: So it was like a little whiska though of a joke,
Speaker 3: but I like quote tweeted it again. Just with a
Speaker 3: photo of me. It's like a full body photo. And
Speaker 3: I just dropped that and I was like, sweet, done, Yeah,
Speaker 3: just a bit of a laugh, super lazy joke. And
Speaker 3: then then I started getting the retweets, and then like
Speaker 3: a few people with big followings retweeted it, and then
Speaker 3: next minute, I think it got up to nine thousand retweets,
Speaker 3: and then I can't remember how many lights, like in
Speaker 3: the tens of thousands and so, and then it turned
Speaker 3: from like people laughing with me to people laughing at
Speaker 3: me too, just like a commentary from random menace to
Speaker 3: whatever or not. They would fuck me and they were
Speaker 3: just like tagging their friends and be like, bro, would
Speaker 3: you still hit that? And they'd be like, oh, it
Speaker 3: depends you know what this stomp looks like and all
Speaker 3: this stuff. And I'm just like, my god, one, why
Speaker 3: are you tagging me? Like take dms if you want
Speaker 3: to have your little fucking bro high pup about sex stuff.
Speaker 2: And I can't believe these people are willing to put
Speaker 2: their name and faces to these disgusting comments, like.
Speaker 3: You know, like those like troll profiles, you know, they
Speaker 3: have like fake pigs of that. They would not just
Speaker 3: like they would just like blazant bros with their faces
Speaker 3: showing wearing like school shirts.
Speaker 1: And oh my gosh, just.
Speaker 3: Like I could obviously like easily identify most of these
Speaker 3: people and so just tend it to this commentary. There
Speaker 3: was like a French guy who made a comment about
Speaker 3: how like a bit easy to rape beings people can't
Speaker 3: get away? My god? What and what else were they saying?
Speaker 3: Just a lot of and then a lot of like
Speaker 3: the same choke over and over again. It's like a
Speaker 3: lot of lazy jokes, and it was just annoying. Like
Speaker 3: I wouldn't I didn't even I didn't like shed a
Speaker 3: tear over these people. Like I was just like doing around.
Speaker 3: I was obsessed with reading all the replies, like I
Speaker 3: read like every reply I got. But it was just
Speaker 3: annoying because they were making the same joke I reckon.
Speaker 3: I had like a hundred people make the same joke,
Speaker 3: and then like every now and again, I could get
Speaker 3: picked up when people thought it was hilarious and I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: it's not funny. Already being dead, yeah, I'm just getting
Speaker 3: mad that people were getting like engagement out of jokes
Speaker 3: that were.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna be flu quits at least be original
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: And then and then so I was like I was
Speaker 3: like replying here and there, like when someone made the
Speaker 3: same joke, I would send them like a collage of
Speaker 3: everyone making that same book. And then they were like
Speaker 3: dilute to me. And then and then I got picked
Speaker 3: up on Reddit. I don't know if you guys use Reddit.
Speaker 2: I don't, but I've seen, yeah, I've seen threads on there.
Speaker 3: I ended up. I got I woke up in the
Speaker 3: morning and I had like a bunch of messages being like, oh,
Speaker 3: You're on the front page of Reddit, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't know deal what that means, but apparently it
Speaker 3: means a lot of people were seeing and it was
Speaker 3: someone making the same joke that everyone was making. It's like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's like phase seven out of ten, body,
Speaker 3: six out of ten, legs one out of two, and
Speaker 3: so it being maybe like a hundred times, and like
Speaker 3: the first time that that joke actually took off, it
Speaker 3: was an actual ampitue like making that joke, and so
Speaker 3: now it's just hundreds of people taking it and not
Speaker 3: being funny. So it was that joke and then it
Speaker 3: was just like just like popped off and read it.
Speaker 3: I was getting all these messages, same jokes, same wild people.
Speaker 3: And then I talked about it in a private Facebook group.
Speaker 3: I was just like, yeah, getting these trolls, that's weird.
Speaker 3: And there was the journo and the Facebook group, and
Speaker 3: she saw what I was talking about, and she went
Speaker 3: and liked saw all the tweets and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: and then she sent me a DM on Twitter and
Speaker 3: she was like, hey, do you mind a very write
Speaker 3: a story about the tweets and stuff? And I was like,
Speaker 3: let me sleep on it, because you know, like, as
Speaker 3: if I do a story is they're gonna make it worse.
Speaker 3: So people are gonna get worse, because as we know,
Speaker 3: that's how things worked. And then I slept on it.
Speaker 3: I woke up and I was like, Oh, no, one's
Speaker 3: going to say anything worse than the thousands of tweets
Speaker 3: that I've already gotten, like let's be real, and and
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, that's probably just going to end
Speaker 3: up like in the back of the lifestyle section what else.
Speaker 3: And then so I was like, yeah, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 3: And I did it, and then I went to work
Speaker 3: and the story came out and then I started getting
Speaker 3: all these dms from like every major news outlet and
Speaker 3: Surelia be like hey and we share your story. I'm like,
Speaker 3: am like, may as well whatever, Like you know, these
Speaker 3: are just the people asking, you know how a lot
Speaker 3: of publications they just they don't even ask. They just
Speaker 3: go and copy the story and published. I'm like, whatever
Speaker 3: asking me, I can have some control over what they
Speaker 3: post if I, you know, do it this way. So
Speaker 3: I did a few of them, and then by the
Speaker 3: time I got home from work, it was like front
Speaker 3: page of like every news website, like all the major
Speaker 3: ones in the country and even New Zealand where I'm from.
Speaker 3: So I started and that was unexpected, right. So that's
Speaker 3: a bit that like kind of just shook me was
Speaker 3: that I got home and I logged onto the news
Speaker 3: and my face was the first thing. But the first
Speaker 3: thing is just my big a space.
Speaker 2: That's isn't it. Is it the slow news day or yeah?
Speaker 3: And I'm sure of you know what this was to
Speaker 3: have your face all over the news and you're just like, oh,
Speaker 3: this was like the greatest like thing to be known for.
Speaker 3: You know, this is going to be the first thing
Speaker 3: that comes up when people google me. And so that's
Speaker 3: what shook me. And I actually had a bit of
Speaker 3: like a panic when that happened. My boyfriend walk and
Speaker 3: I was just like, it's everywhere because I don't know.
Speaker 3: There was a big difference between that other people on
Speaker 3: Twitter that I do not know saying things I do
Speaker 3: not care about these people to being all over the
Speaker 3: news and I've got all of these people I know
Speaker 3: seeing it, and like I had like school teachers messaging me,
Speaker 3: like my family messaging me, like people just like I
Speaker 3: haven't spoken to but they all know me. I suddenly
Speaker 3: messaging me, And it was just like this unwanted merger
Speaker 3: of Twitter and in real life. So that was like
Speaker 3: the most shocking part of it was how much it
Speaker 3: got kicked up and it went worldwide after that, and
Speaker 3: I was just it was just strange being like, oh, great,
Speaker 3: Like this is what everyone's gonna know me for.
Speaker 2: It's funny that people that come out of the woodwork
Speaker 2: when something like that happens and you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I forgot about you. So what was the coverage like
Speaker 2: from country to country?
Speaker 1: Did it defects? I'm assuming that the original.
Speaker 2: Report probably would have been a great story, but then
Speaker 2: did it change? Is it sort of got picked up
Speaker 2: from other publications.
Speaker 3: Like most publicators they were fine, you know, like your
Speaker 3: your Western ones were just your average. I did do
Speaker 3: myself a favor. I did not read any comments on
Speaker 3: the news articles like on Facebook and stuff, because that's
Speaker 3: where all like a La boomills come out and stuff,
Speaker 3: and then they get a bit what do you expect?
Speaker 3: This is what you deserve. I was getting that on
Speaker 3: Twitter as well, but it was a lot of that
Speaker 3: when the news articles came out, like what do you
Speaker 3: expect when you put phoots of yourself online?
Speaker 1: People are so disgusting.
Speaker 2: Isn't it crazy about how you can just get such
Speaker 2: a different reaction that you'll read some comments of people
Speaker 2: and they'll be like, oh love I love you.
Speaker 1: And then other ones like hate you.
Speaker 2: Like It's just crazy how people can take such different
Speaker 2: things from articles.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I had a guy I reader, a Melbourne guy.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go to read this article about how I've
Speaker 3: been trolled online people saying horrible things about me, and
Speaker 3: then has reaction try and find out where I live.
Speaker 3: Of course he like tweeted me like oh girl from
Speaker 3: Frankstone complaints about getting trolled online and you know, then
Speaker 3: girl goes and shares more stuff or something like that,
Speaker 3: and then I was like, why do you think I
Speaker 3: live in Frankston And he's like, oh, I looked up
Speaker 3: your eye peaters, so and I'm like totally normal behavior, dude,
Speaker 3: creepy and I'm like okay, So, like, yeah, I stayed
Speaker 3: away from that side of online commentary, which I think
Speaker 3: was good. But yeah, when it went around the world,
Speaker 3: the western kind of cupboard was very just kind of
Speaker 3: shocked factory the least horrible comments girls and deputy help
Speaker 3: me and she's appalled, she shocked all that. And but
Speaker 3: then I read one I kind of remember what country
Speaker 3: it was them, but they kind of it was like
Speaker 3: the laziest coverage. They were just like they ended it
Speaker 3: but oh well, not much we can do about this.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what are you and you do you
Speaker 3: want to have a stance, but they were just like,
Speaker 3: oh well. And then it got to other areas like Indonesia.
Speaker 3: Indonesia and oh my god, nicest nicest coverage ever am.
Speaker 3: I got like a photo posted on the biggest Instagram
Speaker 3: paid in Indonesia and then I got like a thousand
Speaker 3: followers like that because this page was kewed, and they're
Speaker 3: all just the like Indonesian people sending me the loveliest
Speaker 3: messages of like oh you're so sweet, You're an angel,
Speaker 3: and I'm just saying like nicest things. It was like
Speaker 3: such a contrast from like being troubled to me getting
Speaker 3: like thousands of messages from Indonesia just telling me like
Speaker 3: how great I am. And then I I also had
Speaker 3: a photo go up on like a Russian social media
Speaker 3: website that was a lot different. So like I started
Speaker 3: getting like an influx and followers from Russia and I
Speaker 3: was like, Oh, something must be happening there, and a
Speaker 3: DM one of them and I'm like, hey, is there
Speaker 3: like a article or something going on in Russia? And
Speaker 3: then they sent me a link to this Russian social
Speaker 3: media website and they posted the photo of me and
Speaker 3: stuff and these they just said oh she's beautiful or
Speaker 3: something like that. That the comments like completely different. The
Speaker 3: comments were just saying things like oh this girl, you know,
Speaker 3: she doesn't know anything about what it's like to live
Speaker 3: a hard life. She'll never know what it's like to
Speaker 3: live on the disability benefit. She's got rich parents and
Speaker 3: she's she's really stupid because she's a model, so she
Speaker 3: obviously not very smart and that's why she does what.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what I don't got like so fired up
Speaker 3: because there's one thing of like people like trolling me,
Speaker 3: but then people just like outright lying. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: my parents are not rich too. I've worked since it's
Speaker 3: fifteen years old.
Speaker 2: It's amazing the things that people can say are wrong
Speaker 2: with you, Annie, so that you're and that you're too
Speaker 2: attractive to have you know, had a bad life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other thing, I was like, I
Speaker 3: can't even get benefits. I don't have residency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't even understand if I wanted to.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy too?
Speaker 2: Because I feel like if it was a male who
Speaker 2: was in this position as well and their Twitter comment
Speaker 2: went off one, I don't think it would go off
Speaker 2: in the way that it has. But I feel like
Speaker 2: there is like an element of sexism in it. Do
Speaker 2: you think that that's compounded? You know, we see so
Speaker 2: many women facing challenges and sexism every day. Do you
Speaker 2: think that is compounded by having a disability and been
Speaker 2: thrown in the spotlight like that as well?
Speaker 3: Yes, Like, I definitely think that the whole thing blew
Speaker 3: up because there was the whole commentary around whether or
Speaker 3: not people would have sex with me. So I think,
Speaker 3: you know, that maybe came from a place where they
Speaker 3: if I had two legs, they would be attracted to me.
Speaker 3: But then they obviously I'm an amputee, so they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is a conundrum. Am I still attracted to her?
Speaker 3: Let me discuss this with my think group publicly.
Speaker 2: And I love these people though, sorry I want to
Speaker 2: say I love these people that be commenting would be
Speaker 2: the biggest trolls you've ever seen. Commenting a bit and
Speaker 2: you'd be like, I would never have sex with you
Speaker 2: in my whole life.
Speaker 3: I said that to one of them. I was like,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't and then he goes, you don't have a
Speaker 3: choice in it.
Speaker 2: Oh cool.
Speaker 1: People are disgusting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but so with the it's actually pretty upsetting. So
Speaker 3: when it comes to disability and these issues, see i've
Speaker 3: you know, the rates of being content warning sexual assault,
Speaker 3: the rates of being sexually assaulted, I'm much higher for
Speaker 3: disabled women, so especially intellectually disabled women. So it's about
Speaker 3: a rate of twelve times higher if you were intellectually
Speaker 3: disabled versus not being intellectually disabled. And MPR did a
Speaker 3: great article covering this, you know, citing their sources and
Speaker 3: all of that. If you want to read it. It's heartbreaking,
Speaker 3: but it's very important. And when I was I think
Speaker 3: I was fifteen or sixteen, I was out at the
Speaker 3: markets with my best friend. My best friend came over
Speaker 3: from New Zealand to visit me and we went out shopping.
Speaker 3: I was like, so excited have my best friend here
Speaker 3: because I had no friends. We're out shopping and at summer,
Speaker 3: I'm wearing like a summer dress and we're out, you know,
Speaker 3: at the markets, so it's like quite crowded. People are
Speaker 3: brushing up against each other. You know, you just flee
Speaker 3: market type thing, right, And I had this woman come
Speaker 3: up to me and she like tapped me on the
Speaker 3: shoulder and she was like, don't look now, but that
Speaker 3: man over there just took photos of your dress. And
Speaker 3: I was like, and I'm like, I'm like, I'm quite
Speaker 3: a fiery person, so like I'm quite bold and do
Speaker 3: things that could probably get in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 3: But I just turned around. I saw this thirty he
Speaker 3: was carrying like a big professional camera, right, and she said,
Speaker 3: you know she saw him put the camera up my
Speaker 3: dress who's standing behind me, and saw him go a
Speaker 3: click click click, And I wouldn't have known if this
Speaker 3: lady didn't tell me, right, And you know, I'm a
Speaker 3: miner as well. So I'm alone with my friend and
Speaker 3: back then, I I didn't have like it was, you
Speaker 3: know when you had to credit on your phone, you know,
Speaker 3: id it on my phone, so like I couldn't call anyone.
Speaker 3: I'm in a market. The market stores don't have tuble phones,
Speaker 3: you know. It was that kind of thing. There's no
Speaker 3: security right there that you can call. And the guy
Speaker 3: was walking away and I was like, I can't let
Speaker 3: this guy get away with floaters up my dress. So
Speaker 3: I just went after it. And he said to my friend.
Speaker 3: I was like, try and get security or something like
Speaker 3: I'm going to follow this dude. And my friend couldn't
Speaker 3: get security just because of how the market was, you know,
Speaker 3: laid out, just it's impossible, and so I went follow
Speaker 3: the dude. He walked out to the car park and
Speaker 3: I was like, so dumb, but I followed him into
Speaker 3: the car park because you know, I can be a
Speaker 3: bit of a dumb mass, But I followed him out
Speaker 3: there and he was standing near by a car and
Speaker 3: he was looking scrolling through his camera and I walked
Speaker 3: up to him and I was just like, hey, buddie
Speaker 3: photos and he's like yeah, and I'm like, oh, what
Speaker 3: are you taking photos of? He's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 3: just things around the market and I was just like
Speaker 3: lost them and I was like you can probably bleep
Speaker 3: this out and I was like, no, you're fucking taking
Speaker 3: photos up my dress. And I just went off on
Speaker 3: this dude and I was like, give me your camera
Speaker 3: right now, and he like obviously wasn't going to give
Speaker 3: me his camera. And then I said that's when I
Speaker 3: started filming. And I started recording this dude because I
Speaker 3: was like, he's got to get away, and I was
Speaker 3: like that a recording hi when I was following him.
Speaker 3: So I'm like following him, recording him while trying to
Speaker 3: simultaneously get the attention of the market vendors like call
Speaker 3: security because this guy is just going to walk into
Speaker 3: the crowd and disappear and I'm never going to find him.
Speaker 3: And as he was walking away, I was kind of like, great,
Speaker 3: he's deleting the photos because he was doing stuff on
Speaker 3: his camera rapidly as he was walking away, and he
Speaker 3: was panicking like he was very obviously guilty, and he
Speaker 3: disappeared out of sight. And then I got security wasecurity guard.
Speaker 3: I showed him the video. I told him what happened,
Speaker 3: and he was like shaking. He was like holding my
Speaker 3: phone just like he was obviously just serious. And they
Speaker 3: caught the guy in the car park again and he'd
Speaker 3: wiped the photos by then. The police came. They let
Speaker 3: him go because they couldn't find any evidence when like,
Speaker 3: for all I know, he just popped the memory card out,
Speaker 3: but you know, hopefully he deleted them, but you know,
Speaker 3: and my dad got there, and by the time my
Speaker 3: dad got there, yeah, they let him go. And it
Speaker 3: was just like I feel like, obviously he probably targeted
Speaker 3: me because that was an amputee. Maybe that added some
Speaker 3: curiosity to his creepiness. Like I highly doubt I was
Speaker 3: the first girl he's ever done that too, But I
Speaker 3: feel like, you know, me being an amputee definitely came
Speaker 3: into that him feeling like, I don't know, he was
Speaker 3: entitled to find out what it looked like at my
Speaker 3: dress or something like that. I don't know, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's one of the experiences I've had.
Speaker 2: That's such a good I think that's such a good
Speaker 2: story for everyone because you always have to stand up
Speaker 2: for yourself, Like, good on you actually chasing him down.
Speaker 2: I would have smashed his bloody killing. Especially at the
Speaker 2: age of sixteen. I couldn't imagine being brave enough to
Speaker 2: do that. Like, I probably that guy would not mess
Speaker 2: with you again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've done that, like various scenarios. But it's just
Speaker 3: like I just cannot stand the thought of not pursuing
Speaker 3: these people who do something like that, yeah, and them
Speaker 3: getting away with it, and they just thinking I should
Speaker 3: have done this, so should have done that, And like
Speaker 3: I still have regrets. I wish I grabbed his camera
Speaker 3: and threw it on the second ground, but not less,
Speaker 3: I still went after the story.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you would have got in trouble. They always
Speaker 2: twist these things somehow. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 2: we should be best friends because I'm that far in
Speaker 2: a person too that I would just make it really
Speaker 2: awkward for everyone and then like merely get myselves in
Speaker 2: punch ups because I'm like because I was one time
Speaker 2: I was sticking up for Sophie, someone was paying her
Speaker 2: out anyway. I won't go into it, but yeah, I
Speaker 2: feel like if you and I buddied up in Melbourne
Speaker 2: with be might be a dangerous like.
Speaker 3: I'm just like I think back and I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: I like bollwed that guy by myself were like Dark Street.
Speaker 2: Like if that was a movie, it definitely wouldn't have
Speaker 2: ended well, Like if the shows that you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: what are they doing now?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Moving on to a slightly more positive, like more uplifting topic.
Speaker 2: It's incredible because I read that you're uplifting. No, I'm
Speaker 2: worried what punching people that are doing wrong. I like
Speaker 2: that topic because now moving on to your modeling this month,
Speaker 2: you hit a milestone during lockdown.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about it?
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I was in bed one night, just scrolling
Speaker 3: on the and stuff and just launder a brand I
Speaker 3: followed called Blue Bella. They posted up a casting post
Speaker 3: and it was like an open casting and I was saying, actually,
Speaker 3: want to be a part of a secret project, send
Speaker 3: us a send us an email or something like that,
Speaker 3: and I was about to go to bed, so I
Speaker 3: just put it on my to do list. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: email Blue Bellow in the morning, and then I woke
Speaker 3: up in the morning and the post was gone. Oh
Speaker 3: I should have done this last night, you know, like
Speaker 3: obviously they're going to get a lot about the patients
Speaker 3: and so on. So I dam them and I was
Speaker 3: just like, hey, like, I know your post is gone,
Speaker 3: but is there any chance I can still apply for
Speaker 3: the project? And they were applied and they were like, yes,
Speaker 3: of course. So I emailed them just saying I want
Speaker 3: to be a part of it. A bit about myself.
Speaker 3: I know yet what it was at this point, but
Speaker 3: I figured launder A brand needs content, got to be
Speaker 3: some kind of modeling opportunity. And then they replied and
Speaker 3: they were like, yes, we'd love to have you. Congratulations
Speaker 3: on the casting, and it was a world's largest online
Speaker 3: catwalk show they called it, so they had over a
Speaker 3: thousand people apply for it, so I was super lucky
Speaker 3: to get it. And then they sent out lunder A
Speaker 3: pieces to I think two hundred women to submit videos
Speaker 3: and it was my first countwook casting and it's so
Speaker 3: weird because it in isolation. You know, I've never walked
Speaker 3: on a real catwalk, but I got my first casting
Speaker 3: from isolation, so that was pretty cool, and it was
Speaker 3: like a reminder that, like I can, I guess all
Speaker 3: have little, you know, achievements while I'm in my house.
Speaker 2: I didn't feel like that's the biggest achievement anyone in
Speaker 2: isolation probably had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so I did the video. My boyfriend helped
Speaker 3: me record it, and it was so weird because you
Speaker 3: had to send in like all these kind of different
Speaker 3: shots of you walking different ways and doing different things,
Speaker 3: and like doing dances, and I've never danced in my life.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, that's gonna be so bad,
Speaker 3: you know how, like the Victoria's Secret, you get to
Speaker 3: the end and you have to do the corny like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, although I know my friends always laugh at this stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, and then so I send it in and then
Speaker 3: then they asked me to be a part of the
Speaker 3: press release. So you guys are probably familiar when things
Speaker 3: like this happen. Brands send out press releases to various
Speaker 3: publications and if they want to write something about it,
Speaker 3: they will, And they Blue Bellot emailed me being like, oh,
Speaker 3: we'd like to feature you in a press release. I
Speaker 3: was like sick, But then I got a little right
Speaker 3: up after that, the video came out and it was
Speaker 3: I was really happy with it. I had to stay
Speaker 3: out because it came out there in the London, so
Speaker 3: it came out at like one am here, but I
Speaker 3: was super happy with how it tender. And it was
Speaker 3: also another one of those things we're told about where
Speaker 3: I'm self conscious about something, I'll just like go all out.
Speaker 3: So I've never actually shown like the backside of my
Speaker 3: amputation before because this is like a kind of weird thing.
Speaker 3: To show us would be like posting an our shop
Speaker 3: if I did, and i'dn't have done that before. So
Speaker 3: and the next minute, I'm doing the world lie just
Speaker 3: on my fashion show and lingerie and I'm walking away
Speaker 3: from the camera. So and it was nowhere near as
Speaker 3: bad as I expected it to look in my head
Speaker 3: for my entire life. So through that experience, it was
Speaker 3: also like, ah, doesn't even look that bad. Twenty years later,
Speaker 3: I've realized that is that crazy.
Speaker 2: It's that when you put yourself out there, you finally realize, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: like I've been worrying about this and I should have never.
Speaker 3: People don't really have anything to compare it to either.
Speaker 3: Then I'm going to be like, oh, well that doesn't
Speaker 3: look like the other girl with a handy pubric for
Speaker 3: me and a wonder ratio, Like you know, I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna they can't really say that it's not up to
Speaker 3: par whatever.
Speaker 2: You're making your own standard. I love that, Like I
Speaker 2: was going to say, I love that. It's like, as
Speaker 2: you say, you know, going on Cleo or doing this
Speaker 2: fashion show, like you were going out out of your
Speaker 2: comfort zone, but in such a massive way. It's just
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Well that's just like, okay, nothing more can be done
Speaker 3: here exactly.
Speaker 2: You're just doing it on the biggest stage possible.
Speaker 1: What was the feedback like anyway?
Speaker 3: It was good and all positive, you know, there was
Speaker 3: I was, you know, reading the comments and stuff, and
Speaker 3: because after they plosted the video as well, they posted
Speaker 3: just a photo of me, but I took and one
Speaker 3: of the pieces they sent me and all the comments
Speaker 3: on that were very well received. You know, everyone's or
Speaker 3: for diversity and stuff like that now, and I feel
Speaker 3: like the people that already follow Blue Bella were already
Speaker 3: a part of that, because they're already quite a diverse brand,
Speaker 3: and that one of those brands that you know, they
Speaker 3: don't post a photo of a model that doesn't you know,
Speaker 3: the Victoria's Secret standard, and then post it with a
Speaker 3: big disclaimer about, oh, this is why we're posting a
Speaker 3: photo of a model who's not a size zero. You
Speaker 3: know how like some brands every time they showcased diversity,
Speaker 3: they have to come with a big show and tell about, oh,
Speaker 3: this is why we're doing it. It's like, not, didn't
Speaker 3: do it exactly. We don't need to have a disclaimer
Speaker 3: about why you have diverse models.
Speaker 1: Everyone's doing it exactly.
Speaker 3: It's just just like, oh, we're not going to fit
Speaker 3: in if you're constantly pointing us out exactly. Just do it. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: feedback was great, and yeah, Bluebella was quite happy, I
Speaker 3: think just because from the follow up kind of press
Speaker 3: that it got as well, and I got yeah, a
Speaker 3: lot of engagement for them as well. So overall it
Speaker 3: was really good.
Speaker 1: That SAPs good.
Speaker 2: I was gonna I was gonna ask, lastly, if you
Speaker 2: could go back, knowing everything you know, now, what would
Speaker 2: you tell your gonna say, thirteen year old self, But
Speaker 2: maybe it's more ye're eleven and twelve year old self
Speaker 2: who is going through that? Or could high school transition Yeah,
Speaker 2: what's one piece of advice you would tell yourself.
Speaker 3: I think it would be basically, don't stop doing something
Speaker 3: because you're worried about people watching you or staring at you,
Speaker 3: because no matter what you do, they're going to stare
Speaker 3: at you. Yeah. I just stop doing so many things
Speaker 3: like playing sports and stuff because I got sick of
Speaker 3: the attention and the crowds. And I'll come to line.
Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't matter what I do, people are
Speaker 3: going to crowd around and stare even if I'm just
Speaker 3: getting groceries, so and as well, just do what I
Speaker 3: want to do and ignore you know what the bikestanders
Speaker 3: are saying, Yeah, let.
Speaker 1: Him have a look.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Your story was so incredible though, Like I feel like
Speaker 2: so many people will.
Speaker 1: Love to listen to get such kind out of it.
Speaker 3: I hope so well.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for tuning into another episode about Spoken.
Speaker 2: If you did enjoy today's show, we'd love if you
Speaker 2: could tag us in your Insta story so we can
Speaker 2: reshare it.
Speaker 1: And if you would like to find out more about Shari.
Speaker 2: She is an incredibly talented writer and we've linked below
Speaker 2: her patron.
Speaker 1: Account details so you can go and follow her. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much,