A Real Introduction

About time you all got a proper introduction from me to hear about who I am, what Stardust Squad actually is and how this podcast is going to roll!

Not going to lie, starting a podcast is nerve wracking, and so to help me not feel like I'm just talking into the empty cosmos, please text the podcast (link above), email us at hellostardustsquad@gmail.com, subscribe and leave a review!

Let's build a beautiful big Starry community for our girls, one bold voice and one kind heart at a time. 

Transcript

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Stardust squad we shine so bright, twinkling in the sky at night. Hand in hand we laugh and play, dreaming big every day. Sparkle high and sparkle low, together we let our magic grow. Girls of strength, girls of light, Stardust squad we take flight. Clap once, clap twice, then spin around. In Stardust squad we're safe and sound, shining strong we lift each other. Sisters of stars like none other. Hello and welcome to the status squad pod. This is a space in the galaxies to empower, inspire. And encourage girls and their families. I am a V on the creator of Stata squad. And I believe now more than ever, we need to be empowering and supporting our girls of the future to have bold voices and big hearts. I thought that it was about time that I came on and did a proper introduction for you. I decided purely because I was way too excited. To release those to starry story episodes for you over the summer. So that you could have. I guess a tool and a resource to have some quiet moments, feel little ones while it was busy and often hectic. Late nights, things like that. Um, lots of sugar, lots of excitement. To help with. Um, quieter times or even winding down for bedtime. But now that we're into 20, 25 properly, I thought that I would come in and share a bit more about myself and about what status God is for those of you who aren't local and don't know me and the program. And explain a little bit about what my hope is for this podcast so that you can yeah. Get your head around it, continue to enjoy it. And be on board. So I am he. I'm from a very Lee to rural town, um, in country Victoria in Australia. And I am a mom of three girls. I've just recently had our third girl. So I'm a real girl, mom now. And I am on a big journey to empower girls. Recently I made our tagline for starter squad, um, to have bold voices and big hearts. And I feel like that is really capturing what I'm all about at the moment. I have a background in early childhood education. I've got a degree in early childhood education. And I worked as a kinder teacher for a little while. Then I started having babies and it was hard to kind of do the juggle at the same time. And so. Um, I did a few different things on the weekends. My other business, my other hat that I wear is that I'm a marriage celebrant. So on the weekends, I'm often, um, off marrying beautiful couples, which is amazing. And then I decided to do a life coaching course. I actually did that during the pandemic. And it was one of the best things I've ever done. I just was craving more. I was craving away to connect with people more. And that was just a perfect fit. So I have been working with women. Coaching them. Helping them live big. Um, delicious, bold audacious lives, chasing their dreams. And all I'll raising my girls as well. Uh, then I went on to do a youth mentor certification. Uh, once I started to kind of get into this area of working with. Girls more. And that just helps so much as well, gave me so many ideas and really key. Off starter squad. So I started. Uh, predominantly started our squad just in our little local area. Monthly. Um, Events actually, now that I'm saying that when I first started it, it was just events one per term. Because I just didn't know that there would be the interest or the numbers. And, uh, it just kind of went crazy. We started off doing sessions that were part, um, creative projects that had a discussion topic around it. So we'd link a discussion topic maybe about navigating friendships and then we'd pair it with a creative project. So the girls could, you know, um, Be together in a group. Meet new people be creative, have a creative outlet, but also we'd have really beautiful discussions as well. And it went crazy. And so we had to start making the events monthly and even then sometimes we're running five sessions a month just to get through the numbers. And. I was just saying that there was such a need for it. And I just kept thinking. I can't reach all these girls by myself. Um, I have a beautiful, um, partner that works with me, a, um, a friend of mine, Steph, who comes on board and works with me when we run the status squad sessions. Steph is currently waiting to welcome twins, which is super exciting. Um, but it means that she's taking a little bit of a backseat of the hands-on stuff of starter squad. She's always there for planning and dreaming with me, which I love and appreciate. And she also runs her own flower farm. Which is a dream that she has chased, which is incredible. She is so good at bringing such a good nature element to start a squad. She's everything's very natural. Um, and she thinks in a way that I don't, which of course is the perfect combination. Uh, so you would have heard in the last episode, the starry. Story that I shared. Um, I mentioned Steph and her flower farm, and I did a wild flower story for starry, uh, which was yeah. Dedicated to her. She's been such a fundamental part of status squad so far. And so we did, we kind of started thinking we are loving, empowering girls this way, the way that we are doing it seems to be really resonating with people. But, oh my gosh, how do we. How can we do this just by ourselves? We knew that if we kept going the way that we did pushing, pushing, pushing it with. Evidently lead to burnout as so often, things like that, too. And so then I had to take a little break to welcome. Uh, news little starry. And so then I thought, right, how can I change this up? And the obvious option was to go online. So we've started creating beautiful products, printable PDF products on our website that you can go and download. Um, and then this podcast was the next kind of logical step. I'm really passionate at that moment. Something that's really catching my eye is that I have a Twain in our skill is 11. And I just feel that there's such a gap at the moment. If you are a parent of this age, kind of nine to 12, Or if you are listening alongside your girl who is nine to 12. You'll know that I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. There is such a lack of, um, Just experiences media. Uh, just anything that is tailored for her. We're finding that things either. Far too young and she feels like they're quite babyish or that they're far too old and she's not there yet. Um, I'm talking books. Uh, TV movies. Close. Uh, just, everything seems to be marketed way younger or way older. And there's this real gap. Uh, so a lot of the work that we do is kind of for that tween age to really make them feel seen and that they have a world. Um, in the galaxies with us. And so again, this is kind of what this podcast will be. I'm sure that there will be. Um, Many. Children around that age. Like either side of that age that are going to benefit as well. Steph's little girl is three and. She is, I'm listening to the stereo stories and loving those as well. And so. Um, generally we kind of say from about four to 14, I think this, hopefully this podcast will help and, um, there'll be things that. Uh, yeah. Uh, obviously more targeted at older ones or younger ones. And we'll give you a heads up and we'll let you know that before the episode. Um, So. At starter scored. Our main values are empowerment. Ritual community creativity and positivity. They're the pillars that we work around. And it's really just providing spaces for girls where they can be seen. They can be heard. They can build their voice. They can build community, they can get to know new people, but also that brings magic and just a little bit of sparkle to their lives. I think in our culture and our society at the moment. There's so little ritual. Um, so little ceremony. And so we really want to bring that element in as well. And the things that we've been doing have been really well received. So we're hoping that you find that as well. So you would've heard me a couple of times talk about. Use the word starry. Um, so when we do our sessions, we call the girls starry. They have little name tags that will say, you know, Ava, starry, or Harper starry on them. Um, which just adds to that kind of sense of belonging, that they're part of this, that they belong as a starry in our little, you know, galaxy with us. Um, even my name tags is AB starry. Um, and the more I started to kind of play with that idea and. Uh, Kind of delve into the magic of that. That's where I came up with the idea of, Hey, maybe STARI is her own person and maybe star has got stories to tell. And so that's why I've been. Releasing these stories, they starry stories about this girl called starry. So, um, yeah. It's lots of fun. Um, That whole notion. Um, you would have heard again in my last episode, talking about how much I love, love the author, Holly Ringland and her books, the loss flowers of Alice heart, which of course is about a wild flower farm. But also the seven skins of Esther wilding, which is my favorite book of all time. Um, and esta, she is a girl who loves the stars and her nickname is with her family and friends is starry. And, uh, yeah, so a lot of inspiration from Holly and her books. Uh, she's just a dream and she has just ignited such magic in my mind. It's really. It's really helped me as an adult, tap back into magic and ritual and meaning and. Um, traditions in families and things so forever grateful for her. So the way that we're going to do the podcasts is that we're going to have kind of a mix of episodes. There will be more starry stories that you can play again and again and again for bedtime or quiet time in the afternoon, or, um, you know, whenever you need a kind of moment. Um, then there's going to be. Episodes that are kind of starry episodes as in. Child-focused and so they're ones that your children can listen to on their own. Or that, of course you can listen to together. Um, but they will be appropriate for them to listen to on their own. And then there's going to be parent resource episodes. So conversations around how we raise our girls, how we empower our girls. And they, they will never be inappropriate for children. However, they just might not be very interesting or relatable for them. So we will put a thing at the top of the episode, just to let you know that this is a parent resource episode. And it's probably just something that you can listen to, um, on your own, or if you've got older ones, you could always listen to that with them in the car. And it could be a bit of a conversation starter or something like that. Um, and then we're going to purposely do some episodes that you can listen to together. To get those conversations going. So we're hoping for a real kind of multi-generational approach. We want it to be that we are. Giving. Uh, episodes and content for our girls, because like I said, there's such a lack of that, but also that we're empowering you to empower them. And that we're giving spaces for conversations to happen for you and ideas to be sparked and things like that as well. So there will be those. Um, Two things that I really want to mention is that you can text the podcast, which blows my mind. Technology today is just so good in so many ways. So if you go to the description of the podcast, if you're listening to an it. Um, we're on Spotify and on apple podcasts. If you are going to the episode, you click on the episode to play it. And then if you click on it to get up the, uh, description, I'm pretty sure it's cold. Then up the top, there'll be a link in a rule. Say, send us a text, please, please, please. If you have the time do that. Send us anything. Send us a message to say hi, I will give your girls a shout out on the podcast. I know for me, my girls would die if they heard their name being called out on something like that. Um, They would just love it. And so texting. They can literally text anything. Tell me which episode they've loved. Tell me what they would like a starry story to be about. And I will write one for them. Tell me, um, what they're loving, give me suggestions about what episodes you'd like to hear or topics or anything. I cannot stress that enough. The more interaction that I can have with them, the more I'm going to love it, it's going to help to feel like I'm not just talking into the void. So please, please, please do that. I would love to see some messages come through. The other thing that's really big at starter squad is celebration. I know that I'm not going to have to explain this very much. You're all going to know what I mean, but there is just no space in our world at the moment for women or children. Ah, I'd argue adults, men, women, children, to really celebrate themselves. It's amazing how early on, like as early as five children come to start a squad. And when we talk about celebrating themselves feeling proud of themselves, it's incredible how early they. Uh, like totally disengaged. Like they want to leave that conversation. They're embarrassed by it. They're uncomfortable. They know that I'm doing this and inverted commerce. They shouldn't talk about it. Which breaks my heart. So we have an incredible gold. Magical. Um, celebration cup that Steph painted for us. And so at the beginning of every session, we highly encourage, we never forced, but we highly encourage our starry girls to write down something that they're feeling proud of themselves for. They folded up, they put it in the cup. And one by one, I raid the mat and we go wild. We clap, we cheat. We make them feel like rock stars. And we do that for everyone. It doesn't matter if. It's um, you know, a young one saying that she did the monkey bars for the first time. And then an older one saying that she got some incredible state-wide award for sport or, you know, it doesn't matter what it is. We celebrate everyone the same. And that's been the, the change in children watching them do that month after month. Um, and at the start they can't think of anything and they're feeling embarrassed and awkward. And then after a few months they walk in and they've already been thinking about it in the car on the way to start a squad, what they're going to write because they know it's coming up and they're ready to celebrate themselves. And learning to celebrate one another. It just makes my heart swell. So I would love it. If you could also text in your celebrations, get your star to text in her celebrations. And I will read them out and we will do a podcast version of a celebration cup. Those of you who have watched legally blonde. Uh, with the snaps cup. That's where I got that idea and I really wanted it to be like that, but bless them, half the children were too young to be able to click their fingers. So, um, We went with celebration cup and we clap and cheer instead. And so you can put their name on it. You don't have to, you can just do initials. You could just do first name. If you don't want their name on here. I completely respect that, but still get them to send a Dean. I can still read it out, even if it doesn't have a name. So, uh, yeah, please send in your celebrations and I can text them. Or you can even email them to me if that's easier. I'll put all the links in the show notes. And so you can click on there and email us as well. I would love that. Love, love, love. I think I've explained everything for you now. Um, Giving you a bit of an idea of what our dreams are for this podcast and how I would love for it to play out. Uh, I've, I've got big, beautiful dreams for starter squad this year. I really want to be. Building a big, beautiful community. For status squad and really. Yeah, just creating some incredible bull events for our local people. Uh, but also, yeah, creating a bit of an online community with this podcast as well. And so. I thank you for listening to me, ramble for almost 20 minutes. Hopefully it's given you a bit more of an insight into me and the dreams and the idea behind starter squad. So thank you for listening. So remember if you have a celebration to share or a topic that you'd love for me to cover, you can text the podcast or email the podcast. Please send this episode or any of the episodes, especially the STARI story ones to another family. Subscribe. Cause then you get notified when I drop another episode and please leave a review as well. That's going to help me keep making this. It's going to give me some momentum to feel like there are people listening. It's not just going out into the cosmos and no one can hear us. But yeah, thank you for being along on this ride. It's a bit nerve wracking to tell you the truth. Um, so yeah, I appreciate any love you can throw this way. Thank you so much. See you in the galaxies. Hi, my name is Pearl. At Stardust Squad, we respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather, create, explore, and dream, the Gunnaikurnai people. We pay our respects to their elders past and present and recognize their ongoing connection to the land, the seas, and the skies. We acknowledge that this land has been a place of learning and storytelling for thousands of years and honor the wisdom and stories of Indigenous people. As we continue on our Stardust adventures, we commit to building a sense of belonging. Welcoming and respect for all cultures, identities and beliefs. May we walk gently upon this land, guided by the styles and spirits of those who came before us. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.