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Katie Sturino loves her body. But the advocate, entrepreneur, and author put a lot of effort and hard work into getting to that place of body acceptance. She and Reshma dive into Katie’s accidental body acceptance journey, which began after her divorce when Katie says she just wanted to get a revenge body. They also discuss where so many of us get our insecurities from, how to shut down (mostly) well-meaning relatives when they start body-shaming you, and normalizing things like thigh chafing and boob sweat via her company Megababe. Plus, does Katie think society is moving back to a place where thinness is back in vogue due to the explosion of GLP-1s like Ozempic?

Follow Kaite Sturino @katiesturino on Instagram.

You can follow our host Reshma Saujani @reshmasaujani on Instagram.

Let us know how you’re doing in midlife! You can submit your story to be included in this show at speakpipe.com/midlife

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Katie Sturino, Reshma Saujani

 

Reshma Saujani  01:13

Welcome to My So-Called Midlife – a podcast where we figure out how to stop just getting through it and start actually living it. I’m Reshma Saujani. You all know that one of my favorite sayings is look for the con. They are truly everywhere if you take a moment to look for them. We are being tricked every day about everything. To me, one of the most insidious cons is the one that we’ve been sold about our own bodies (women’s bodies). Society is constantly telling us if you do this or that. If you don’t eat too many carbs, or if you work out 10 times a day, or if you take this pill, you too can achieve the perfect body. When you do have that perfect body, all your problems are gonna go away. It’s gonna feel like unicorns and rainbows every day. I know, you know mid lifers that that is total and complete bullshit. As someone who has never had a positive relationship with her body, I know how hard it is to change that especially in midlife when it feels like your body just changes overnight. It doesn’t matter how well you eat, how hard you work out. It’s just you can’t get back to the way your body used to be. We’ve talked before about hormones, belly fat and the stuff that just happens to us when we cross 45. The con about women’s bodies, it’s an important one to talk about because it’s really atough one to overcome. Katie Sturino is fighting like hell to expose this con that’s why I wanted to talk to her. She’s incredible. She’s an entrepreneur, an author, a body acceptance advocate who has built an online platform to help women feel confident in their bodies. She’s the founder of Megababe – a personal care brand that sells non-toxic products to address everyday issues like thigh shaving and boob sweat. She’s thought a lot about the way we think and talk about women’s bodies and how we can change it – starting with ourselves. I’m so grateful to Katie for this conversation. We talked about so many things – identifying and combating insecurities, drawing boundaries with family members (Mom, I’m talking about you), especially the ones who have that special knack for sprinkling a little bit of bodyshaming. We talked about how we find confidence in midlife and a fascinating exchange about the way society views women’s bodies vis-a-vis their political and social power. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Katie Sturino as much as I do you. Let’s party. Let’s get into it.

 

Katie Sturino  04:05

All right.

 

Reshma Saujani  04:06

As you know, you’re here to talk about midlife. The first question I like to ask everybody is their midlife mindset. The interesting thing is, it’s different for different folks. Some people are like, “Yeah, best time ever”. Some people are like,”Oh my god, make it stop”. Where are you?

 

Katie Sturino  04:22

I guess I’m newly coming out of midlife denial. I’m 44 and I think I spent so long hiding my age or not really discussing my age because so much of what I do or did in influencer land. An influencer land, you’ve got to be young.

 

Reshma Saujani  04:40

I think that’s the case.

 

Katie Sturino  04:42

I would say, in the past year, maybe it feels less so. But for a long time, yes. Unless you were a mommy blogger, there was no space for you. But now with this platform that you have, I feel it’s becoming cool to talk about other things.

 

Reshma Saujani  05:03

Yeah. I mean like Nicole Kidman Baby Girl, Demi Moore, all the hot mommies are in it? Are in vogue.

 

Katie Sturino  05:12

It’s recent, but that’s new. That’s a new conversation.

 

Reshma Saujani  05:15

You’re right. Because I think for a long time even for Girls Who Code, I wanted to be big sister not mom, right? It’s kind of like you became a mom to die. It was the most uncoolest thing to be an older woman.

 

Katie Sturino  05:31

Yes, literally the worst. But, we didn’t have examples or a pathway to show us any different

 

Reshma Saujani  05:38

Yeah. I was just reading a quote that you gave and I keep thinking about it so I’m going to read you, “I became a size 16which I still am, and a surprising thing happened. I really loved my body. Tell me about the journey of getting to that point where you say that, and I could tell by looking at your face that you believe it with every ounce of your soul”.

 

Katie Sturino  06:10

Yes. I think my journey is that I was always bigger. Just like I said with the age thing, I always wanted to be smaller because the world told me I should be smaller. I was like a size 12-14 for my whole life, then I went through a divorce andI became a size 16. I thought that would be the end of things for me. I was like, “Well, that’s it”. You’re never gonna like,”Who are you gonna find?” Because you couldn’t keep a husband when you were a size 12-14 so how are you going to find someone at a size 16? Now this is the most toxic thinking, but that’s how I thought. I started my body acceptance journey by accident, because I wasn’t looking to accept my body. I was looking to go to dance classes twice a day, and get my revenge body. I wasn’t looking to be like, “Yeah, this is a cool size”. The way that I got there was through Instagram, because I actually started my platform just trying to help bigger girls find clothing hacks. I was like, “Go to the men’s department at Rip Barneys and try the shoes on there or try this oversized stretchy piece from this brand, because it’ll fit us. That’s how I started. But, what I realized is all the thin women were coming to me and being like,”Wow, you look great on a tank top. I wish I could wear a tank top”. I was like, “You should be wearing a tank top. You’rein this size too”. Like, you should tell me not to wear the tank top. Once I started to realize that the thin women didn’t like their bodies, I was like, “Wait, hold on a second. This is all a lie”. You said at a lunch that I was at where you spoke. You were like, “Look for the scam. What’s the con?”.

 

Reshma Saujani  07:58

My favorite.

 

Katie Sturino  07:58

Yeah. I was like, “There it is. That’s the con”. Hold on a second. We all hate our bodies. What are we doing here? So, that’s when I started to say, “What if I actually became okay with my body?” That’s how it started.

 

Reshma Saujani  08:14

Yeah. But it’s interesting to me that it’s in midlife though, that you have this sense that, “I want to become an advocate”. It was your divorce. I mean, that catalyzes you’re chronicling your life for other women – in many ways. They’re getting inspired by you and you’re saying, “Oh, come on here. I’m a size 16 and I’m in my 40s, and this is the first time I love my body”.

 

Katie Sturino  08:41

Yeah. I was 35 when it started. Actually, I gained. I went on a whole journey that I’m just starting to unpack where I actually gained weight and was a size 18-22 then I’m a size 18 now. I’ve been all these different sizes in this bigger spaceand I have learned so much in all of it. But, I think what’s been really cool for me is I’ve been into my body the whole time. When I was smaller, I was always critical. The thinnest I had ever been was like a size 10, it was because I was on this crazy, unhealthy diet and exercise program. I had no energy. It was really bad. But I still was like, “I can’t. Can I get smaller?”. It was really interesting to detach from that point of view around hating your body.

 

Reshma Saujani  09:47

Right? How do you think that happened though? Because what you’re saying is so remarkable to me, right? I know for me especially being in midlife with menopause like right now, I’m in the thick of my perimenopause so I’m either constantly bloated, right? Then maybe, I’ll get a drop of my period now, “Oh, thank God”, right? It’s not that I ate too many cookies. It’s just that I’m really. I am as mean to myself if I’m honest, Katie about my body today. I can’t seem to get out of it. So, how did you break free?

 

Katie Sturino  10:25

I mean, I made a choice. I was like, “Are we going to spend the rest of our lives feeling anger and disgust for this body we’re in? For what? For who? It’s not going to change the outcome”. For me again, the catalyst was my divorce. I was like, “It didn’t keep a husband”. Basically, keeping myself small and making sure that I was trying to blend in with everyone, didn’t do anything for me. I’m my most successful professionally at my biggest. I am my most authentic self atmy biggest and that doesn’t mean that my self worth is attached to a higher number on a scale. It just means that I’m able to do those things in this bigger body, hopefully showing people that the two don’t correlate, because I think people are often like, “I’m bigger and I will start dating when I’m smaller. I will apply for this promotion when I’m smaller.I will travel when I’m smaller”. All I’m trying to do is dispel that myth. I think there’s another lane of this which is eating related and my relationship with food. I think that I actually had to go through a couple years of just absolute fuck it- nodiet and eat what I want. That got me to a place where finally I could say, “Okay, I’m ready to look at my choices in a different way”. Because I’m not going to look at it through the lens of someone who is not eating enough food because I’m trying to look a certain way. Now, I’m not going to look at it through the lens of someone who’s just eating whatever I want. I’m now able to look at food as like a way to fuel my body which sounds like bullshit, but that’s what that journeyhas done for me personally.

 

Reshma Saujani  12:35

You use your platform which I love to really talk about how we combat these insecurities. Can you explain to us where do these insecurities come from? How did this start?

 

Katie Sturino  12:45

Society. It all comes from society because your auntie called you over, because of things that had happened to her or people she knew. That’s all passed down trauma being brought to your front door to say you don’t want to be treated like this. I was treated like this. My sister was treated like this. My coworkers treated like this. It’s all under this guise of protection, and they’re just doing what they’ve been taught to do which is to keep you in line. They want you to follow the rules so you don’t get hurt and you don’t get in trouble. But really, the rules are made up by who? Men?

 

Reshma Saujani  13:22

Right. They decide what body type is attractive and what body type. As we know, it doesn’t really matter because you could be a size two and be like, “Oh, I have to get liposuction”, which I have met someone who has said that so it’s neverperfect. It’s never good enough and it’s never dictated by us. Katie, tell me if this is true. I read an article somewhere that our bodies are actually biologically conditioned to get to one size, so no matter how we fight it.

 

Katie Sturino  13:52

Set weight point.

 

Reshma Saujani  13:53

Yeah. Could you know more about this? You tell me more about this.

 

Katie Sturino  13:57

Listen. I’m not a doctor, but I do know that no matter what you do, your body will struggle even harder. I can relate to this when I was trying to be as small as possible. It was just so unnatural. My body was fighting me at every point because I’m not meant to be a size 10, that’s not my size. I was hungry, I was tired, and I wasn’t really myself. And that’s because my body was trying to tell me that I was not living right.

 

Reshma Saujani  14:35

Yeah.

 

Katie Sturino  14:36

Yeah. But, the set weight point is interesting too because your body wants to hang out around a certain weight, and then we end up changing it with our own behavior.

 

Reshma Saujani  14:48

Yeah, that’s definitely the case for me.

 

Reshma Saujani  20:23

Let’s talk about society. What’s the role of social media? What’s the impact on girls? I wrote a book called “Brave, Not Perfect”. One of the things I really researched and found is part of the way girls negative self talk happens is they watchus. They watch me put on the pair of jeans like, “Oh my god, my butt looks horrible” and they copy that self hate. Then itjust cycles through generational journey. If we wanna stop it, we gotta stop it with young people. How do we change theway we speak about our own bodies? What are some real and practical things that I need to just throw like, “Don’t ever say that or stop saying that. Watch yourself when you do that”.

 

Katie Sturino  21:06

I go back to the older generation of the grandparent in the home. Now, it’s not their fault. It’s not your auntie’s fault what she said to you, but it doesn’t mean that we can just let her run wild. Talking to the older generations, I think is really important, because they’re the worst at this. They’re very unafraid to just be like, “She’s getting chubby. Are you going to let her eat that? Why are you having seconds?”. They’ll say whatever, because they have not done this work yet. It’s like talking to that older generation. But, if it’s not the older generation, then the call is coming from inside the house.

 

Reshma Saujani  21:44

I want to stop you there, because I think what you’re saying is really important. I heard on one of your podcasts that oftentimes, this begins with your mom and that’s certainly my case, right? Normally, the first person to kind of somewhat body shame us are our own mothers.

 

Katie Sturino  22:01

Yeah.

 

Reshma Saujani  22:02

Our own mothers, I’ll say for myself, is the hardest person. I could fight bullies, but my mom, holds a completely other power and sway over me. What model that conversation for me?

 

Katie Sturino  22:18

It’s hard. I will acknowledge that it’s really hard because my mom has done a lot of work. She won’t say anything to me about my body now, but that took a long time.

 

Reshma Saujani  22:32

But, she got there.

 

Katie Sturino  22:33

I got there. I think that there’s a couple different ways to have the conversation. One, you can go on light and after she says something, you’d be like, “Hey, you know what? That didn’t make me feel great and I’d love it if we just didn’t talk about my size, my weight, my clothes. I would love it if we didn’t talk about that. That doesn’t make me feel great”. Thenusually the response after that I find is usually health related. Well, I’m really worried about your health or I’m worried about no one’s going to date you if you’re this size, or whatever they’re attaching to the justification for what they’re saying. Then you have to have your reasoning ready. It’s like, “Hey, thanks. I handle my health with my doctor. I’m good. I’d love not to talk about this with you”.

 

Reshma Saujani  23:23

Right.

 

Katie Sturino  23:24

It’s awkward, it’s hard, and they’re gonna fight you but that’s where you can start. Then you just keep bringing it back to that doctor point, because then you got a medical professional.

 

Reshma Saujani  23:36

It works for me, right? I just checked my LDL. This is what it is. My blood sugar’s at this level, and then it often ends it there.

 

Katie Sturino  23:45

Yes. I think something really powerful that feels really extreme is to start threatening to end either a conversation, a visit, not come home for a holiday. You can draw that boundary and it works because they have to look themselves in the mirror and say, “Am I gonna do this? Am I gonna push my kid away? Maybe they are. But most of the time, I don’t think that they are.

 

Reshma Saujani  24:12

Yeah. You have a shitload of confidence girl and you exude it. I love listening to you. We have a couple friends in common. I heard you the queen be in a school, everybody loves you. Bridget says Hi. But, how did you find that much confidence in midlife? Because again, divorce at 35. Divorce is you know, for a lot of our midlifers, it is like the life altering moment. That is hard.

 

Katie Sturino  24:41

Yeah. Again, it comes back to the fact that, am I going to choose to feel bad in my life or am I going to choose to feel uncomfortable. I just keep making those choices in the moment every time, and I’m not perfect every time. I’ve got a deal tonight that I’m super nervous about, because going to crowded places or socializing with people. It makes me really nervous. But again, am I going to choose to stay home all the time? Am I going to choose to not go swimming because I am uncomfortable with how I look in a bathing suit? It’s just looking at that one life thing where you’re like, “This is my one life. Is this how I’m gonna spend it?”. I have a lot of those conversations with myself. I don’t know where the confidence comes from, but I will say the confidence keeps getting bigger and better with the older I get.

 

Reshma Saujani  25:58

Yeah.

 

Reshma Saujani  26:21

I want to talk about your content series, Super Sized Look. I love it. Everybody loves it. Tell us about it. Where did this idea come from?

 

Katie Sturino  26:39

Yeah, I started this 10 years ago.

 

Reshma Saujani  26:42

Is that crazy? Bananas.

 

Katie Sturino  26:45

Yeah. I started that 10 years ago. And what it is, is I get a celebrity outfit and I just recreate it side by side. It’s me and Millie Bobby Brown at the same exact outfits. I can’t find it in my size.

 

Reshma Saujani  27:02

Yeah, because I was like, “Isn’t that expensive, though?”.

 

Katie Sturino  27:05

No, it’s all done on the cheap, because that’s usually the brands that are making my size. I just show people side by side that you can be a size 0 or you can be a size 20 and still look great in this style. I do that because so many women are like, “I love her style, but I can’t pull it off because of XYZ”. So, I think if you just see it right in front of you, you can’t really argue with that, because oftentimes I’m bigger than the people who are like, “I can’t wear that”.

 

Reshma Saujani  27:40

Right? I want to ask you as we just said. You said, “I can’t find my size in that designer”. That’s like, fucked up and true.Will that ever change? Because I feel like we just went through this big moment in society, the body positivity moment, where we’ve realized that vast majority people are not sizes two and four, right?

 

Katie Sturino  28:04

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  28:07

Most Americans, want good quality clothes. Is that ever gonna change? What have you seen?

 

Katie Sturino  28:15

Again, I’ve been on this journey for 10 years. I will say that I’m gonna share my win with you. When I started a 12-14, was the biggest that anyone was going to put in the store. It was the biggest they were going to make in their lines. Now, I can say pretty comfortably that most brands in that mid-tier designer section – Veronica Beard, Tory Burch, not like Dior but this level, they make a size 16.

 

Reshma Saujani  28:50

That’s incredible. Congratulations.

 

Katie Sturino  28:51

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  28:53

Big win.

 

Katie Sturino  28:54

Yeah, it’s a big win because now a size 16 is found in their stores. It’s part of the buy. It’s available. It’s not like a special request. Now, does that mean that they’re carrying more sizes or expanding up to an 18, 20, 22? No, they’re not. So, if you’re above a 16, you’re fucked. I think the fact that we’ve moved from the highest being a 12 to now. The highest acceptable in a fashion line is a 16, table stakes. I think that’s progress.

 

Reshma Saujani  29:26

Do you feel this whole GLP ones. I feel like we’ve moved away from body positivity back to heroin chic. I don’t know where we are at this moment.

 

Katie Sturino  29:37

I think that that is also somehow connected to what’s happening in the world power. You know how they ask women to be smaller when more men are in power?

 

Reshma Saujani  29:51

Yes. I mean, basically as we’re taking away rights from women, it’s like we’re also giving women less power to not conform, to have men’s ideals.

 

Katie Sturino  30:02

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  30:03

That is really fascinating, right? That is another trend that is happening. We all agree in this kind of conservative moment, right? We’re going back to traditionalism in this moment which is really impacting also, like what we see as acceptable about women’s bodies.

 

Katie Sturino  30:20

Totally. Because for five years, it felt like we were kind of a little more free.

 

Reshma Saujani  30:25

I absolutely felt that. It feels like it’s shifted back quite quickly. But, what do you see with the next generation in terms of this movement? Do you feel like you’ve made really lasting change or do you feel like it’s gender equality? It’s like, you win, you lose, you pull, you back. It’s just you never actually really crash through.

 

Katie Sturino  30:52

I think I have heard and seen things represented in media, like on shows or movies that give me hope. Which are teens telling their parents to stop talking about someone’s body or to not comment on someone? I’m like, “Well, that’s new. That’s a new discussion to have in mainstream media”. I also find that when you talk to kids in person, they seem to have a better handle on like, “Don’t talk about my body, I’m good”. They have so many more resources and access to positive role models than we did. I find that yes, we have the potential and in some pockets, we are doing it better. Thenyou go on TikTok, and you look at the pro anorexia sites or like, how I have my stomach this flat? This what I eat in a day and all these toxic things. Yes, there is still a big population of younger people who are not freed of that mindset.

 

Reshma Saujani  31:57

What about women our age or women in midlife? What do you feel is the trend there? I guess in my experience, I feel like we’re so damn critical of our bodies. We’re trained that the mirror is in reverse, that we have to dye our hair, that wehave to have botox and fillers, that we have to look 15 years younger. I’ll admit it, I was just in Miami this past weekend on a girls trip, and we were with a bunch of younger women and somehow I was like, “Yeah, I’m 49” they’re like, “Oh my god, I would have thought that you were 35”. She made me the happiest girl. I was like, “Thank you”. I’m like, “Shit, I’m doing a podcast about this, and I still am able to retreat back into wanting to be seen as looking young and chasing youth.

 

Katie Sturino  32:44

I don’t have a great answer, because to be honest (being very honest on this podcast), I’m a little disconnected about the acceptance issue from the neck up..

 

Reshma Saujani  32:58

How interesting.

 

Katie Sturino  32:59

I’ve been getting botox since I was 26. I am crazy if I see some gray hairs coming in.

 

Reshma Saujani  33:09

You are preserving youth to the maximum.

 

Katie Sturino  33:13

You bet. I am.

 

Reshma Saujani  33:15

You’re not doing that Pamela Anderson, no makeup thing.

 

Katie Sturino  33:19

I’m not wearing makeup. That’s okay, but I’m certainly in the cosmetic.

 

Reshma Saujani  33:28

Yeah.

 

Katie Sturino  33:29

I have a hard time reconciling those two things. The thing is, what’s the look I want? You can also argue that for body. So what’s the look I want? I want to look like super toned in a bikini, and there’s really nothing wrong with that. But if you reverse that body conversation with the face conversation, it all gets a little muddy.

 

Reshma Saujani  33:48

Yeah, and I don’t think we’ve actually really had that conversation. What you just said, I think is in many ways really profound.

 

Katie Sturino  33:55

I’ve never said this before, so I know I’ve never had this conversation.

 

Reshma Saujani  34:00

What you’re saying is complex, right? I’m saying accept me here. Accept everybody here but, let me do what I want to do, right?

 

Katie Sturino  34:09

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  34:10

Like, neck up. Let me do what I want to do. If we’re honest, let me do what I want to do is let me chase youth, because the beauty standards is still like no wrinkles, full collagen.

 

Katie Sturino  34:23

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  34:24

I’m still chasing. Someone sent me an AI doctored photo of myself and my husband. I’m like, “Thank god. No one sent me that when I was in my 20s”, because I would have been like, “Take me to my nearest plastic surgery and just do that to me, please”. It’s wild, because I do think that that’s gonna even make things AI filters, make it even harder to not chase youth.

 

Reshma Saujani  34:48

Yeah, I’m not with you. Women, we don’t fuck around with our faces. I get a facial every four weeks. I have seven cream when I go to bed. I do not mess around at all and no shame on that?

 

Katie Sturino  34:48

I will just say that the skin on my body is changing, and I don’t look at that in the same way as the skin on my face. I have wrinkles here. I have more cellulite on my thighs than I have ever had before. I look at that, I’m like “[…]”. The fact that my jowls are forming in like this. I’m doing the zip machine five times a week. I am red light mask. I do not miss a Durham appointment. I am hyper vigilant about my face.

 

Katie Sturino  35:40

No. I guess the bigger thing here is you can do whatever you want, and there shouldn’t be any judgment from society about that.

 

Reshma Saujani  35:52

Yeah, do what you want.

 

Katie Sturino  35:53

Yeah. There shouldn’t be pressure. There just shouldn’t also be pressure from people to conform or not conform. Just do whatever you want. Let’s just stop talking about our bodies and appearances as much as we do.

 

Reshma Saujani  36:06

Yeah. Let people live and be the way that they want and whatever it wants for them. So, I want to have a Megababe. You’re an entrepreneur. How’s it feel?

 

Katie Sturino  36:14

I love being an entrepreneur.

 

Reshma Saujani  36:16

You do? Why? It’s lonely though.

 

Katie Sturino  36:17

Yeah, right. Well, I’ve been working for myself since I was 26. I started my own PR company at that age especially at that time. So toxic. Many mistreatment of people in their 20s. I was like, “I love this work. I don’t love these people”. So, I just started working by myself, then I ended up getting into managing my dog. Seven years after, I started my PR firm. I got into internet stuff, then I got.

 

Reshma Saujani  36:54

Wait, you say you’re managing your dog?

 

Reshma Saujani  36:55

Was your dog famous how many Instagram followers that they have?

 

Katie Sturino  36:56

I did. I was a dog […].

 

Katie Sturino  36:59

Yeah. I think at her height, she had.

 

Reshma Saujani  37:03

Wait, what was her name?

 

Katie Sturino  37:04

Toast. Do you remember toast? I don’t know.

 

Reshma Saujani  37:08

You’re toast mommy? I think I do remember toast.

 

Katie Sturino  37:11

Yes. She had her tongue out. She was a Red King Charles Spaniel with her tongue out. She got married on Real Housewives, and she was a rescue. We did a ton for rescue awareness. But, I really learned that I liked that part of the job too, which was creating content and entertaining people with a little bit of education. I liked that. Then I started doing my own content. Then I started Megababe. I’m very comfortable working in the entrepreneurial way where it’s like, I don’t know where my next check is coming from. I don’t know if this will last forever. I am in my home office. I don’t have the big, fancy doors.

 

Reshma Saujani  37:52

Megababe, great products. I highly recommend them. How did you come up with that idea? Talk to us about the idea of thigh rescue.

 

Katie Sturino  38:00

Similar to what I’m doing with the body acceptance stuff. I just try to normalize things that are have been made to be really taboo, especially in the beauty industry. I was doing body positive posting, and I was always looking for a thigh chafe solution that was cute, and not just for dudes who are biking. Beauty industry kept disappointing me every spring, like nothing was coming out. So, I talked to my friend Kate. She was my best friend from camp, and then my sister. I was like, “You guys, I think we should make a thigh chafe stick”. They were like, “We don’t have thigh chafe”. They don’t knowwhat it is. But they were like, “Yeah, okay”. We started Megababe with the thigh chafe stick and our talc-free boob sweat powder called Bust Dust. We launched it in my parents garage. We had to order the minimum order quantity was 10,000 of each. That’s 20,000 products in my parents’ garage. At the time also which was seven years ago, everyone was funded. Everyone was launching with major money. We chose to do, and we still are self funded. We hav never raised money, not friends and family, not from anyone. We chose to bootstrap it. We were like, “We’re gonna have this product in this garage for two years, then we’re gonna have to figure out what to do with it”. But, we launched in June of 2017 and we were sold out of everything we made by July.

 

Reshma Saujani  39:38

How?

 

Katie Sturino  39:40

We were on the Today Show. The Today Show, I think that was it.

 

Reshma Saujani  39:46

That was it?

 

Katie Sturino  39:50

Yeah.

 

Katie Sturino  39:50

Yeah, that’s all you needed back then. We were on the Today Show. We got a segment Bobbie Thomas, she did a commercial for Megababe. But the point was, we found the customer because I knew. Many manufacturers, retailers, people were like, “This isn’t a real problem. My wife doesn’t talk to me about thigh chafe. I don’t know about this boot and thing”. There was just so much negativity. I was like, “No, you guys are all wrong. Everyone here is wrong”. So, I just had to trust my gut and and I did. Now, we make over 40 different SKUs. We’re in Target, Walmart, Ulta, and we justlaunched in Boots UK last summer.

 

Reshma Saujani  39:51

That’s all you needed back then?

 

Reshma Saujani  40:38

Incredible.

 

Katie Sturino  40:39

Sold out of the UK, they ordered too little product. I’m always like, “No, you guys it’s not a risk. You’re not gonna put this on the shelf and it’s gonna sit here. The audience will find it, because they need it.

 

Reshma Saujani  40:52

What’s next? What do you think people need next?

 

Katie Sturino  40:55

Well, I launched my hammering cream which I was trying to launch for many years. First, Kate and my sister were like, “No one wants this”, so we put that on September and that has gone really well for us, especially on Amazon, especially with men. It’s called Butt Stuff.

 

Reshma Saujani  41:13

Oh, what a great name.

 

Katie Sturino  41:14

Yeah, thank you. I had to fight for the name too. Butt Stuff is great. We are this, “Let’s see what are we doing this summer?” Well, I have a book coming out this summer, but for Megababe, we’re launching several new shave products, and that’s where we’re going right now.

 

Reshma Saujani  41:33

Is this it? Are you doing exactly what you’re want to be doing which is advocating, influencing, writing, selling. You’re an entrepreneur. Is this the rest of your life, or is there something else you want?

 

Katie Sturino  41:46

I mostly am looking to move to Italy.

 

Reshma Saujani  41:48

Oh, okay.

 

Katie Sturino  41:50

And just live there.

 

Reshma Saujani  41:53

I’m actually doing a little bit of that this summer.

 

Katie Sturino  41:55

All right. I think that’s something on my list that I want to do for my life is just live abroad. I’ve never you know vacation, spent a month, but I want to live abroad. I didn’t go abroad as a college kid. I did internships in New York like I was working.

 

Reshma Saujani  42:12

Do you want to live abroad taking gelato classes? Or you want to live abroad as an entrepreneur, building a business? Do you feel like you want to retire abroad?

 

Katie Sturino  42:21

I could retire abroad, but I could also be an entrepreneur abroad.

 

Reshma Saujani  42:24

You just want to change the scenery then.

 

Katie Sturino  42:27

Yes. But writing books, I don’t necessarily enjoy the editing process, but I like the writing process.

 

Reshma Saujani  42:34

Books break my heart, because there’s so much time and so much energy. It’s the hardest thing to hack. I’ve hacked a lot of things in my life. It is the hardest thing because people don’t read. But when you break through, I feel like with my Brave, Not Perfect book, when people come to you and they’ve tattooed it on their hand, it’s just changed the way they live their life. I feel very blessed and I’m sure you do too. You could take out a piece of content. I can give a speech, and it can change people’s trajectory of their lives. What a blessing to be able to do that with your gift.

 

Katie Sturino  43:16

We didn’t have that when our brains were forming, we didn’t have that.

 

Reshma Saujani  43:22

No.

 

Katie Sturino  43:22

Don’t you feel lucky to be able to be that for someone?

 

Reshma Saujani  43:25

Oh, so lucky.

 

Katie Sturino  43:26

Yeah.

 

Reshma Saujani  43:28

I mean, especially this moment we’re in right now, I feel the only thing I need to do every day is wake up and do exactly what we’re doing on this podcast.

 

Katie Sturino  43:35

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  43:35

Share information. Be vulnerable, right? Tell your truths. Unleash, free someone else to live the life that they want to live.

 

Katie Sturino  43:44

Yes.

 

Reshma Saujani  43:45

I’ve done my work. That is the resistance. That is exactly the resistance.

 

Katie Sturino  43:50

Yes, is to live as a financially independent and I say this as I’m in Florida right now, and I live right by Mar-a-Lago. I mean, I have pickup trucks with Trump flags, driving by my window every day. It feels like an act of resistance to be this independent and this much of a guide for women.

 

Reshma Saujani  44:17

Yeah.

 

Katie Sturino  44:17

To find their own independence.

 

Reshma Saujani  44:19

And happy. Because if you are every day waking up being like, “What the fuck? What’s gonna happen next? What’s happening next?” that breaks your spirit. You can’t fight when you’re not joyful.

 

Katie Sturino  44:25

Agreed.

 

Reshma Saujani  44:29

You can’t imagine new things, right? You feel so broken. I’m so proud of you. Well, it’s so great to talk to you and thank you for everything you’re doing. I really appreciate this conversation.

 

Katie Sturino  44:46

Thank you.

 

Reshma Saujani  45:00

Thank you so much Katie Sturino for this inspiring conversation. That book that she mentioned, sunny side up. One last thing, thank you so much for listening to My So-Called Life. If you haven’t subscribed to Lemonada premium yet, now’s the perfect time because guess what, you can listen completely ad free. Plus you’ll unlock exclusive bonus content, like me and Katie talking about when we first started having all these negative self images of our bodies. It’s conversation that you’re not going to hear anywhere else. Just tap that subscribe button on Apple podcast or head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe on any other app that’s lemonadapremium.com. Don’t miss out. Thanks and we’re going to be back next week. Bye, you all.

 

Reshma Saujani  45:47

I’m your host, Reshma Saujani. Our associate producer is Isara Acevez. Our senior producer is Chrissy Pease. This series is sound designed by Ivan Kurayev. Ivan also composed our theme music and performed it with Ryan Jewell and Karen Waltuck. Our VP of new content is Rachel Neel. Special thanks to our development team,Hoja Lopez, Jamela Zarha Williams, and Alex McOwen. Executive Producers include me, Reshma Saujani, Stephanie Wittels Wachs  and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Series consulting and production support from Katie Cordova. Help othersfind our show by leaving a rating and writing a review. Let us know how you’re doing in midlife. You can submit your story to be included in this show at speedpipe.com/midlife. Follow My So-Called Life, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad free on Amazon music with your prime membership. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. Bye.