Podcast stars tuck into life under the knife
TWO women are taking the podcast world by storm with their frank and honest account of life as 30-something mums who openly enjoy cosmetic surgery and facial treatments.
Lauren Harris, from Rawtenstall, and Ashley Stobart launched their first ever podcast last week, entitled “Nip Tuck, Don’t Give a F***” and were stunned when it soared to the top of the download charts with thousands of people listening in to their ‘unfiltered’ chat.
They want to use their new-found platform to encourage women to be honest about cosmetic treatments they’ve had done – from surgery to fillers – instead of claiming to ‘naturally’ look a certain way on Instagram photos.
Both are open about how much they have spent on cosmetic procedures – Ashley detailing £38,000 worth of treatments including her first boob job at the age of 22, liposuction, a nose job and ‘bleph job’ on her eyelids; meanwhile Lauren has spent £25,000 on three different breast enhancement surgeries.
They also enjoy regular skin and face treatments like botox and fillers.
Lauren, 31, said: “People can make their own decisions about cosmetic work, we are not trying to promote it in any way.
“We called the podcast Nip Tuck, Don’t Give a F***, but it’s not just about cosmetic surgery – it’s about women, about mums being brave enough to be open and honest about their lives, challenge stereotypes and tell funny stories.
“To say nobody’s perfect despite how it can sometimes look on instagram, and to be honest about ourselves. We want women to stop feeling bad about themselves – and what’s more damaging is when people look at certain Instagram photos thinking that women look like that naturally.”
The two women became friends when they were both working at the same cosmetic surgery clinic 10 years ago.
The two friends went on to become mums around the same time – Lauren’s daughter Thea is three.
Both women returned to work after maternity leave to continue their careers in the cosmetic surgery industry. The motivation to launch their podcast came as a way for the women to create positives from a negative situation that shocked them to the core.
They both regularly post about their lives on their Instagram feeds, with Lauren having 21,500 followers, but the friends were gobsmacked to discover that they were the victims of ‘toxic gossip’ on the website Tattle Life.
The site was set up as a forum for ‘commentary and critiques of people that choose to monetise their personal life as a business and release it into the public domain’.
People with anonymous profiles have created entire threads dissecting their private lives – while making completely unfounded and false claims about them.
To ‘reclaim’ the gossip and to bring something positive after the upsetting discovery, the girls decided to launch a podcast where they’d be able to be totally open and honest about their lives and hit back at the anonymous bullies.
Lauren said: “People have been saying for ages we should do something like a podcast, and we felt like this was the only way to address the situation with Tattle Life – it’s not like we could go on Instagram and go through everything people had been saying.
“The podcast was a way for us to discuss motherhood, being a working mum, and all the stereotypes around that, like how mums should look a certain way. We feel we’ve got so much to say to a lot of women of our age group.”
Ashley does not share photos of her daughter on her social media pages, while Lauren decided she would share photos of daughter Thea with her friends and followers on Instagram.
Both decisions were criticised on the gossip site – with the trolls slamming Ashley for ‘never showing her kid’ on Instagram suggesting she is a bad mum and never with her child, while Lauren was criticised for going on holiday without her child.
Lauren says: “There are different things that frustrate us about it, not just that it’s mean, and a lot of it is totally untrue, but that it seems to be mostly women talking about other women.
“But since the podcast, we’ve been blown away by the support we’ve received. The best part of it is that it’s women. After the trolling and negativity from women I’ve been exposed to, I’ll admit I lost faith in our gender but not any more.”
The next podcast is due to go live in June, and will see the girls discuss cheating men and relationships.