In this episode, you will learn 10 FACTS about Sharon, what age she would like to go back to, and what advice she would give herself at that age! We also talk about the main causes of body image issues, how they come up, and how she overcomes them. And we discuss what aging means to her and to her body.
You can READ the interview transcript HERE
10 Facts About Sharon
(at the time of the project)
1. 54 years old.
2. She was born in Newcastle in 1968. She grew up as an only child with European parents, who moved to Australia in the late 1940s.
3. She moved down to the south coast in 1997 when she met her husband.
4. Sharon has 2 children - a daughter 23, and a son 21.
5. Sharon moved around a little bit with her husband being in military. So, they lived in some different places within Australia and also in the UK for 12 months.
6. They came back to Kiama in 2003 and stayed there for a long time.
7. After her divorce, Sharon moved on and started her own business.
8. Sharon is a hairdresser. Her salon called Filthy Gorgeous Hair. And she has had that now for 11 years in Kiama Downs.
9. Sharon travelled a lot. She lived in the UK when she was 21. She did the typical Australian backpacker thing. Also, after her divorce she travelled to Europe and Asia.
10. Her favourite place in the whole wide world is Greece.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
(auto-generated)
Hi, you're listening to the My Body, My Story podcast.
I build myself respect and myself worth. And I guess it's 16 that you don't really know how to do that. But I'd love to go back and be able to guide myself through that a little bit better.
This is the 45 over 45 chapter where we celebrate Rule Breakers and role models, the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show their sensuality beauty, soul, and true essence. Here we talk about what it's like to be 45 Plus, adjusting to the changes that come with time, and we listened to the stories about participants. If you have an interesting story, we'd love for you to participate. You can email us at info@aleksandrawalker.com That's Aleksandra spelled with a K S. Or visit our website aleksandrawalker.com
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the my body My Story project. And today with us in the studio, Sharon. And while she's sitting in the makeup chair, and Nicole is creating her magic, doing makeup for her. I'll be interviewing her and I'll be interviewing Sharon. So welcome to the studio. And let's start. Tell us 10 facts about yourself.
My name is Sharon. I was born in Newcastle in 1968. I moved down to the south coast in 1997 when I met my, my military husband, and we had two children.
My daughter's 23 And my son's 21.
And they were fortunate enough to grow up down on the south coast of New South Wales.
We moved around a little bit with my husband being military. So we got to get to see some pretty awesome places and live in some different places within Australia. No, we actually, we did live in Victoria for a little while. That's where my son was born.
And we got to live in the UK for 12 months as well we one of his postings.
So that was that was pretty cool. And then we then we came back to Kiama in 2003. and stayed there for a long time.
And then I guess Unfortunately, my husband and I divorced. And I sort of moved on. started my own business.
Interesting. What do you do?
I'm a hairdresser. And I've had that now for 11 years. Wow. Yeah. So that's been a bit of a challenge. But it's also been really good. It's been a massive growing experience and a massive learning experience as a business owner. Yeah, yeah.
So you have your salon or you work from home or ?
no, I've got a little salon.
What is what is it called where they can find you?
They want it's actually called filthy, gorgeous hair.
Oh, what's a nice name,
but it's my it's one of my cousin's favourite song. And I always remember struggling to find a name for the salon. And we were driving along one day and I just I turned around I said to my kids are going to call it filthy, gorgeous hair. And they were on Mum, you can't Yeah, I can.
Yeah, so that's how it all kind of started
and where is it? is it's in Wollongong?
It's in Kiama Downs. It's like a little sub section of Kiama.
Like do you work there on your own or you have other girls helping?
You know, I've got it. I've got a couple of staff members.
That's probably been the hardest part of business is finding the right people.
Yeah, but I'm lucky the last three years I've had I've had a really nice little team.
One of those vets go on maternity leave, so that's happy for her but like a little bit sad for me.
Oh, it's hard, isn't it?
Yeah, it's really tough because you want to be excited and happy for them but yeah, it's kind of sad when I was like why? Yeah, yeah, you finally get into this nice little groove and yeah, but now I'm really happy for her. She's having a little girl. So she's really excited. And so yeah, there'll be some changes again soon.
But it's all good. So learning and growth and moving forward and just having to sort of go with the flow, I suppose.
have you always been a hairdresser or just did it as as your business after you got divorced?
No, I always. Yeah, I started I think when I was about 15 years old.
So business in the suitcase, the business which you can take with you anywhere, wherever you leave. Yes. Like, because some professions are impossible to transfer from country to country.
Yeah, I've actually been really lucky before my, before my time in the UK with my then husband.
I lived in the UK when I was 21. I did the typical Australian backpacker thing and went over there and had no trouble finding a job.
So which place which area of UK you went?
So the first time we lived just outside Wembley. And then, when I was there with my husband and the two children, the kids were only really little. We lived in we actually lived on the base at a place called Cranwell, RAF Cranwell, which was near Lincoln. That was probably the nearest big city, which was It was fabulous. I love Lincoln. Beautiful, mediaeval town. Enormous Minster.
But the weather, I think it's the only done downside, unless you like, a bit colder.
Yeah, I have to. I'm not a fan of the cold. But it didn't seem it was a different kind of cold, I think.
Yeah, it didn't seem to bother me so much over there as what it does here.
But the year the kids were really little, so that was probably my son was only six months old when we went over and my daughter. So he turned one while we were there. And my daughter turned three while we were there.
But it was an experience.
And I wasn't quite ready to come home yet. But the posting ended.
So yeah, we came back in, in 2003. And, yeah, I settled in Kiama with the kids, and they started school and all of that sort of thing. And my husband stayed in the military. And then he did all the posting around he spent some time in Sydney, some time in Canberra. And at one stage, he was also posted over to WA he was over there for two and a half years. So again, the kids and I we will go backwards and forwards. And so yeah, it was kind of cool. It was it was a fun. It was hard because I basically raised the kids on my own for the vast majority of the time, but there was also like an upside to it as well. We got to see a lot of things and go a lot of places and
what place is your favourite?
As far as where we will post it and where he went or just in general?
In general,
probably my favourite place in the whole wide world is Greece.
I love Greece.
No, I am I have a great friend that I've travelled with. And yeah, he just knows all the great places to go.
Yeah, that's the best thing to do is to travel with the local.
Yeah, yeah. So it was it was Athens it was the islands. Was the food the people, the laid back lifestyle. The beaches, the restaurants, the shopping.
The full package?
Yes. Just even like my kids came with me twice and they loved it as well. So yeah, they've gotten a little
Little bit of a travel bug as well now, so yeah, but then I have family in Switzerland as well, because my parents were European. So on my dad's side, there's lots of families still in Europe. So I get to go to Switzerland, and France. You. Yeah. And I get to see and see them and spend time with them. And I get to see that from a different perspective as well.
So you travelled quite a bit?
Yeah. Yeah. I think after my divorce from my husband, I started making excuses to travel, instead of making excuses not to. Because there was always something else to do, you know, like, Are the kids are too young, or, you know, the house needs this or that. Yeah. After the divorce. I think I guess it was like a little bit freer. And the kids already grown up. So you can, yeah, they were a bit older. So I think my son was 10, or 11. And my daughter was about 12, or 13, when we split up, and then I started travelling with them, I think. I think Corbin was 12. And Gabby was 14. And then we went again when he was 14. And Gabby was 16. So every two years pretty much who were Yeah, we went somewhere. We've been to Vietnam as well. Wow.
Shouldn't be an interesting trip.
Yeah, that was good. I heard very good feedback I would like from about the country. And it's an interesting, adventurous place to go. Yeah, it's, it's got a little bit of everything as well. And the people are super friendly. Again, the food's amazing. A lot of history. If that's, you know, we stayed. I think it's called de Nang. And so that was a that was a military, US military base for a while. So there's lots of, like war history and things like that there. And these beaches and rivers and yeah, quite a few things to do. Yeah.
So it seems like you enjoy your life so far. Yeah. But if you could go back to any age, what age it would be, and what advice would you give yourself at this age?
I think I would go back to when I was about 16.
And I would tell myself, to work on myself, do the things that are important to me, build, build my self respect, and my self worth. And I guess, at 16, that you don't really know how to do that. But I'd love to go back and be able to guide myself through that a little bit better. Yeah, just just do the things that are important to you. And that make you feel good. And don't worry about everybody else. Suit yourself and do what you need to do for you. Instead of trying to please everyone. Yeah. As we all tried to do when we were young. Yeah, yep. You don't realise that at the end of the day, you've only got you to rely on so you have to do what's right for you. Exactly.
That's the golden words, the key is that you can rely only on yourself.
Rather than hoping that someone else will. Like there is a very sad saying we come here alone, and we leave this earth alone.
Yeah, yeah, it's very true. But I think when you're that young, you just don't think about things like that, really.
So if your body could talk, what do you think it would ask you or tell you?
I think it would probably ask me to accept it the way it is. Maybe Stop trying to change it all the time. Yeah, because it's not great. Let's do it. Okay. It's got me this far. Stop trying to change it. It's really it's really tough to be comfortable in your own skin. Yeah.
And what do you think are the main reasons of body image issues like our insecurities for me personally, or just in general, both general and for you? Like what do you feel affects your perception of your body
Yeah, which factors I think people only ever want to. I mean, social media is like a massive thing. And TV, and you should be doing this or you should look like that. Orso I think I think in general, we just see this like, perfect world. And it's not really like that at all. That's just what we are just constantly bombarded with. So that makes it really hard to not want to be perfect. All the time. I guess, on a personal level, because I grew up as like an only child. I had European parents. They were older as well, my mum was 45. My dad was 44. When I was born, I grew up in a completely different culture in amongst Australians, you know, I was the kid with the salami sandwich, and, you know, all of that sort of stuff. And back then that wasn't now it's fantastic. But back then it wasn't really sort of accepted. So I guess for me, I was an easy target. When I was at school, yeah, yeah. And I guess to my parents went through the war, as well. So one of the big things for them, one of the biggest gifts that they could give me was food on the table every night. Then it kind of gets, I guess, got to the point where there was a bit too much food on the table every night. So you know, I was this Rolie polie little only child with older parents with the salami sandwiches. And so, you know, I was I was always a pretty easy target.
Yeah, so that's like your environment that your peer group also can affect, and add on to the body insecurities?
Yeah, I guess, I guess that can that can be where it starts. And then, on top of that, then you get bombarded with all these perfect images of what you should look like what you should have. Yeah, it's Yeah, I think it's multifaceted. When Yeah, just a really personal thing. And in an individual thing.
So do you think that this negative body image can affect relationships? In what way?
I think it can definitely affect relationships. I think it comes down to not feeling good enough. Not having a sense of self-worth, or self-respect. And again, that can just and it has the potential to make you an easy target. You accept things that you maybe otherwise wouldn't if you had more self-esteem or, or self-worth.Yeah, and it has a massive flow on effect to the people around you. I think the way you see yourself is the way you end up being treated like you only always accept the bare minimum of what you think you're worth. And sometimes that can be not very much at all.
Yeah, if you have from time to time we all do any body related insecurities. How do you overcome them? So what is your go to method to bring yourself in the shape you want? And another question that has to change with age,
I guess, when I was younger, I am. I went to the gym a lot, trying to sort of shape and mould myself into what I thought was acceptable. And I guess as I've gotten older, I've realised that that's a lot of hard work, doesn't always pay off the way that you expect it to. And I guess as I've gotten older, that that's just not for me anymore. I guess. Like now I just tried to eat healthy. I try to stay active. I try and take on new challenges. And yeah, I think I think my gym days are over. I tried to do more gentle exercise. And I try to eat well. Just to do balance, balance. Yeah. And physical activity. Yeah, try it try to find a balance. And also I'm just I'm probably a little bit more. I'm still probably not 100% happy with the way I am. But I think I'm a little bit more accepting now as well.
Excellent. So what's your favourite quote about being a woman?
All men be saying or your own thought. One that keeps like springing back to mind is
if you want something said ask a man if you want something done, ask a woman.
Good one, though some men will disagree.
Oh, absolutely.
Thank you, Sharon. Thank you very much for sharing your story and I hope you will enjoy the rest of your day and the photoshoot and thanks again.
Thank you.
If you have an interesting story, we'd love for you to participate. You can email us at info@aleksandrawalker.com That's Aleksandra spelled with a K S. Or visit our website aleksandrawalker.com
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