Introducing LISTEN, An Online Journal

"I now know vulnerability to be strength, feminine energy to be powerful, failure to be the greatest teacher and wear my awkwardness on my sleeve. I wish to create an environment for other women and girls to be able to experience the same thing." 

Hi y'all, Jodie here!

First of all, I want to say thank you so much for being here, Listen has been a long time coming, a true labour of love and has taken many forms before arriving at this concept. I hope everyone will bear with me as I navigate this new space and build this platform from the ground up! 

This community is meant for collaboration and my hope is that it grows beyond what I originally intended. 

So, who am I and what is Listen Journal? 

I am a 3x British Olympian, Olympic Bronze medallist, coffee lover and passionate advocate for women and girls' rights globally. 

As an athlete who experienced success early on, I spent much of teenage my teenage years in the medias eye. Both the media and sports industries were extremely male dominated so I spent my time surrounded by and guided by masculinity. 

These environments had a profound effect on the parts of me I thought were acceptable, sport had consumed my identity, I was afraid to show up authentically and masked a lot of my personality. This left me feeling lonely and isolated, craving community. 

As a result, I often found myself looking for community online and in magazines, I would scour Reddit and Tumblr in search of people experiencing the same things as me. I would pick up magazines just to flip to the agony aunt pages hoping someone had asked a question I too was looking to answer. 

As the world becomes more and more polarised and popular opinion takes the place of critical thinking, I see less and less opportunity for genuine connection. I want to reintroduce nuanced discussion without shame attached, curating empathy and holding space for a variety of voices, so that we can see the similarities between us, especially in those with different lived experiences. 

With Listen I hope to create a community for women to come together and connect over mutual experiences. 

I now know vulnerability to be strength, feminine energy to be powerful, failure to be the greatest teacher and wear my awkwardness on my sleeve, things I once felt ashamed of. I wish to create an environment for other women and girls to be able to experience the same acceptance I came to feel within myself. 

I hope this will be a place to find useful, accessible resources and finally a place to be seen and accepted as you are, a space to be heard. 

Jodie