FEATURE:
Among These Brilliant Women…
IN THIS PHOTO: Entrepreneur Grace Beverley was a hugely engaging and popular guest when she spoke at The Trouble Club on Saturday, 28th June at Conway Hall, London/PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Beverley via The New Statesman
Reasons Why You Need to Join The Trouble Club
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YOU may be a member already…
IN THIS PHOTO: Yuan Yang, a journalist and the first Chinese-born British M.P., is a guest of The Trouble Club on Wednesday, 23rd July at The Conduit in Covent Garden, London/PHOTO CREDIT: ©House of Commons (no alterations were made to this image)
but, for those who are on the fence or are unaware of The Trouble Club, I am going to argue why you need to be more affirmative and decisive! I recently did write about The Trouble Club but, as the speaker whose photo I used as the main image cancelled her appearance, it was a minor backfire in that sense. It was nobody’s fault. I just feel I need to rectify this error and, as she has already spoken for The Trouble Club, I am on safe ground using Grace Beverley as the ‘cover star’! I am going to lead to an interview with her in a minute. Rather than repeat what I normally do with these features and look back at events I have attended in the past few weeks or so and then look forward to upcoming ones, I am going to split it into two. I am going to spotlight Grace Beverley but also mention the event which is happening tomorrow evening – that I am attending – that is of particular interest. After that, I am going to discuss the club as a whole and why you need to be a member. Let’s do some housekeeping before continuing. Whilst this is something CEO and owner Ellie Newton says before beginning an interview with a guest – usually she wants people not to trip on wires near the stage and have deaths on her hands! -, I am using this opportunity to highlight the ways you can support The Trouble Club. Go and follow Ellie Newton on Instagram and The Trouble Club here.
You can also follow them on Twitter. You can apply for membership here. At a time when there are so many exclusive members clubs and annual fees can be insane, The Trouble Club is inclusive and affordable. Grated, as you would expect, the vast majority of members are women, though there is a growing number of male members. Though I love the breadth of members, I think the biggest bonus and benefit is being in a room filled with passionate and fascinating women – which is no shade on any of the male members! The array of venues that events are held in is extraordinary too. How these unique spaces and the choice of guests combines beautifully to create these unforgettable evening! Over the past couple of months or so I have seen everyone from Katie Piper to Charlotte Proudman. Of course, as I write in every feature about The Trouble Club, there is a wish-list of guests I would love to see. Returning guests such as Gloria Steinem and Laura Bates. Trouble virgins – probably the wrong wording; ‘debut guests’?! – such as Jenny Saville, Billie Piper, Michaela Coel, Gillian Anderson and Greta Gerwig (though, if she is booked, they may need to hire the biggest venue they have ever been in to satisfy the demand!). I am going to revisit a terrific event from Saturday, 28th June. In a first time for The Trouble Club, they held a trio of events on a Saturday at the same venue. At Conway Hall, Sarah Harman and then Emma Slade Edmondson and Nicole Ocran helped to create a wonderful day of events. Even though theirs were not hugely populated – maybe the over-hot weather and the fact it was a Saturday was a factor; a shame considering how incredible they were! – these speakers were amazing. I will write why I try and attend as many events as possible.
Welcoming in a packed audience, Grace Beverley spoke about her experiences as owner of TALA. Their mission and ethos is to “bring you consciously-made, active-inspired pieces that deliver on performance, fit, quality and style, without the hefty price tag”. The Working Hard with Grace Beverley is a podcast I would recommend everyone subscribe to. Last July, GQ were invited to Grace Beverley’s London home. Not even thirty, Beverley owns TALA and the fitness brand, Shreddy. With a successful podcast too, she is extremely busy. However, she ensures that health and good sleep are at the top of her priority list:
“What does an average day look like for you?
I always post my daily schedule on my Instagram [because] you hear a lot about the 5am club and I wanted to paint a very accurate picture of what my life actually looks like. I'm one of those people who wakes up as close as physically possible to the time I have to leave the house.
Generally, I try not to do something more than two nights of the week on weekdays: I find that I get really burnt out otherwise. On Monday night I see my friends because there were a good few years where I felt like we just saw each other only last minute. So this is as an equivalent to a date night. Other than that I will eat at home with my dogs and my fiancé and watch TV.
A lot of your business is fitness-oriented. How do you incorporate fitness into your life at the moment?
I have really hard and fast rules because my job is very much a job that is never done. For example, I need to do three workouts in the week. Any of them can be substituted for a half-hour intense walk but normally I do one run, one lifting session and one pilates class. I need that sort of permanence in my life.
Another big essential has been getting a walking desk. My job is really sedentary which is quite ironic as my company is in the fitness space. Having a walking desk has been amazing for when I have back to back calls.
Let's talk about Tala. If you could only keep one item, what would it be?
You've put me in a really challenging position here but it would have to be the DayFlex Flares. They are the complete bestseller: you can dress them up or down and they're so comfortable.
How do you prevent yourself from getting burnt out?
I think it is all about boundaries. I had really bad burnout in 2021. I remember this day where all I could do was a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I realised that I had pushed myself too hard and, you know, some people say it takes you two years to recover from burnout. I genuinely do feel like I'm just coming out of that.
So even though in my diary it might look like I'm free, I'm not. That time is scheduled for not moving on the sofa. That sounds ridiculous and I used to think I was young and should be going out, but actually, I think one of the biggest things I've learned is that you just need to protect yourself”.
Taking place tomorrow (8th July) at the Magic Circle Theatre Euston, When Pop Culture Turned on Women: Sophie Gilbert & Pandora Sykes is going to be a fascinating event. Topics discussed that are so relevant and timely. Her book, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves “scrutinises the way sexist 90s and 00s pop culture blunted feminism’s third wave”, as DAZED write in their interview with Sophie Gilbert from April.
“The things we watch, listen to, read, wear, write, and share dictate in large part how we internalise and project what we’re worth,” writes Sophie Gilbert in Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves. Chronicling the transition from the 1990s to 2000s, which was psychologically violent and sexually exploitative for many women who were part of the pop culture machine, Gilbert calls for a “reappraisal”. She wonders what this moment reflexively did to us as spectators: “How did it condition us to see ourselves? And, maybe more crucially, what did it condition us to think about other women…?”
The reappraisal is implemented with assists from works like Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs and Chris Kraus’ introduction to Pornocracy, alongside Gilbert’s own examinations of Abercrombie & Fitch, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Issa Rae, Sheryl Sandberg, Amy Winehouse, Nora Ephron, Taylor Swift, Anna Nicole Smith, the Spice Girls, Lil’ Kim and Hilary Clinton. Every form of media is probed, from reality TV (Celebrity Big Brother) to oversharing bloggers (Gawker) to the beginning of live streaming (Jennicam) to unthinkable trends (paparazzi upskirt photos). We spoke with Gilbert – a longtime staff writer at The Atlantic – about charged words (“empowering”, “gaslighting”, etc), the ingenuity of Lena Dunham, and the utility of scrutinising recent history.
You mention the word empowering makes you ‘deeply suspicious’. Why, and how are we supposed to make sense of those terms?
Sophie Gilbert: There were certain words that kept coming up over and over and over again during my research, and ‘empowering’ was one of them. Almost inevitably, whenever it came up, it was being used in a defensive sense, after someone had been critiqued for something. The first Wonderbra ad with Eva Herzigova in 1994 was on billboards everywhere; it was very old-school bombshell, like the death knell for third-wave feminism. But the defence of it was that it was ‘empowering’. She made a lot of money, so maybe it was empowering [laughs]. Then there was a movie poster [for 2007 film Hostel 2] where a woman was being tortured and confined. It was quite dark, and when there were complaints, one of the producers claimed that they were ‘empowering’, because in the end, she fights back.
Marketers love nothing more than a good buzzword, right? When they find a word that they can imbue with a certain kind of progressive meaning, that is always a word that you should be suspicious of. Even the word ‘feminism’ is something that is so loaded at this point. But feminism does have a very clear meaning: women should have equal rights to men, and have equal protection under the law.
You mention dancing in clubs to Sisqó’s ‘Thong Song’, Christina Aguilera’s ‘Dirrty’, and 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’. There is a duty to be critical of cultural content, but how do we honour pop culture we like, even if it’s not quite ‘pure’?
Sophie Gilbert: The way I dance when ‘Thong Song’ comes on! The thing is, this era was glorious in so many ways, and that was why it was so easy to be swept up in it. It was so excessive and glittery and skin-exposing — it was touching on all these pleasure points in our brain, right? And there’s a reason why it’s coming back now as an aesthetic mode and as nostalgia, because it is so appealing.
My point with this book was never to cancel anything, with a few exceptions in the pornography chapter. My point wasn’t to say that anything should be dismissed. It was more to put it all out there and to draw connections for myself in a way that I hoped would make sense to other people. I’m coming to it with my own memories and life experiences, but I really did hope that everyone would come to it with their own frame. I don’t want to write off what so many of us loved. I just want people to be able to see the totality of what was happening in a slightly more considered way.
I go to a lot of events blind. Unless it is a speaker I recognise and know the work/career of, I am booking a ticket because the event description and theme interests me. Every single time I go to an event, I come away not only having learned new things. I also get to find out more about an incredible person. Themes discussed that I do not get exposure to in my everyday life. I mentioned three events that happened recently. Let's Talk Mixed Race with Emma Slade Edmondson and Nicole Ocran was about the richness of the mixed race experience. Sarah Harman is this incredible author of All the Other Mothers Hate Me. Someone I did not know a lot about. Though there were not many men for Grace Beverley – a few here and there -, for me, it was about her story and experience. This amazing entrepreneur who is a huge success story. However, I wanted to know more about her role as owner of TALA and how she built the brand. Words of wisdom and experience, though I cannot identify with her career and experiences directly – and I do not shop at TALA -, it was an enriching and fascinating event. The engrossing When Tech & Ancestral Power Collide: A Night with Kelechi Okafor was powerful for a different reason. You are surrounded by these amazing women! Many coming to Trouble for he first time. Some who are regulars. Each time, you get to meet someone new and know you are in a space with truly awesome women. You can see future leaders, business owners and cultural figures in these audiences. These beautiful venues that provide their own distinct atmosphere and charm. The continued drive and passion of Ellie Newton and her brilliant team. I am looking to future events with Yuan Yang, Cally Beaton and Marina Hyde. Thrilled and keen to see where The Trouble Club heads next year and how they grow. With its membership strengthening and its future bright, you need to join me and many others who hold The Trouble Club dearly in the heart. I can guarantee you, as a member, will experience some of the most…
@thetroubleclub “Here it comes.” - Given current events it felt right to share the words of one of the wisest speakers to grace the Trouble stage, Margaret Atwood. #thetroubleclub #londonevents #communityforwomen #podcastclips #podcast #manchesterevents #womenownedbusiness #uselection #trump @Ellie Newton ♬ original sound - The Trouble Club
MEMORABLE evenings of your life.