Revisit: Normalizing Thigh Chafing and Boob Sweat with Katie Sturino

Summary

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Podcast Summary: My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani

Episode: Revisit: Normalizing Thigh Chafing and Boob Sweat with Katie Sturino
Date: March 18, 2026
Host: Reshma Saujani (Lemonada Media)
Guest: Katie Sturino – Entrepreneur, Author, Body-Acceptance Advocate, Founder of Megababe

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Episode Overview

This episode brings a candid, humorous, and deeply honest conversation between Reshma Sajani and Katie Sturino about body acceptance, navigating midlife, challenging beauty standards, and launching products that address real women’s issues—like thigh chafing and boob sweat. With signature wit and empathy, Reshma and Katie dissect where body insecurities originate, how social and family narratives shape them, and practical strategies for setting boundaries (even with your own mom). They also discuss the cultural moment around beauty norms, the body positivity movement, and women's agency over aging, ambition, and self-presentation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Con” of Women’s Bodies and Body Acceptance in Midlife

• Reshma opens with her signature theme: Women are “tricked every day about everything,” but the biggest “con” is the one we've been sold about our own bodies—namely, that achieving a ‘perfect’ body will magically solve all problems [03:00].
• Katie’s revelation: Midlife is when she finally began to truly accept and love her body—after a divorce and significant weight gain.
  • "The world told me I should be smaller… I went through a divorce, and I became a size 16, and I thought that that would be the end of things for me… But what I realized is all the thin women were coming to me being like, wow, you look great in a tank top. I wish I could wear a tank top. And I was like, you should be wearing a tank top." – Katie [06:48-08:35]
• Critical insight: The myth that “if you just get smaller, you’ll finally be happy” permeates all sizes and is ultimately a tool of social control.

2. Influencer World, Aging, and the “Coolness” of Midlife

• Katie notes shifting tides:
  • Historically, influencer culture was “for the young,” and Katie herself avoided discussing her age [05:00].
  • Recently, there’s more celebration of women in midlife—"all the hot mommies are in vogue." – Katie [05:40]
  • Yet, there’s lingering discomfort with identifying as a “mom” figure: “You became a mom to die. Like, it was the most uncool thing to be an older woman.” – Katie [05:53]

3. Social Conditioning, Generational Trauma & Setting Boundaries

• Origins of insecurity:
  • "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." – Katie [13:24]
  • Many women’s earliest body shaming comes from mothers/grandmothers, under a guise of ‘protection’ [21:01].
• How to respond:
  • “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.” – Katie [22:13]
  • If pressed on “health,” Katie recommends: “Hey, I handle my health with my doctor. I'm good. I'd love not to talk about this with you.” [22:30]
  • “Something really powerful that feels really extreme is to start threatening to end a conversation, a visit, not come home for a holiday. Like, you can draw that boundary.” – Katie [23:40]

4. Confidence, Choice, and Redefining Self-Worth

• Reshma asks: How does one find confidence post-divorce, in midlife?
  • Katie’s answer: “Am I gonna choose to feel bad in my life or am I gonna choose to feel uncomfortable at the… I just keep making those choices in the moment every time.” [24:36]
  • “The confidence keeps getting bigger and better with the older I get.” – Katie [25:30]

5. Body Positivity, Beauty Standards, and The Role of Capitalism/Politics

• The “set point” myth:
  • Your body is biologically inclined toward a certain weight; fighting this exhausts energy, and, as Katie puts it: “I was hungry, I was tired, and I wasn’t really myself.” [14:34]
• Changing standards:
  • “We’ve moved from like the highest being a 12 to now the highest acceptable in a fashion line is a 16. Table stakes. I think that's progress.” – Katie [28:58]
• On societal regression:
  • “I feel like we've moved away from body positivity back to, like, heroin chic.” – Reshma [29:34]
  • “Basically, as we're taking away rights from women, it's like we're also giving women less power to not conform to how men’s ideals.” – Katie [29:59]
• Younger generations:
  • Teens sometimes have healthier boundaries—“they have so many more resources and access to positive role models than we did”—but TikTok culture proves toxic ideals persist [31:00].

6. Complicated Realities: Face vs. Body Acceptance

• Confliction and honesty:
  • “From the neck up, I've been getting Botox since I was 26… I am hypervigilant about my face.” – Katie [33:07-35:46]
  • Both admit to chasing youth, calling out the contradiction: “It’s complex, right? It’s like I’m saying ‘accept me here’… but here, let me do what I want to do.” – Katie [34:04]
  • Their consensus: “You can do whatever you want, and there shouldn't be any judgment from society about that… There just shouldn't also be pressure to conform or not conform. Just do whatever you want.” [36:00]

7. Megababe: Normalizing Women’s Health Issues

• Origin Story:
  • Megababe was founded to address “taboo” problems: “I was always looking for a thigh chafe solution that was cute and not just for dudes who are biking.” – Katie [38:08]
  • The company’s first products (Thigh Rescue, Bust Dust) launched out of her parents’ garage in 2017, with minimal funding—but huge demand ("sold out of everything we made by July" after a Today Show spot) [39:45].
  • "Manufacturers, retailers, people were like, 'This isn't a real problem.' My wife doesn't talk to me about thigh chafe... And I was like, no, you guys are all wrong." – Katie [40:02]
• What’s next: New products, including a successful hemorrhoid cream (“Butt Stuff”), expansion into Target, Walmart, Ulta, and Boots UK [41:03, 40:59].

8. Living Authentically—and as Resistance

• On the work that matters:
  • “All I need to do every day is wake up and do exactly what we're doing on this podcast. Share information, be vulnerable. Tell your truths. You know, free someone else to live the life that they want to live.” – Katie [43:34-43:50]
• Financial independence as feminist act:
  • “It feels like an act of resistance to be this independent and this much of a guide for women to find their own independence and happy.” – Katie [43:58]
• Joy as survival:
  • “If you are every day waking up… what's going to happen next… that breaks your spirit… You can't fight when you're not joyful.” – Katie [44:36-44:39]

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Notable Quotes

• “Look for the con. My favorite.” – Katie, echoing Reshma's mantra [08:35]
• “We all hate our bodies. What are we doing here? So that's when I started to say, what if I just, like, actually became okay with my body?” – Katie [08:36]
• “The confidence keeps getting bigger and better the older I get.” – Katie [25:30]
• “Basically, as we're taking away rights from women, it's like we're also giving women less power to not conform to how men’s ideals.” – Katie [29:59]
• “You can do whatever you want, and there shouldn't be any judgment from society about that.” – Katie [36:00]
• “It feels like an act of resistance to be this independent and this much of a guide for women to find their own independence and happy.” – Katie [43:58]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:00] – Reshma introduces the “body con” and the false promise of the 'perfect body.'
• [06:39] – Katie on her journey to accepting her body after divorce and weight gain.
• [13:24] – Katie traces body insecurities to generational, especially familial, trauma.
• [22:13] – Katie illustrates how to talk to (and set boundaries with) family members about body comments.
• [24:36] – Katie discusses finding confidence by making daily choices to participate in life.
• [28:58] – The fashion industry expands size inclusivity—a win, but more to do.
• [29:59] – Katie highlights the link between political moments and body standards.
• [35:46] – Katie and Reshma discuss the tension between body acceptance and the desire to maintain youthfulness in their faces.
• [38:08] – Story of founding Megababe, normalizing products around “taboo” women’s issues.
• [43:34] – Sharing, vulnerability, and authenticity as acts of resistance and empowerment.

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Memorable Moments

• Katie’s entrepreneurial journey—from PR, to dog ‘influencer’ manager (“Toast” the dog), to Megababe, launching products no one in the industry believed in [37:03-40:00].
• “Butt Stuff” — Megababe’s cheekily named hemorrhoid cream, representing the mission to destigmatize women’s health and body needs [41:21].
• Both women’s honest admission that neck-up beauty pressures remain real even as they preach body acceptance [33:07-36:00].

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Tone & Style

The conversation is funny, open, compassionate, and delightfully irreverent. Both women use forthright language and real talk—embracing “taboo” topics with humor and warmth, while offering actionable wisdom for those navigating body acceptance and self-worth in midlife.

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Takeaways

• Set boundaries: With yourself, with family, and with society’s expectations.
• Normalize real bodies: By talking openly about what most women actually experience—like thigh chafing and boob sweat.
• Accept complexities: It's possible to champion body acceptance and still feel conflicted about aging, beauty, or cosmetic interventions.
• Confidence grows with age: Even if old scripts are hard to shed, self-acceptance is a daily choice.
• Living authentically is revolutionary: Especially for women in a culture pushing conformity, restriction, or shame.

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For anyone navigating midlife, body acceptance, or entrepreneurship—or just wanting to laugh about real “taboo” issues—this episode is both balm and battle cry.

Transcript

[Reshma Sajani]

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[Julia Louis-Dreyfus]

hey there, it's Julia Louis Dreyfus. I'm back with a new season of Wiser Than Me, the show where I sit down with remarkable older women and soak up their stories, their humor and their hard earned wisdom. Every conversation leaves me a little smarter and definitely more inspired. And yes, I'm still calling my 91 year old mom Judy to get her take on it. All Wiser Than Me from Lemonada Media is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Reshma Sajani]

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 Resh Mr. Johnny. 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, about 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 that you choose can achieve the perfect body, whatever the fuck that means. And when you do have that perfect body, all your problems are going to go away. It's going to feel like unicorns and rainbows every day. I know, you know, midlifers, that that is total and complete bullshit. Look, 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. And 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 and belly fat and the stuff that just happens to us when we cross 45. So the con about women's bodies, it's

[Katie Storino]

an important one to talk about because

[Reshma Sajani]

it's really, really, really a tough one to overcome. Katie Storino is fighting like hell to

[Katie Storino]

expose this con, and that's why I wanted to talk to her.

[Reshma Sajani]

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. And she's thought a lot about the

[Katie Storino]

way we think and talk about women's

[Reshma Sajani]

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, like identifying and combating insecurities, drawing boundaries with family members.

[Katie Storino]

Mom, I'm talking about you.

[Reshma Sajani]

Especially the ones who have that special knack for sprinkling a little bit of body shaming. We talked about how we find confidence in midlife and a fascinating exchange about

[Katie Storino]

the way society views women's bodies vis

[Reshma Sajani]

a vis their political and social power. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Katie Storino as much as I did.

[Katie Storino]

Let's party. Let's get into it. All right, so as you know, you're here to talk about midlife, and the

[Reshma Sajani]

first question I like to ask everybody

[Katie Storino]

is their midlife mindset. And the interesting thing is it's different for different folks. So some people are like, fuck yeah, Best time ever. Some people are like, oh my God, make it stop. Where are you?

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 do is in influencer land. And in influencer land, you've gotta be young.

So do you think that's the case?

I would say, like in the past year, maybe it feels less so, but like, for a Long time. Yes.

Yeah.

Like, unless you were a mommy blogger, like, there was no space for you. But now with, like, I mean, this platform that you have, like, I feel like it's becoming cool to talk about other things.

Yeah. I mean, also, like, Nicole Kidman, baby girl, like, all the hot Demi Moore, like, all the hot mommies are, like, yes, are. Are in. Are in vogue.

It's recent, but that's new. That's, like a new conversation.

You're right. Because I think for a long time, even for girls who code, I wanted to be big sister, not mom. Right, because you wanted. It's kind of like you became a mom to die. Like, it was the most uncoolest thing to be an older woman.

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

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Katie Storino]

So I want to start talking about. I was just reading a quote that you gave, and I keep thinking about it, so I'm going to read it to you. I became a size 16, which I still am, and a surprising thing happened. I really loved my body. Tell me about the journey of getting

[Reshma Sajani]

to that point where you say that.

[Katie Storino]

And I could tell by looking at

[Reshma Sajani]

your face that you believe it with every ounce of your soul.

[Katie Storino]

Yes. And I. I think my journey is that I was always bigger. And just like I said with. With the age thing, like, I always wanted to be smaller because the world told me I should be smaller. I was, like, a size 1214 for my whole life, and then I went through a divorce, and I became a size 16, and I thought that that would be the end of things for me. I was like, well, that's it. Like, you're never gonna. Like, who's. Who are you gonna find? Because you could bear. You couldn't keep a husband when you were a size 1214, so how are you gonna find someone at a size 16 now? This is, like, the most toxic thinking, but that's how I thought. And I started my body acceptance journey by accident because I wasn't looking to accept my body. I was looking to, like, go to dance classes twice a day and, like, get my revenge body. I wasn't looking to, like, be, like, y a cool size. And the way that I got there was through Instagram, because I. I actually started my platform just trying to help, like, bigger girls find, like, clothing hacks. Like, I was like, go to the men's department at RIP Barney's and, like, try the shoes on there or try, like, try this oversized, stretchy piece from this brand because it'll fit us. And so that's how I started. But what I realized is all the thin women were coming to me being like, wow, you look great in a tank top. I wish I could wear a tank top. And I was like, you should be wearing a tank top. You're the size, too. Like, I should. You should tell me not to wear the tank top. So 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. And you said at a lunch that. That I was. I was at where you spoke. You were like, look for the scam. What's the scam?

Look for the con. My favorite.

Yeah, the con. And I was like, there it is. That's the con. Because. 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 just, like, actually became okay with my body? And that's how it started.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Katie Storino]

But it's interesting to me that it's in midlife, though, that you have this sense that, like, I want to become an advocate. It was your divorce, you know what I mean, that catalyzed this. 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.

Yeah. I was 35 when I got divorced.

[Reshma Sajani]

35.

[Katie Storino]

And so that's when it started, actually. I gained. I went on a whole journey that I'm just starting to unpack, where I actually, like, gained weight and was a size 22. Like, you know, 18. 20. 22. And then I'm a size 18 now. And so I've been all these different sizes in this, like, bigger space. And 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 where. As. Where I. When I was smaller, I was always critical. Like, the thinnest I had ever been was, like, a size 10. And it was because I was on this crazy, unhealthy diet and exercise program, and I had no energy. It was really bad, but I still was like, I can't. Can I get smaller? So it. It was just. It was really interesting to detach from that point of view around hating your body.

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

[Reshma Sajani]

So how did you break free?

[Katie Storino]

I guess. I don't guess. I mean, I did. 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. It's not going to change the outcome. Like, for me, again, the catalyst was my divorce. I was like, it didn't keep a husband. Like, it didn't like, like basically keeping myself small and making sure that I was trying to like, blend in with everyone didn't do anything for me. Like, I'm my most successful professionally at my biggest. I'm like, I'm. I am my most authentic self at my biggest. And that doesn't mean that. 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 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. And I'm. And all I'm trying to do is dispel that. That myth. And I think there's another lane of this which is. Is eating related and my relationship with food. And I think that I actually had to go through a couple years of just absolute it, like, just like, no diet, eat what I want, eat when I want, eat whatever. And that got me to a place where finally I could say, okay, like, I'm ready to, like, I'm ready to maybe like, look at my choices in a different way, because I'm not gonna look at it through the lens of someone who is not eating enough food, because I'm trying to look a certain way. And now I'm not gonna look at it through the lens of someone who's just eating whatever I want. Because, like, fuck it, whatever. I'm now able to, like, look at food as like a way to fuel my body, which sounds like bullshit, but that's what that journey has done for me personally.

So you use your platform, which I love to really talk about, like how we combat these insecurities. Can you explain to us, where do

[Reshma Sajani]

these insecurities come from? How did this start?

[Katie Storino]

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, like, 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. So 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.

Right. They decide what body type is attractive and what body type. And as we know, it doesn't really matter because you could be a size 2 and be like, oh, I have to get liposuction. Which I have met someone who has said that. Or. You know what I mean? So it's so it's never perfect, it's never good enough, and it's never dictated by us. The other thing is, and Kati, tell me if this is true. I read an article somewhere that, like, our bodies are actually biologically conditioned to get to one size. So no matter how we fight it.

Set. Waypoint.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Katie Storino]

Do you know more about this? Can you tell me more about this?

I mean, listen, I'm not a doctor, but I do know that no matter what you do, your body, like, you will struggle even harder. This is mostly for, like, 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. Like, that's not. That was not my size. So, like, I was hungry, I was tired, and I wasn't really myself. And that's because my body was trying to like, you know, tell me that, like, I was not living right. Yeah, yeah, but the set weight point is interesting too, because your, your body is. Wants to hang out around a certain weight and then we end up changing it with our own behavior.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, that's definitely the case for me.

[Katie Storino]

Foreign.

[Reshma Sajani]

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[Katie Storino]

So let's talk about society. What's the role of social media and like what's the impact on girls? So one of the, you know, I wrote a book called Brave Not Perfect. And you know, one of the things I really researched and found is part of the way girls negative self talk happens is they watch us, they watch me put on the pair of jeans

[Reshma Sajani]

like oh my God, my butt looks horrible.

[Katie Storino]

And they copy that, right? That, that self hate. And then it just cycles through generational journey. So if we want to stop it right, we got to stop it with young people. So how do we change the way we speak about our own bodies? What are some like real practical things that I need to just throw it, like don't ever say that or stop saying that or watch yourself when you do that.

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

I wanna stop you there. Cause I think what you're saying is really, really important because 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. And our own mothers, I'll say for myself, is the hardest person. I mean I could fight bullies, you know what I mean, that are present. But my mom, you know what I mean, holds a completely other power and sway over me. Model that conversation for me.

It's hard and I will acknowledge that it's really hard because I, my mom is, has done a lot of work and I mean she really, she won't say anything to me about my body now, but that took a long time. But she got there, I got there. And I think that there's a couple different ways to have the conversation. One, you can just, you can go in light. And like, 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, my, my clothes. Like, I would love it if we didn't talk about that. It doesn't make me feel great. And then usually the response after that, I find is usually health related. Well, I'm really worried about your health or I'm worried about your, no one's gonna date you if you're this size or whatever they're attaching to the, to the justification for what they're saying. And then you have to have your reasoning ready. So it's like, hey, thanks, I, I handle my health with my doctor. I'm good. I'd love not to talk about this with you. Right. So it's awkward, it's hard, and they're going to fight you, but that's where you can start. And then you just keep bringing it back to that doctor point because then you've got a, you got a medical professional.

It works for me. Right. I'm like, I just checked my ldl. This is what it is. You know, my blood sugar's at this level. And then it often ends it there.

Yes. And then 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. Like, you can draw that boundary. And it works because they have to, like, look themselves in the mirror and say, am I gonna do this? Am I gonna push my kid away? And maybe they are, but most of the time I don't think that they are.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. So you have a shitload of confidence,

[Katie Storino]

girl, and you, like, exude it. I love listening to you. We have a couple friends in common who, like, I heard you're the queen bee at the school. You know, like. And everybody loves you. Bridget says hi. But how did you find that much confidence in midlife? Because again, like, divorce at 35, divorce is like, you know, like, for a lot of our midlifers. Right. It is like a life, the life altering moment. Right. In their life. That is hard.

Yeah. Again, it comes back to the fact that am I gonna choose to feel bad in my life or am I gonna choose to feel uncomfortable at the. I just keep, I keep making those choices in the moment every time. And I'm not perfect every time. I've got a dinner tonight that I'm super nerv. Because, you know, going to, like, crowded places or socializing with people. I don't know. It makes me really nervous. But again, like, I'm not. 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? Like, it's just looking at that one life thing where you're like, this is my one life. Am I going to. Is this how I'm going to spend it? So 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. With the older I get.

Yeah.

[Leah Greenberg]

Hey, everyone, it's Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin.

[Ezra Levin]

You might know us as two of the lead organizers of the no Kings protests. We're also the co founders of Indivisible, the grassroots movement organizing against Trump's regime.

[Leah Greenberg]

And this is what's the Plan? Your weekly guide to the state of our democracy and how we fight back. This is not canned talking points. It's a real live discussion space for the pro democracy movement. We wrestle with strategy together. We take your top voted questions in real time, and we talk about the most impactful actions we can take. Right now.

[Ezra Levin]

Democracy is a participatory sport. The fascists win when we sit on the sidelines. What's the Plan is about how we get into the game.

[Leah Greenberg]

What's the plan? Available Friday, January 23rd, wherever you get

[Ezra Levin]

your podcasts, subscribe, recruit, discuss, organize, and win. That's the plan.

[Reshma Sajani]

I want to talk about your content series.

[Katie Storino]

Super sized look. And I love it. Everybody loves it. Tell us about it. And like, where did this idea come from?

Yeah, I started this 10 years ago.

Holy shit.

Is that crazy Bananas. Yeah, so I started that 10 years ago. And what it is is I get like a celebrity outfit and I just recreate it side by side. So it's like me and Millie Bobby Brown in the same, I mean, not the same exact outfit because I can't find it in my size.

Yeah. Because I was like, isn't that expensive though, too?

No, it's all, it's, it's, it's all done on the cheap because that's usually the brands that are making my size. And 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. And 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 like that. You can't really argue with that because oftentimes I'm bigger than the people who are like, I can't wear that.

Right. I want to ask you about something you just said. So you said, I can't find my size in that designer. That's like fucked up and true.

Yeah.

Will that ever change? Because I feel like we just went through this big moment in society, the body positivity moment, where we've realize that vast majority of people are not sizes two and four, Right?

Yes.

And that people, most Americans want good quality clothes. So, like, is that ever gonna change? And what have you seen?

So I've, again, I've been on this journey for 10 years, and I will say that I'm gonna share my win with you. When I started, a 12, 14 was the biggest that anyone was gonna put in the store. It was the biggest they were gonna make in their lines. And now I can say pretty comfortably that most brands in like that mid tier designer section, so Veronica Beard, Tory Burch, like, so that, you know, not like Dior, but like this, this level, they make a size 16 and they didn't.

That's incredible. Congratulations.

Yes. So it's. So the thing is a big win. Yeah, it's a big win because Now a size 16 is found, like, 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, a 20, a 22? No, they're not. So if you're above a 16, you're. But I think the fact that we. We've moved from like the highest being a 12 to now the highest acceptable in a fashion line is a 16. Table stakes. I think that's. That's progress.

Do you feel like this whole GLP1s, this whole kind of. I feel like we've moved away from body positivity back to, like, heroin chic.

Yes.

You know, I don't know where we are at this moment, but, like, I

think that that is also somehow connected to, like, what's happening in the world. Like, the world power. Like the. That, like, you know how they ask women to be smaller when, like, more men are in power.

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

Yes.

That is really, really fascinating. Right.

[Reshma Sajani]

That.

[Katie Storino]

That is another trend that is happening. We all agree on this in this kind of conservative moment.

[Reshma Sajani]

Right.

[Katie Storino]

We're going back to traditionalism in this moment, which is really impacting also, like, what we see as acceptable about women's bodies.

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

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

I think I have heard and seen things represented in media. So, 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 like a new discussion to have, like, in mainstream media. And then I also find that, like, when you. When you talk to kids in person, they seem to have a better handle on, like, don't talk about my body like I'm good. Like, they have so many more resources and access to positive role models than we did. So I find that, yes, we. We have the potential, and in some pockets, we are doing it better. However, then you go on TikTok and you look at, like, the pro anorexic sites or the, like, how I have my stomach this flat, like, and this is what I eat in a day, and all these toxic things. So, yes, there is still a big population of younger people who are not freed of that mindset.

What about women our age or women in midlife? Like, what do you feel like is the trend there? Because I guess in my experience, I

[Reshma Sajani]

feel like we're so damn critical of our bodies.

[Katie Storino]

We're trained that the mirror is in reverse, that we have to dye our hair, that we have to have Botox and fillers, that we have to look 15 years younger. I'll admit it. Like, 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 could have fucking. She made me the happiest girl. Like, I was like, thank you. So I'm like, shit. Like, 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.

I don't have a great answer because, to be honest, being very honest on this podcast here, I'm a little disconnected about the. The acceptance issue. From the neck up, I'm.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, interesting.

[Katie Storino]

I've been getting Botox since I was 26. Like, I. I am, like, crazy if I see, like, some gray hairs coming in. Like, I.

You are preserving youth.

Oh, my God.

Maximum.

You bet I am. So it's like, I.

You're not doing a Pamela Anderson. No. Makeup thing. Does not.

Oh, no, never. I'm not wearing makeup. Like, like that's okay. But I'm certainly in the cosmetic routine.

Yeah.

So. So I have a hard time reconciling those two things. But then the thing is, like, so what's the look I want? And then 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' nothing wrong with that. But if you reverse that body conversation with the face conversation, it all gets a little muddy.

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 because I've

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

You know what you're saying? It's complex, right? It's like I'm saying, accept me here. Right? Accept everybody here. But here, let me do what I want to do, right?

Yes, yes.

Like, neck up. Let me do what I want to do. And part of, like, if we're honest, right. Let me do what I want to do is let me chase youth. Because the beauty standards is still, like, no wrinkles, full of collagen. Like, you know, I'm still chasing. Oh, my God. Someone sent me an AI doctored photo of myself and my husband. I'm like, oh, my God. Thank God no one sent me that when I was in my twenties. Cause I would have been like, take me to my nearest plastic surgery and just do that to me, please. Like, it was just. And it's wild because I do do think that that's going to even make things AI filters. Right. Make it even harder to not chase youth.

But I will just say that, like, 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. And I Don't have, like, I look at that and I'm like. But, like, the fact that my. My, like, jowls are, like, forming in, like, this. I mean, I am. I'm doing the zip machine like, five times a week. I am red light mask. I am like, I do not miss a derm appointment. Like, I am hyper vigilant about my face.

Yeah.

I'm not.

[Reshma Sajani]

Not with you.

[Katie Storino]

Like, Indian women, we don't fuck around with our faces. Like, I get a facial every four weeks. I have seven creams I go to bed with. I do not mess around. Like, at.

Yeah.

And. And no. Shame on that.

No, there's no. I guess the. I guess the bigger thing here is you can do whatever you want, and there shouldn't be any judgment of. From society about that.

Yeah, do whatever you want.

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

Yeah. Yeah. And let people live and be the way that they want and whatever wants for them.

Yeah.

So I want to talk about Megababe. You're an entrepreneur.

[Reshma Sajani]

How's it feel?

[Katie Storino]

Yes, I love being an entrepreneur.

You do? Why? It's lonely though, right?

Well, I've been working for myself since I was 26. 25. 26. I. I started my own PR company at that age because I PR, especially at that time. So toxic. So many, like, just. Just really mistreatment of people in their 20s, and I was like, I love this work. I don't love these people. So I just started working by myself and then I ended up getting into managing my dog, like, I think seven or seven years after I started my PR firm. So then I was. I got into, like, Internet stuff and then I got.

Wait, you were. Did you say you're managing your dog?

I did. I was a dog ager.

Was your dog famous? How many Instagram followers did they have?

Yeah, I think at her height, she had like.

Wait, what was her name?

Toast.

She.

Do you remember, Toast? I don't know.

You're Toast, Mommy. I think I do remember Toast.

Yeah. Yes, I'm. Yes. So 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, and we did a ton for, like, rescue awareness. But I really learned that I liked that. That part of the job too, which was like, creating content and entertaining people with a little bit of Education. So I liked that. And then I started doing my own content and then I, and then I started Megababe. So 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 don't know. Like, you know, I, I am in my home office. I don't have the big fancy doors.

So how did you so megabay great products. I highly recommend them. How did you come up with that idea and like talk to us about the idea of thigh rescue?

Similar to like what I'm doing with the body acceptance stuff. I just try to normalize things that are, have been made, made to be really taboo, especially in the beauty industry. So I was doing body positive posting and I was always looking for a thigh chafe solution that was like cute and not just for dudes who are biking. And the like beauty industry kept disappointing me every spring, like nothing was coming out. So I talked to my friend Kate, she was like my best friend from camp and then my sister and I was like, you guys, I think we should make a thigh chafe stick. And they were like, we, you know, we don't have thigh chafe. They don't know what it is. But they were like, yeah, okay. So we started Mega Babe with the thigh chafe stick and our talc free boob sweat powder called Bust Dust. And we launched it in my parents garage. We ordered, we had to order. The minimum order quantity was 10,000 of each.

Holy shit.

That's 20,000 products in my parents garage. And we were like, oh my God, we are gonna. And we at the time also, which was seven years ago, everyone was funded. You know, everyone was launching with major money. So we, we chose to do. And we still are self funded. We have never raised money, not friends and family, not from anyone. And we chose to bootstrap it. And we were like, we're gonna have this product in this garage for like two years and then we're gonna have to figure out what to do with it. But we, we launched in June of 2017 and we were sold out of everything we made by July.

Holy cow.

How? We were on the Today show. And the Today show. I think, I mean, that was it.

That was it.

Yeah.

It was like. That's all you needed back then.

Yeah, that's all you needed back then.

That's all you needed back then.

Yeah. So we were on the Today show. We got, we got a segment. Bobby Thomas, she did like a Commercial for Megababe. And. But the point was, we found the customer because I. I knew because 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 boob sweat thing. Like, there was just so much negativity. And 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. And. And now we make over 40 different SKUs. We're in target, Walmart, Ulta, and we just launched in Boots UK last summer.

[Reshma Sajani]

I sold out of Boots uk.

[Katie Storino]

They ordered two little product like. Like, I'm always like, no, no, you guys, it's not like a risk. Like, you're not gonna put this on the shelf and it's gonna sit here. The audience will find it because they need it.

So what's next? What do you think people need next?

Well, I launched my hemorrhoid cream, which I was trying to launch for many years. And first, you know, Kate and my sister were like, no one wants this. This is not us. And so we put that out in September, and that has gone really well for us, especially on Amazon, especially with Met. Again, it's called Butt Stuff.

Oh, what a great name.

Yeah. Yeah, thank you. I had to fight for the name, too. So Butt Stuff is great. And then we are. This. Let's see, where. 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. That's where we're going right now.

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

I mostly am looking to move to Italy.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, okay.

[Katie Storino]

And just live there.

I'm actually doing a little bit of that this summer, but yeah.

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

Do you want to live abroad? Take enchilada classes? Or you want to live abroad as an entrepreneur building a business? Like, I mean, like, do you feel like you want to retire abroad?

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

You just want to change the scenery, then.

Yeah. Yes. But writing books, I think, is something that I really. I don't necessarily enjoy the editing process, but I like the writing process.

Books break my heart because there's so much time and so much energy, and it's like. It's the hardest thing to hawk. And I've hawked a lot of things in my life. It is the hardest thing. Cause people don't read.

It's really hard.

But when you break through, like, I feel like, you know, with my brave, not perfect book, it's like it changed. I mean, when people come to you and they've tattooed it on their hand and it's just changed the way they live their life. But I think, look, I. I feel very blessed, and I'm sure you do, too. It's, you know, like, you could take out a piece of content. I can give a speech, and it can, like, change people's trajectory of their lives. Like, what. What. What a blessing, you know, to be

[Reshma Sajani]

able to do that with your gift.

[Katie Storino]

So we didn't have that when we were. When our brains were forming. We didn't have that.

No.

And don't you feel lucky to be able to be that for someone?

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, so lucky.

[Katie Storino]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

So lucky.

[Katie Storino]

So, I mean, especially in this moment we're in right now, I feel like the only thing I need to do every day is wake up and do exactly what we're doing on this podcast. Share information, be vulnerable.

[Reshma Sajani]

Right.

[Katie Storino]

Tell your truths. You know, free someone else to live

[Reshma Sajani]

the life that they want to live.

[Katie Storino]

Yes.

[Reshma Sajani]

And, like, I've done.

[Katie Storino]

I've done my work.

[Reshma Sajani]

Right.

[Katie Storino]

That is the resistance. That is exactly the resistance.

Yes. Is to live as a financially independent. And I say this as, like, I've got. I. I'm in Florida right now, and I live right by Mar a Lago. And I mean, I have pickup trucks with Trump flags, like, driving by my window every. Every day. And so it does. It feels like an act of resistance to be this independent and this much of a. A guide for women.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Katie Storino]

To find their own independence and happy.

Like, the point is, is, like, because if you are every day waking up, being like, what the. What's gonna happen next? What's gonna happen next? What's happening next.

[Reshma Sajani]

That breaks your spirit.

[Katie Storino]

You can't fight when you're not joyful.

Agreed.

You can't think. You can't think out of the. You can't, like, imagine new things.

[Reshma Sajani]

Right.

[Katie Storino]

You feel so broken so yeah, I'm

[Reshma Sajani]

so proud of you.

[Katie Storino]

Well, it's so great to talk to you and thank you for everything you're doing and I really appreciate this conversation.

Thank you.

[Reshma Sajani]

Thank you so much Katie Storino 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 Midlife. If you haven't subscribed to Lemonade 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 gonna hear anywhere else. So just tap that subscribe button on Apple Podcast or head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe on any other app. That's lemonadapremium.com.

[Katie Storino]

don't miss out.

[Reshma Sajani]

Thanks and we're going to be back next week.

[Katie Storino]

Bye y'.

[Leah Greenberg]

All.

[Reshma Sajani]

I'm your host, Reshma Sajani. Our associate producer is Isara Acevez and our senior producer is Chrissy Pease. This series is sound designed by Ivan Kurai. Ivan also composed our theme music and

[Katie Storino]

performed it with Ryan Jewell and Karen Waltock.

[Reshma Sajani]

Our VP of New content is Rachel Neal. Special thanks to our development team, Oha Lopez, Jamila Zara Williams and Alex McGowan.

[Katie Storino]

Executive producers include me, Reshma Sajani, Stephanie

[Reshma Sajani]

Whittles Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Series consulting and production support from Katie Cordova.

[Katie Storino]

Help others find our show by leaving

[Reshma Sajani]

a rating and writing a review. And let us know how you're doing in Midlife. You can submit your story to be included in this [e-mail] midlife follow my so Called Midlife wherever you get your podcasts or listen. Ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership.

[Katie Storino]

Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. Bye.

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