LitHERacy: An Australian Podcast for Young Women

Online, a predator doesn’t look like a stranger, they look like a friend your age who finally gets you. Kayelene Kerr spent 21 years as a WA Police detective investigating sexual crimes against children, and the number she wants every family to know is this: in a gaming chat, the average time from first hello to high-risk grooming is 45 minutes. She walks Maddie through exactly how it happens — the compliments, the gift cards, the slide into private chat — and exactly what to do the moment something goes wrong: stop talking, screenshot everything, report it, and never, ever pay. Plus the deepfake surge that means the photo doesn’t even have to be real to hurt, why “get curious, not furious” is the whole parenting playbook, the apps where most of this starts, and the one thing she’d tell every teenage girl about saying no. Grooming, sextortion, deepfakes, nudes and the law, online porn, privacy settings, and why telling is brave.

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

Here’s what school never told you: the clitoris is ten centimetres long, has 10,000 nerve endings — more than double the penis — keeps growing your whole life, and exists purely for pleasure. Sexologist and Sexual Health and LGBTIQA+ Educator Steph Andrews talks to Maddie about everything that one fact should change: why pleasure gets left out of sex ed entirely, why knowing your own body is a safety skill nobody frames as one, the orgasm gap (95% of straight men usually or always orgasm, 65% of straight women — and lesbian women sit at 86%, so it’s not the anatomy, it’s the script), the G-spot finally explained, what porn teaches and what it dangerously leaves out, why consent is specific to every single act, how to get out of your own head, and the resources that actually teach what school didn’t. If you’ve ever quietly wondered whether you’re broken: you’re not. You were handed the wrong script. The clitoris, the orgasm gap, vibrators, porn vs reality, spectatoring, communication, and pleasure as a feminist issue.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING? Jacket by Zara, Skirt by Zara, Boots by Aldo, Shirt by Lady Gaga, Ring by Linneys

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

No qualified experts this time, just Maddie, Kerry and the topic neither of them knows a single woman who hasn’t struggled with: self-worth.

They talk about becoming a different version of yourself depending on who’s in the room, and what that costs you. They cover playing small, and why “you’re just being sensitive” lands like a verdict on who you are. They try to say one thing they like about themselves out loud, and find out how hard it is to take a compliment, as Kerry’s friend puts it: “be a good receiver”. And they look at how self-worth shifts from your teens through your 40s, and the moments that tell you it’s time to let an old version of you go.

Then Maddie reads something she wrote, starting with “Worth is not a ranking system”, and ending with a line worth hearing more than once: “because you are here, you are trying, and that has always been enough.”

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

Nobody actually teaches you how sex works. School covers bodies, bugs and babies; the internet covers everything else, badly. The real questions go unanswered: what does it actually feel like, who puts what where, how do you say what you want, how do you say not yet? Sexologist Jordina Quain has spent over a decade giving young people the sex education they actually deserve, and she talks to Maddie about all of it: why virginity is a made-up idea you can put down (“I didn’t lose my virginity, I found my sexuality”), the mechanics nobody explains, why your body’s weird noises are normal, the three seconds of bravery that start every awkward conversation, what the SSASH survey says teens are really doing years before anyone talks to them about it, why porn becomes the teacher when adults won’t, and why shame needs to change hands. Virginity, consent, first times, talking to your partner, talking to your kids — sex ed with the sex actually left in.

WHAT IS MADDIE WEARING? Leather skirt by Uterqüe, Shirt by Kookaï, Shoes by Cosy Island, Ring by Linneys, Necklace by Tiffany & Co.

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

Exercise was sold to girls as a punishment. Punishment for what you ate, for what your body looks like, for not being smaller. This one hands it back as something else entirely: movement, and it's yours. Exercise physiologist and former Australian pole vaulter Amanda Bisk made the 2010 Commonwealth Games, lost her Olympic dream to chronic fatigue, and is back on the runway at 40, this time entirely on her own terms. She talks to Maddie about what movement does for your mind and your sleep, how to train with your cycle instead of against it, why lifting weights now builds the bones you'll stand on at sixty (no, it won't make you bulky — "we don't have the hormones for that"), how to tell a qualified coach from a fitness influencer, and the line between committed and compulsive. Plus the one rule that survives the whole episode: the best movement is the one you actually enjoy.

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

Your mind is not the enemy, even when it's keeping you up at 10pm running the same conversation for the hundredth time. This one reframes the whole thing: anxiety isn't something wrong with you, it's a signal trying to tell you something. Psychologist Dr Marny Lishman talks to Maddie about what anxiety actually looks like in a teenage girl, often disguised as people-pleasing, overthinking, or just being really good at holding it together; why the mental load women carry starts years earlier than anyone admits; why no is a full sentence, why rest isn't a luxury but an essential, and how to tell a rough patch apart from something that needs real support — including what to actually say to a parent, teacher or GP when you don't have the words yet. Because your mind was never the enemy.

WHAT’S MADDIE WEARING? Top by Dissh, Pants by Cue

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

This one is honest, and some of it is hard. If today's not the day, that's okay, it will still be here when you are.

Chanel Contos posted one question on Instagram at 22. It came back with more than 7,000 testimonies, changed the national curriculum, and drove consent law reform across the country. The founder of Teach Us Consent sits with Maddie for the conversation every other conversation has been building to: why the danger was never just the stranger, what sexual coercion actually is — being pressured, tricked, threatened or blackmailed — and why she didn't learn that word herself until her master's degree. What algorithms feed boys within 23 minutes of signing up, the truth about "blue balls", stealthing, and why WA is the last state yet to name it in law.

And underneath all of it, one line worth keeping: sexual assault happens when entitlement to another person's body outweighs empathy for them. Consent comes from the Latin for "feeling together". That's the standard. Ask for nothing less.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING?

Top and bottoms by Elka Collective, Shoes by Cosy Island

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

No qualified experts this time, just Maddie, Kerry and their life experience, on the thing every other conversation stands on: the people and places where you don't have to perform.

They cover the person who let you be completely yourself and what they did right, why "be strong for your (insert adult care giver here)" is a terrible thing to say to a child, how familiar and safe can feel identical until suddenly they don't, and why your body works it out before your brain does - in a friendship group, a group chat, a doctor's office, or on a beach with someone you were told you could trust.

And because safety is not neediness, it's essential, they built something: the Safe Space Cards - a free download you can hand to a parent, a teacher, any trusted adult you choose. It asks them for one thing in that moment: stay calm and listen. There's a side of the deal for them, and a side for you.

RESOURCES & SUPPORT

• LSKD - She Runs Ad — (the one Maddie & Kerry talk about)

CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION

• Safe Space Cards

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

Somewhere along the way a girl learned her body was a project — something to shrink, to earn, to apologise for. This one takes all of that apart. Holly Moore sits with Maddie to talk about why food isn't a reward you have to earn, why "health has a look" is a lie someone's profiting from, and how to tell caring for your body apart from being at war with it. Plus a long-overdue public apology to carbs.

GUEST LINKS:

• Website
• Instagram

WANT TO CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE?

Head over to litheracy.com for conversation starters related to each episode.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING?

Jumper by Uniqlo, Skirt & Tights Temu

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

No one sits a girl down and explains her first payslip. They just hand it to her — tax gone, super gone, a tax file number to go and find — and leave her to work it out. Maya Farah and Emily Barker, co-founders of Perth financial education company Finverity, sit with Maddie to cover the three things everything else rests on, then the part that actually lands: you can start investing with fifty cents. Ten dollars a week from fifteen is around $700,000 by sixty. Saved instead of invested, it's about $45,000.

GUEST LINKS:

• Website
• Instagram

WANT TO CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE?

Head over to litheracy.com for conversation starters related to each episode.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING?

Pants by Kookaï, Shirt by Veronika Maine, Shoes by Cosy Island, Earrings by Keikouno Jewellery, Ring by Linneys

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

What better way to launch than with a double episode on all things women's health — including the parts you were taught to be embarrassed about.

In Part 1 Maddie and Dr Tamara Hunter get plain about vulvas, periods and discharge: what's actually normal, what's worth getting checked, and how to tell the difference.

Part 2 asks the question- how much pain is too much pain? Then the part no one prepares you for — what to do when you finally work up the nerve to see a GP and they wave you off. Because "you're fine, take two Panadol" and "I actually listened to you" are not the same sentence.

GUEST LINKS:

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Monash University Website

RESOURCES AND SUPPORT MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Great Wall of Vulva — art installation creating freedom from genital shame and anxiety
• The Labia Library — what normal actually looks like
• Professor Lorimer Moseley — Professor of Pain Research

WANT TO CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE?

Head over to litheracy.com for conversation starters related to each episode.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING?

Top by Dissh, Pants by Wilfred Free, Necklace by Keikouno Jewellery

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.

What better way to launch than with a double episode on all things women's health — including the parts you were taught to be embarrassed about.

In Part 1 Maddie and Dr Tamara Hunter get plain about vulvas, periods and discharge: what's actually normal, what's worth getting checked, and how to tell the difference.

Part 2 asks the question- how much pain is too much pain? Then the part no one prepares you for — what to do when you finally work up the nerve to see a GP and they wave you off. Because "you're fine, take two Panadol" and "I actually listened to you" are not the same sentence.

GUEST LINKS:

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Monash University Website

RESOURCES AND SUPPORT MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Great Wall of Vulva — art installation creating freedom from genital shame and anxiety
• The Labia Library — what normal actually looks like
• Professor Lorimer Moseley — Professor of Pain Research

WANT TO CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE?

Head over to litheracy.com for conversation starters related to each episode.

WHAT'S MADDIE WEARING?

Top by Dissh, Pants by Wilfred Free, Necklace by Keikouno Jewellery

PODCAST THEME MUSIC created by Lettie Lee.

ARTWORK FEATURED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PODCAST VIDEOS is by the talented Lindsey Erin.

THE MUGS by the fabulous Jess from JS Handmade Ceramics.