not your average GOAT: authentic storytelling and dismantling stigma with Teisha Gillespie [S3E2]
Content note: discussion of mental illness and suicide
After six months of planning, Elle is thrilled to welcome this episode’s guest to the podcast! Teisha Gillespie is a marketing director and podcast host. Teisha's podcast, "Not Your Average GOAT," highlights diverse stories of adversity and diversity, aiming to dismantle stigma. She emphasizes the power of relatable, authentic stories in changing perceptions and reducing shame around mental health and disability. Elle and Teisha take a little time to discuss how inaccessibility created barriers to this interview, and Teisha addresses the challenges of paternalism and advocates for showing rather than telling to demonstrate the capabilities of blind — and other disabled — individuals.
Links to Teisha’s podcast, as well as all other resource links, are in the full show notes at hoorfpodcast.com
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Episode Resources
Not Your Average GOAT:
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-your-average-goat/id1622832417
Social Media: instagram.com/notaveragegoat
Elle’s Episode on Not Your Average GOAT: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-illuminating-the-invisible-through-wit-and-grit/id1622832417?i=1000664956776
National Suicide Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org/ or dial/text 988
Guest Spotlight: Teisha Gillespie
image: Teisha Gillespie is a slim woman of color with brown skin, long curly brown hair down to her waist, and dark eyes. She is standing confidently with her arms crossed, looking directly at the camera with a wide smile.
Teisha is a native Marylander who now resides in Virginia. Being the eldest of seven girls amongst a turbulent upbringing, Teisha has always been an innate protector and justice advocate. From 9-5,, Teisha is a marketing director for an early education nonprofit that believes every child deserves equitable access to high quality early learning experiences that will put them on a successful path in school and life. From 5-9, Teisha volunteers as the Communications Chair for the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia and moonlights as the host of the Not Your Average GOAT podcast, a show that celebrates all the shapes, sizes and colors of diversity as well as adversity. As a blind/vision disabled individual who also happens to be a Black female managing anxiety, Teisha is passionate about making an impact and dismantling the stigma and prejudice that encases marginalized communities.
Instagram: instagram.com/notaveragegoat