Everyone please welcome my mama, Dona Gill, to A Broadway Body: Continued Conversations! I somehow swindled her into sitting down with me when I was home over Thanksgiving to have a conversation. She was hesitant to say yes, but I’m so thankful she did because I walked away from our conversation a more empowered woman.

In our conversation, we discuss…

* When little kids start to recognize their bodies are different

* SlimFast, Zumba, and all of the diets/workouts we tried as I was growing up

* The dynamic between my mom and her mom as she was growing up

* Older generations of women being raised for survival vs. 90s kids being raised to harp on every physical flaw

* Body comparison and desire to hide your body

* Finding your own personal priorities when it comes to our health and your movement practice

* How our relationship with seeing yourself in the mirror vs. seeing yourself in photos can be so different

* Complimenting others and receiving compliments yourself (Mama Gill is here for the compliments!)

* The cultural acceptance of a belly being viewed as beautiful when pregnant and unattractive when not

* The experience of looking in the mirror and seeing your mother

This conversation could have gone so many ways, and it was lovely to follow where it led. (Though I know I want to have her back for another conversation in 2026!) I’m so grateful for my mom – she raised me the best she could. She put me in dance and gave me the gift of mobility and flexibility without even recognizing that’s what she was doing. She moved with me in Zumba classes and at little boutique gyms for women because it was a fun way for us to connect. My body image issues didn’t fully stem from her as much as they stemmed from social and cultural conditioning, and for that I am grateful. But being a woman in today’s society comes with its inherent body image norms and standards that we naturally gravitate towards adhering to. It was intriguing to explore some of these topics with my mom and hear her thoughts.

We shared a few really lovely moments in our conversations of things that I did not know about my own mama, and it was lovely to listen to her open up about her relationship to her body. I hope you enjoy our chat and that it might inspire you to have similar conversations with your own mom about these topics ♥️

“I always thought I was fat. Even though I was size 14, I always thought I was fat. I don’t know why. I just always thought that and I really wasn’t ever, but it never brought me down. It was just a comparing thing, but it never made me feel bad, that I know of. But I always thought I was fat. Like I couldn’t wear a two-piece until our honeymoon. And then I could. Because I just felt I couldn’t. I felt I was fat and I really wasn’t. And in today’s world it’s not at all, not at all how I was feeling at the time. But it didn’t bring me down, and I didn’t think anything of it, really. Just like, ‘No, I can’t wear that. I’ll wear this instead.’”

– DONA GILL

Megan Gill: Hi, mom!

Dona Gill: Hi, daughter.

Megan Gill: Mama Gill is here today having a conversation with me! I’m home for Thanksgiving.

Dona Gill: Yay!

Megan Gill: And I somehow conned her into sitting down to talk with me.

Dona Gill: So much fun!

Megan Gill: So, I’m glad you’re here, mom.

Dona Gill: Me too.

Megan Gill: And thank you for being open to talking with me. Do you wanna start by just introducing yourself and your work that you do in the world?

Dona Gill: My name is Dona Gill. I’m Megan’s mommy. I am a kindergarten teacher, and I’ve been a teacher for many years.

Megan Gill: Yes. Okay. So you’re teaching young people – young, young, young, young people.

Dona Gill: Five-, and six-year-olds right now.

Megan Gill: And before you had me, you were teaching third grade.

Dona Gill: Correct.

Megan Gill: And I know that you substituted me when I was in high school…

Dona Gill: Middle school. I never did high school. Elementary and middle school.

Megan Gill: So you’ve taught an array of different-aged children over the years.

Dona Gill: Yessiree.

Megan Gill: How interesting. Is there anything, specifically in kindergarten? Like, are little kids aware of their bodies and what they look like in space?

Dona Gill: Not really. Once in a great while you might hear someone say, “You’re fat,” just to be mean. Once, I’ve maybe heard it once or twice, maybe. They don’t recognize skin color until we say something, till we’re teaching about it. Not really, I try to teach positivity in the classroom. So yeah, I don’t hear a lot of it.

Megan Gill: That’s really interesting. And also just sad that young kids are still thinking calling somebody fat is an insult, you know?

Dona Gill: Yessiree.

Megan Gill: Yeah, and how that’s still very much baked into our culture.

Dona Gill: Yes, it is.

Megan Gill: Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Okay. So obviously I grew up in the nineties and early two thousands, in a time where thin was definitely in and the term people like to say “heroin chic” was a thing where everybody was very skinny and everybody in the media was preaching thinness, and diet culture was rampant. And god, I know we were on SlimFast and we were in random workout classes when I was in like middle school working out together, which was actually kind of fun and empowering to be like working out together when I was young. I think that’s pretty cool that we did that, like mother daughter.

Dona Gill: I think we just did it for fun to be together.

Megan Gill: Yeah, it was fun.

Dona Gill: And to let’s just do it.

Megan Gill: But also it’s interesting because there still was totally like this cultural overarching like, “Oh, but let’s lose weight!” I remember it being like that, and I think it’s so interesting because for us it was more “fun,” like it was more enjoyable. I remember having a good time with it, but it’s also just like, damn, man. Still, there’s like the under-arcing layer there, like the invisible layer almost of like, “Okay, but we’re gonna do this because we’re gonna lose weight.”

Dona Gill: Mm-hmm. “And it’s gonna work.”

Megan Gill: And it’s gonna work, instead of like, “Oh, let’s go move our bodies because it’s joyful and because it’s fun and because, oh, it’s good for you and because you should be moving your bodies.” It’s interesting because I don’t know that I learned – granted I did grow up doing a bunch of different sports and dancing, and I’m very grateful to you for putting me in dance. So grateful. So beyond grateful, because my body’s able to move in these ways now, and it’s able to stretch in these ways that I think is just inherent. I’m realizing more and more as I’m like in different yoga classes and just experiencing different types of movement and moving my body in different ways, I’m realizing, oh, not everybody gets to move like this and has this much ease in their body. And I’m just so grateful to you. You probably didn’t even realize at the time.

Dona Gill: I just wanted to find something that you enjoyed doing.

Megan Gill: Yeah.

Dona Gill: To pursue. And I’m glad it was dance because I loved watching you.

Megan Gill: Yeah, me too. Me too. Sorry, I took that on a tangent. But it’s interesting because – I’m trying to tie it back to what we were saying before…

Dona Gill: Doing it for fun or now you can move.

Megan Gill: Right, I don’t know that I was taught movement is good for you and I don’t think that’s at any fault to you. I don’t know that you would’ve known to even teach that at that time that our culture was in. I think we’ve come so far in the past 30 years of understanding how important movement is and how important activity is and how important eating your daily greens or whatever, just these different things to, to keep our body going, to keep the longevity of our body up and just – yeah, it’s so sad how much diet culture was baked into all of the things that we were doing, and I guess that’s my perspective on it.

So I’m more so curious to take it back further to when you were like a kid, teenager coming into your body as a young woman. And I’m really curious to know what the dynamic between you and your mom was, or you also have an older sister. So I’m curious to know if there was anything there in terms of what you learned about your body as a young woman, and then I don’t know if culture has impact into that as well, social conditioning, cultural conditioning. I’m just curious kind of what your experience was with all of that.

Dona Gill: Not a lot. There really wasn’t. It wasn’t body image because I was size 14 all the time. So I never thought anything of it, unless maybe I would go with my sister who’s shorter and maybe slightly chubbier, but not really. And then she would always say, “Everything always looks so good on you. Everything looks good on you whenever you would try something on.” And my mom would always say, “Yeah, that looks good. Yeah, that looks good.” So I never thought anything of it. I don’t think it was really a big deal in my eyes growing up.

Megan Gill: Okay. So your mom didn’t have a lot to say about your body?

Dona Gill: No.

Megan Gill: That’s pretty fucking cool, honestly.

Dona Gill: No, never thought about it. Never. No. Yeah. Not at all.

Megan Gill: Okay. This is also interesting though, because your mom is first generation in the US?

Dona Gill: Correct.

Megan Gill: Okay. So I wonder just like how much that impact also had on like her upbringing.

Dona Gill: Right, because I don’t think their upbringing was body image. Their upbringing was survive. Survive. What do we eat? Can you get anything to wear? Just survive. Not how you look.

Megan Gill: Yeah.

Dona Gill: And then they brought that to us, really. Yeah, really, I had no clue on body image.

Megan Gill: Can you pinpoint a time, even like beyond young adulthood, a time in your earlier life, even in your twenties where you started to get messaging that you maybe should be…

Dona Gill: I always thought I was fat. Even though I was size 14, I always thought I was fat. I don’t know why. I just always thought that and I really wasn’t ever, but it never brought me down. It was just a comparing thing, but it never made me feel bad, that I know of. But I always thought I was fat. Like I couldn’t wear a two-piece until our honeymoon. And then I could.

Megan Gill: Why not?

Dona Gill: Because I just felt I couldn’t. I felt I was fat and I really wasn’t. And in today’s world it’s not at all, not at all how I was feeling at the time. But it didn’t bring me down, and I didn’t think anything of it, really. Just like, “No, I can’t wear that. I’ll wear this instead.”

Megan Gill: Just so sad that you thought you couldn’t wear it, that you thought you couldn’t exist in the world in a fucking two-piece bikini, you know? God forbid!

Dona Gill: I mean, I could have. I just felt I couldn’t, I did as a little kid. Well, no, take that back because my mom wouldn’t let us wear a two-piece when we were little. It was just the way she was at the time. Then when I could, I’m like, “Yeah, I don’t know if it looks good.” But then again, I was also from the seventies where everything was very, very skimpy. Very skimpy. And maybe I didn’t feel the best about me not being in clothes. Maybe.

Megan Gill: Wait, you didn’t feel the best about – you wanted to cover up.

Dona Gill: Right, right.

Megan Gill: That was your comfort zone.

Dona Gill: So not so much body image, but more just cover up.

Megan Gill: Like feeling like you need to hide your body?

Dona Gill: Yeah. I guess, maybe, but not really hide – in between.

Megan Gill: Okay. Yeah, she was giving modest.

Dona Gill: There you go. Yeah. I guess modest. I don’t know.

Megan Gill: Okay. How does it feel now to be in your sixties – we celebrated your 65th birthday in Florida last year, and you were in a two piece swimsuit!

Dona Gill: Oh, I did.

Megan Gill: Okay! How does that feel?

Dona Gill: The words you always use. It’s empowering, but still embarrassing. So both.

Megan Gill: Why embarrassing?

Dona Gill: Because I don’t like the way I look in it. I mean, certain ones, yeah, okay. But I know because I’m unhealthy, so that’s why.

Megan Gill: Because you’re unhealthy. Why do you say that?

Dona Gill: Because extra poundage is not healthy.

Megan Gill: Not necessarily on your body always.

Dona Gill: It would help with my arthritis if I didn’t have it.

Megan Gill: Sometimes your body is just gonna exist at an even-keel weight.

Dona Gill: And it does. And that is interesting because I was always a certain weight growing up. I was like 128 always, always until I had you guys. And then I went up to like 142, and I stayed at that forever and ever and ever and ever. And then I hit the old age, and now, whew. It’s gone up now.

Megan Gill: Okay. Well it’s very fascinating. I just wanna point this out because I also distinctly remembered my weight in terms of numerology but I’m just like blown away, also, by the fact that you said you at that time were a size 14 for as long as you can remember. But that you weighed 128 pounds. And I’m just am so fascinated by the correlation of those two numbers and what we in our brains today, someone who’s my age who’s thinking like, okay. Well, I weigh a lot more than that. And I am not a size – I’m smaller than a size 14. I’m like a size 8/10 right now.

Dona Gill: Oh yeah. Interesting.

Megan Gill: And it’s just so fascinating how I think we just like – I don’t know, I’m just like, damn, that’s wild. We cling to these numbers sometimes or these numbers can haunt us sometimes or we think like, you know, obviously as women we know that if you try on a size 30 (or whatever your go-to size is) at 10 different stores, the pants are all gonna fit differently. And I just think also it’s, I don’t know. I don’t know. I just think it’s interesting.

Dona Gill: I thought it was fascinating that I could stay that weight no matter what. I could eat a lot of candy; I could not eat candy. I could eat healthy; I could not eat healthy. I could eat anything I wanted. I was always the same weight at each of the three periods of time. Even today, either way I go I’m around the same weight.

Megan Gill: And that’s what I mean when I say sometimes our bodies are just supposed to exist around this baseline level. That’s where I feel like I’ve finally reached a place of like, my body is just going to be this. It’s never going to – I’m going to have to do things I don’t wanna have to do to it in order to be smaller, and it’s just not worth it to me. I just don’t want to do that. And I’ve come to this place of like radical acceptance of, “Okay. All right. I refuse to live like that. So this is just the way that my body is.” And it also does feel – I don’t know if it feels for you – for me it feels freeing to be able to be like, “Okay, it, it’s fine.” I can come here for Thanksgiving and not be in my normal movement routine and, you know, maybe not be eating in the same patterns that I would back at home and not feel like I have to beat myself up for that or not feel like so scared that I’m gonna gain weight, or even if I do fluctuate a few pounds,my body’s still gonna generally look like this, because that’s just like where it wants to exist at.

Dona Gill: Right. You think you eat a lot, but it’s a lot for your body at the time. So that’s I think why you stay in your weight. That’s why I think no matter how much you eat or how much less you eat, you’re gonna end up at the same just because that’s who you are and that’s just your pattern. At least that’s what I’ve found over the years.

Megan Gill: Yeah, that’s really interesting.

Dona Gill: Mm-hmm. I would love to go back to that weight before and stick around that. But it’s not happening. That’s all right.

Megan Gill: Okay. Well, you’re also working a full-time job teaching kindergartners. You need to give yourself a little bit of grace too. It’s really hard. It’s hard to be dedicated to, again, like how far are you willing to go? How far do you have the capacity to go to change your body, and what is important to you at this time? If right now what’s important to you is getting through this next – she’s about to retire, everyone getting through this next –

Dona Gill: Yay!

Megan Gill: – six months to just get to the end of the year so that you can maybe start to focus on yourself a little bit more next year? Then that’s what you gotta do to get through, you know?

Dona Gill: I think that’s a good motto. I think that’s good. Just keep pushing on.

Megan Gill: Yeah, or finding what’s important for you because that’s gonna be different for everyone, you know? And finding the why behind sure, we wanna, you know, get back to where we were before, but why?

Dona Gill: I wanna be healthy, and I feel like I wanna move more and I want clothes to look better on me, my perception of looking better.I think I look good in the mirror, but then when I see a picture of me, I’m like, “Oh, whoa. No, that didn’t look very good.”

Megan Gill: Wait, okay. Tell me why. I’ve had this conversation recently with multiple people.

Dona Gill: Oh, really?

Megan Gill: Yes! And it’s so fascinating because it’s like these two reflective things for us, right? The mirror and photos, video, whatever it is for you. And how we can have a strong relationship with our body and what we see in the mirror in the present moment, and then in hindsight, retrospect, you see this image captured of you, and your relationship to that is off. And it also makes a lot of sense. And I think that it’s like, I don’t know, if I were to sit here and be like, “Which is more important, your relationship with the mirror or your relationship with photos?” Like, I don’t know. I think it’s, it’s so nuanced and, you know, obviously different for each person and –

Dona Gill: I don’t think you can have one or the other. Because you see yourself in both all the time, especially now with the use of phones and photos and internet, social media.

Megan Gill: Right I just mean like, if you were to have a strong relationship with one or the other, is what I mean. I would almost want people to have a strong relationship with what they say reflected in the mirror.

Dona Gill: That’s probably what I have, because I don’t like to look at photos. I will ignore them.

Megan Gill: Well, exactly. It gets convoluted with photos and I think it’s hard too because it’s like this other thing captured, and depending on literally how you’re standing, what you’re wearing, right? All these different – the lighting, all these different factors come into play in photos that it’s like we, I think, have to sort of look at them with a grain of salt anyways. I tell myself this all the time as well. What really matters is what’s going on in your body in the present moment in the mirror. And I know that – that’s not to discount the fact that certain people do have a tough relationship with what they see in the mirror. Granted, hello, not every single day do I love what I see in the mirror either, you know?

Dona Gill: Oh, I agree.

Megan Gill: But it’s so interesting that you bring that up.

Dona Gill: Interesting. Yeah.

Megan Gill: Okay. So you find yourself avoiding looking at them.

Dona Gill: Mm-hmm. Even avoiding mirrors a lot.

Megan Gill: Oh, and avoiding mirrors, even though you don’t mind what you see in the mirror?

Dona Gill: Well, because in the morning I like looking at what do I look like for the day? Okay, this is how I’m presenting myself for the day. I could change something if I need to, if I’m looking at the mirror, but later on, if I’m passing a mirror, I can’t change my outfit. I can’t change my hair. I’ve gotta just keep on going with what I see. And you’re like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t have picked that out today, so that’s why.

Megan Gill: Oh, I experience that as well. It’s interesting. It’s like a fear of seeing something you don’t like in yourself, which is valid. It’s so valid. But I think also the difficulty in that, or the difficult thing to put yourself through is the acceptance of, okay, well, can’t change it. This is what I chose. We’re rolling with it, and we’re gonna try to just breathe and be like, it’s okay.

Like for me, my makeup, I’ve been doing different makeup lately, and like when I put it on, I’m like, ooh, I love it. And I love the way I look. I go live the day. At the end of the day I look in the mirror and I’m like, oh my god, I was walking around like this? It’s kind of like smudged and I don’t know, it’s just whatever! I was living my life. And I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to like, be perfect, look perfect all the time. It’s like, for what?

Dona Gill: I think I really like when someone says, “Oh, you look good in that today. Oh, you look good today, or you look happy today, or you look something” I’m like, okay, I’m doing pretty good today. I think I need that every day.

Megan Gill: I love that! It’s important because also it’s like you look happy. You look good. Like you don’t look ill, you don’t look unwell. I think that those are two really important compliments to pay someone. You know?

Dona Gill: I try to do that to others too. Yes. “I really like what you’re wearing today,” or “That color looks really good on you.”

Megan Gill: Or even I’ve been having an interesting battle of like, okay, I am trying to just not pay people so many appearance based compliments. But also it’s like, well, we can’t discount the fact that we are visual creatures and…

Dona Gill: And they took the time to pick out that outfit.

Megan Gill: Exactly. It’s art!

Dona Gill: So like, that looks really good on you today. That color is really good. Someone the other day said to me, “That color is really good on you, Mrs. Gill.” It’s an adult, but doesn’t matter. “That looks really good on you.” So then I’m like, okay, what color is that? What color looks good on me? So then I try to do more of that color on me.

Megan Gill: It’s so true. It’s a creative process to put together.

Dona Gill: So I appreciate those compliments.

Megan Gill: Yeah, me too. Do not get me wrong. Some girl yesterday was like, “Ah, I love your shoes!” I’m like, “Thanks, lemme tell you, I got them on sale at Marshalls, I love them too, so thank you!” I don’t know that there is anything wrong with it. But I think it’s also just having the awareness of how it made you feel when someone said, “You look happy! You look good!”

Dona Gill: “Aww, thank you!”

Megan Gill: Like, “Oh my god, thanks!” Because that also just speaks so much more than just your appearance. It speaks to like your character and your soul and how you’re, you know, affecting other people.

Dona Gill: And you can kind of tell if the person really means it or if they’re just saying it to say it. You kinda know the people – or yesterday that girl about your shoes seemed just really interested because she was really looking at ‘em, and it’s not like you were just walking by and she just said it because.

Megan Gill: Okay, but here’s the thing, I don’t know – granted, I don’t know every person in the world, but I don’t know that people pay a compliment – I don’t know that a lot of people pay a compliment unless they mean it. At least that’s my take, because I’m not gonna pay a compliment unless…

Dona Gill: Sometimes at a job you might pay a compliment just because you need to say it, but then you find something good to try and make a compliment. Sometimes in your family you might do that just to keep the peace or knowing that that person needs to feel good.

Megan Gill: Oh, okay. That’s fair!

Dona Gill: But then it’s usually you find something that’s really good to make that compliment about. But there are people that just make a random compliment.

Megan Gill: I guess, maybe, but I don’t know. That’s my take. My optimistic outlook.

Dona Gill: That’s a good take. Good job.

Megan Gill: Thanks. Thanks, mom.

Dona Gill: I think one of the best times that I felt really good about myself was when I was pregnant because our heredity is the tummy, that’s just my family all has it going way back as far as I know.

Megan Gill: The belly. Yep.

Dona Gill: The belly. So when I was pregnant, people would say, “You look good!” And I’m like, “Yeah, I do. Because now I can have a belly and it’s okay to have a belly when I’m pregnant..”

Megan Gill: Oh my god.

Dona Gill: So I used to think I looked really good pregnant.

Megan Gill: Wow.

Dona Gill: So maybe I should have had more kids.

Megan Gill: Wait. That is honestly a really important thing that you just pointed out. And something that I, obviously, I’ve never been pregnant myself yet, but something that I think about all the time in myself and how it’s just so wildly accepted and beautiful and seen as this magnificent thing when you’re pregnant and your belly is big, but then when a woman is just not pregnant and has a belly, it’s seen as gross or unhealthy or unattractive, and it’s like – wow, I’m just like sitting with that. I don’t even have anything to say about that. I’m just like, that dichotomy is crazy to me and just how much pressure society puts on women and how much pressure women put on women and media puts on women.

Like, okay, I’ve been watching a show called, Nobody Wants This on Netflix. Have you seen it yet?

Dona Gill: No. No, not yet.

Megan Gill: The women in it – I love the show, and they’re all so talented and lovely, but they’re all just very straight-sized bodies with not a lot of curve action going on. And the men in the show – there’s a scene where you see one of the leading men with his shirt off and he has a belly, and I’m like, of course it’s normalized for a man on this television show on Netflix to be seen with a shirt off with a belly, but none of the women probably even have that belly. And I say probably because we just don’t know, but just like how the double standard is so crazy and yeah, we are getting somewhere. We’re getting somewhere. We’re starting to talk about this stuff. The media is starting to shift, but it’s also still so prevalent. It’s like, damn, well, I just wanna see a woman that looks like me, or even someone bigger, or someone, a mom – I mean, granted, a lot of times mothers are perceived to have bigger bodies, which is another piece to the conversation. But just seeing people with not perfectly-thin bodies in these leading roles on TV and like showing the elements of them, like the belly that I have, I wanna see somebody in a bathing suit in a Netflix series with a belly like mine!

Dona Gill: That would be nice. That would be nice.

Megan Gill: Yeah, so I’m hopeful that we’ll get there, but it’s just like, god, wow. I took that and ran with it. But how fascinating that you felt the most, what did you say, beautiful when you were pregnant. But also, how magnificent is that? Because you were making a life.

Dona Gill: Ha ha ha ha – you!

Megan Gill: Like of course you felt beautiful, you know?

Dona Gill: Oh, true. Mm-hmm.

Megan Gill: But also, damn, because, what? You were pregnant with two kids. So 18 months of your life were you pregnant, and then all the other time you maybe didn’t feel what you felt while you were pregnant. And it’s like, I want you to be able to feel that. Yeah. I think that’s the important piece of this here. Yeah.

Dona Gill: Guess so.

Megan Gill: Is there anything else you wanna chat about?

Dona Gill: For me? No. I don’t think so.

Megan Gill: Okay. It’s good – you’re gonna cry.

Dona Gill: The sun also is on my eyes. Anything else you wanna know about me?

Megan Gill: Yeah! I wanna know what your favorite thing or things about your body are. They can be physical, non-physical, one of each. Whatever comes to mind. Totally up to you.

Dona Gill: My favorite thing? My eyes. Eyes.

Megan Gill: I do like your eyes.

Dona Gill: I like that. I used to like my legs now, not so much anymore. They’re getting old.

Megan Gill: They still carry you from place to place.

Dona Gill: Yeah. Hard though. Hard. Yeah. I guess I like my mind with people.

Megan Gill: That’s a good one!

Dona Gill: Being able to socialize or being able to teach, being able to love, have fun.

Megan Gill: Yeah, all important shit.

Dona Gill: Other than that, maybe my nose.

Megan Gill: I do like your nose.

Dona Gill: A short little stubby nose, yeah. Otherwise, everything’s starting to get old and wrinkly, old and wrinkly and sun spots.

Megan Gill: Well, I think that’s beautiful. I like your sun spots.

Dona Gill: Thank you. Well, I’m glad you do.

Megan Gill: I have some too, so I’m glad I’m looking at my future.

Dona Gill: Well, I’m glad. You are sadly yes.

Megan Gill: Don’t say sadly!

Dona Gill: When I look in the mirror and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s my mom looking at me,” when I look in the mirror. And I never thought I would look like her, but I do now.

Megan Gill: Oh god. Okay, what’s that experience like?

Dona Gill: Very strange when you see the wrinkles in the same spots that she had. Like, gosh, I look like her. I never thought I would. It’s just – it’s strange.

Megan Gill: “I never thought I would.”

Dona Gill: I never thought I would, but it is a good connection. Then you’re like, “Okay, yeah, that was my mom.”

Megan Gill: Yeah. That’s powerful. That’s really powerful. Wow.

Dona Gill: We come from her.

Megan Gill: And how silly it would be to want to change those things that remind you of your mom.

Dona Gill: True.

Megan Gill: Not that you would, but I think that a lot of women see wrinkles as – yeah.

Dona Gill: Oh, for sure. Would I like some plastic surgery? Yes, for sure. Am I gonna do it? No.

Megan Gill: Why do you think you would like it? Because society told you that it’s an option and that… you could do it?

Dona Gill: Yeah, yes. I just think it would make me look better. Even though that means nothing. People at the store, do they really look at me and say, “Ooh, she’s got that ugly lady walking by”? No. Nobody does that.

Megan Gill: Well, maybe don’t call yourself ugly.

Dona Gill: Okay. That old lady?

Megan Gill: Can I remind you that you’re my mother? Again, I will look like you one day. So please do not call yourself ugly.

Dona Gill: “Look at that beautiful old lady walking by.”

Megan Gill: Exactly!

Dona Gill: “I wanna be like her. I wanna be like her.”

Megan Gill: You are a beautiful.

Dona Gill: Thank you.

Megan Gill: You are welcome.

Dona Gill: I am glad. Do I like my body now? No. Would I love to change it? Yeah. Is it hard to because I’m getting old? Yeah, for sure. So there’s the answer to all your questions.

Megan Gill: Well, thank you for chatting with me today.

Dona Gill: Yeah. Yay.

Megan Gill:I know you were a bit hesitant to sit down and talk.

Dona Gill: Very much, it’s very strange –

Megan Gill: Hopefully cool.

Dona Gill: – to hear you and your podcast voice and then having to answer your questions like that when you’re just my daughter.

Megan Gill: All right.

Dona Gill: And we should just talk.

Megan Gill: Well, thanks for doing it.

Dona Gill: Yeah, sure. Anytime.

Megan Gill: Okay.

Dona Gill: Anytime.

Megan Gill: Okay.

Dona Gill: We’re done.

Megan Gill: We’re done!

Dona Gill: Okay, cool.

Megan Gill: That’s it!

Dona Gill: Oh, my –

“I think one of the best times that I felt really good about myself was when I was pregnant because our heredity is the tummy, that’s just my family all has it going way back as far as I know. The belly. So when I was pregnant, people would say, “You look good!” And I’m like, “Yeah, I do. Because now I can have a belly and it’s okay to have a belly when I’m pregnant.” So I used to think I looked really good pregnant. So maybe I should have had more kids.”

– DONA GILL

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A couple of notes to ensure this is a safe space for my guests to share their intimate and vulnerable body image stories in:

* It can be easy to feel alone on your journey of existing in a body. I welcome the connection and support of one another in this space through considerate and curious comments.

* These conversations are quite nuanced, complex, and oftentimes very vulnerable. Remember that everyone has their own body image story, and while someone else’s might look differently than yours, I encourage you to keep an open mind and stay empathetic.

* Thank you for being here. By sharing this type of content, my hope is to inspire personal reflection and cultural questioning. Thank you and supporting me in exploring the effects of our culture’s beauty norms and body standards on human beings existing in today’s world.

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While I’m not a licensed therapist, registered dietician, or medical health professional and cannot speak to body image topics from a clinical, trauma-informed place, I am an expert of lived experience. I’m an academic of my own body, and I’m passionate about facilitating conversations with other humans about their relationships with their bodies. I believe it’s important to continue conversations about healthy body image in creative spaces as a means to heal individuals as well as the collective whole. But just know the information presented in this medium is not professional mental health advice or medical advice, and any questions or concerns you have should always be directed to your health providers.

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