#84 My Body My Story 45 Over 45 - Mel

In this episode, you will learn 10 FACTS about Mel, what age she would like to go back to, and what advice she would give herself at that age! We also talk about the main causes of body image issues, how they come up, and how she overcomes them. And we discuss what aging means to her and to her body.

 

10 Facts About Mel

(at the time of the project)

1. 47 years old.
2. Mel has 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren. The oldest daughter is 29 and twins are 24. Her two granddaughters are 5 and 2, and her grandson is 10 months old. He is the first boy in the family for 65 years.
3. Mel was born in Queensland in Toowoomba and grew up around the Middle East Coast out on a farm and in Forster.
4. 17 years ago Mel injured her hands at work and was told she was unemployable. She decided to open her own business and started making dance costumes. That turned into opening a dance business, which turned into making school uniforms, gymnastics costumes, and circus costumes that go around Australia and overseas. And then that progressed into getting an embroidery machine and starting to work with corporate clients.
5. Mel now has 2 businesses. They are called Above and Beyond Embroidery and Mystic Soul Dancewear.
6. Mel is also launching the third one, an empowering women business in August. And this one's called Trashed. For all the women that are being treated like trash. That will be swimwear for all body shapes and sizes.
7. Recently Mel did a bull riding to raise money for Ronald McDonald House.
8. She also has rock climbing on her bucket list. She always wanted to do it, and then put it off because she injured her hands. Now she wants to find out whether she can actually physically do it or not.
9. Mel is loving her age now. Because she had kids young, she spent the last 30 years looking after kids, or after somebody. And now it's all about her. She can do what she wants when she wants.
10. Mel’s favorite saying is - Dare to dream because it's our dreams that motivate us to live.

 

You can find Mel here:

@ mystic_soul_dancewear

https://aboveandbeyondembroidery.com.au/

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

(auto-generated)

Hi, you're listening to the My Body, My Story podcast.

 

Yeah, they they have that twin in going where if one gets injured, the other one can get the concussion or Yeah, the oldest twin had her wisdom teeth out and the younger twin rang me this is only a couple of years ago and she's like, Mom, I don't know what's going on my mouth is killing me. And I'm like you do remember that.

 

This is the 45 over 45 chapter where we celebrate Rule Breakers and role models, the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show their sensuality beauty, soul, and true essence. Here we talk about what it's like to be 45 Plus, adjusting to the changes that come with time, and we listened to the stories about participants. If you have an interesting story, we'd love for you to participate. You can email us at info@aleksandrawalker.com That's Aleksandra spelled with a K S. Or visit our website aleksandrawalker.com

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the My Body My Story project and today with us Mel in the studio. And while she's sitting in the makeup chair, and she is doing makeup for her, I'll be asking her a few questions. Hi, Mel, welcome. Let's start and tell us 10 facts about yourself.

 

Okay, I'm 47 I have three girls. I have three grandchildren.

 

Oh. How old are they? Your girls and grandchildren?

 

The oldest is 29. And I have twins that are 24.

 

Oh wow. You have twin girls,

 

identical twin girls. And then the grandchildren are five, two and 10 months. Oh the little baby. First boy in the family for 65 years.

 

Yeah. 65 years. So they were all girls.

 

Yes. I don't know what to do with boys.

 

It's time to learn to learn. Where are you born?

 

I was born in Queensland in Toowoomba, I pretty much grew up around the Middle East Coast, pretty much Middle East Coast. Out on a farm and in Foster. I run my own business in Foster or couple of the Mystic Soul Dancewear. We are an embroidery, and above and beyond embroidery. And I am starting a empowering women business.

 

So it's a third business.

 

So it's a third business fingers crossed it launches in August,

 

You are a serial businesswoman

 

it was time. It was time. And this one's called trashed.

 

Ooh, interesting.

 

For all the women that are being treated like trash. Oh, so we're doing swimwear. And it's going to be about all body shapes, sizes. Not all the normal stick figure models that you see. No, we're not doing that. We're doing swimwear with you know, the the people that have got the big boobs, but the smaller hips, hips, people that have got the smaller boobs and the bigger hips and their standard not standard. Yeah, very much so that by wearing them, people feel empowered.

 

So how did you come up with this name?

 

How did I come up with a name? Hey, about six months ago, after 15 years, my other half turned up from work and said don't love you anymore. haven't loved you for five years. I'm moving and packed his stuff and was gone in 20 minutes.

 

Oh, gosh.

 

So this is my I don't know. Would you call it revenge? Would you call it turning it around? Yeah. You don't treat me like trash and yet not. So this is what I'm doing? Crate chat every negative into a positive

 

great story behind this concept. So what's your about your first two businesses you said? So what are they the main?

 

Okay, so originally, okay. 1516 1617 years ago, I injured my hands at work. I was told I was unemployable. I'd never work again. I was a single mom of three kids had a mortgage and just went I can't not work again. So I decided to open my own business where I could stop and start Try to allow my hand injury because I can't do repetitive things for too long. So, yeah, I started making dance costumes. That turned into opening up a dance business that turned into making school uniforms, making gymnastics costumes, making circus costumes. So now I pretty much make circus costumes around Australia do gymnastic stuff that goes around Australia goes overseas, dance stuff around Australia. And then impressive that sort of progressed into getting an embroidery machine starting to work where so the workwear is like Hive is Chef where corporate where was sportswear, all that sort of stuff.

 

So I just want to because I don't know this business really well, embroidery machine is the thing which makes logos ?

 

so we put people's business logos on to uniform shows to uniforms and gear, we put heat press, printing and all that sort of stuff on to costumes, and like the workwear and all of that.

 

if people want to find you in the business, where do they go? Do you have a website, Instagram, what is it called look?

 

Okay, the mystic soul websites down and out at the moment, but Above and Beyond Embroidery website is the products that three quarters on that website. The Trashed website will not launch until the ninth of August.

 

And we are in May at the moment recording this interview. So if someone is listening to the podcast, later than August, they can find you online as well.

 

And I also like if people have their favourite swimwear or whatever, I can also deconstruct their old swimmers and make them whole new pair of swimmers and you know, people that are having sex dummies and all that sort of stuff.

 

Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, it's a great thing. Actually, you can just alter it to the to the needs and to figure change if I know that swimming costumes usually don't live long. But sometimes we have our favourites which we grow out of or

 

amazing

 

Oh, 100%, not 100% There 80% recycled fabrics. And that

 

but it's not only swimming costumes, right? You can do any pretty much any clothing or you just..

 

Yeah, I just don't get a lot of time to do that anymore.

 

So you have stuff or you do everything on your own?

 

I have some staff that do certain things. And I've just started training up somebody else to actually do what I do the work itself. Yeah.

 

Excellent. That's a great business. So do you get invitation from all these artists? Whom you provide with? Like circus costumes and belly dancers? Do you? Do you actually go yourself to see the performance? Sometimes?

 

Half time, most of them just send me photos of like the groups or that in costumes? And that because, yeah, like some of them are gone to Disneyland and things like that. And I don't have time to take that much time off.

 

Yeah, but it's excellent. If I bet that people want to see where your work was travelled. Or, you know, it's interesting always to see when businesses place the pictures of the work or this artist is wearing all these artists and they've been here and they're like the Do you do any teams like that? Like, do you? Do you do sport dancing? costumes or just the

 

Yeah, so the competition? Performance costumes? Yeah.

 

Excellent. Excellent. Okay, so I'm just thinking if we got any if we got 10 facts about yourself yet, until you leave now. Not in Queensland you live?

 

No, I haven't been in Queensland for many years.

 

Yeah. Excellent. Okay. Do you have any time to do anything else like except your work? I know being a business owner is quite challenging task.

 

For the last few years I've worked 14 hour days, seven days a week. My New Year's resolution this year was to only work nine to five Monday to Friday.

 

Oh, really good on you. If, and I know you mentioned some something that you're gonna do soon, and actually what you did recently the bull riding, brave, brave of you since you said it was

 

 

Yeah, bull riding was to raise money for Ronald McDonald House. And the rock climbing is just bucket list. Always wanted to do it, and then put it off because I injured my hands. And then I thought, well, I need to go and do it to find out whether I can actually physically do it or not. Yeah. Only one way to find out.

 

Yeah, I just wondering like how it will go with I'm sure that

 

I don't know how it'll go. Somehow. I'll start my hands up. And yeah, see what happens.

 

Okay, so And let's move to other questions about ageing and body image. So what does ageing means to you at the moment at this age?

 

I'm actually loving this age.

 

I know, I know it our 20s. We think that 40s is being old.

 

Yeah, I'm loving this age. Because I had kids young, I basically spent the last 30 years looking after kids, or looking after somebody. So this age, it's now it's all about me. Yeah. And this is me, I can do what I want. I can do what I want when I want.

 

So I forgot to ask this question, because you mentioned that you have twins. Is there any funny stories about twins? Because they Oh,

 

my God, where do you even start, I wouldn't swap them for the world. But I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. I had to embroider their names on their school uniforms because nobody could tell them apart. When they were two years old, I decided to travel around Australia in a camper trailer. Great for toilet training twins. Because I spent most of the time inside toilets because they would not pee on the grass. Then I moved into a unit in Darwin, after about six months of travelling, and then I couldn't stop them peeing on the grass.

 

They finally they learned Yeah.

 

And then when they got to high school, they learned that they could swap what they were wearing at school and then teachers wouldn't know.

 

So someone was good in math, someone who was good in other subjects, so they swapped for the exam?

 

they just swapped to torment people. They like to tell people that they were born one was born. They're not classed as twins because one was born on the 31st of December and the other one was born on the first of January. So technically, they're not twins. Oh, so they tell people that all the time. So different years. So if you bought on different days, technically, it's not classed as

 

Oh, wow. But was it like a very close in the evening and the early morning? Or?

 

Oh, no, they weren't born in December at all. That's just what they tell. The jig that they tell people? No, there was seven minutes between them. Seven minutes. Yeah, I was taken to the hospital to shut me up and wasting Buck fuel.

 

What did you do? Could you say tell difference?

 

there was a pound difference between the two of them. But I did take the fingernail polish with me to the hospital just in case you never mix them up when the group when they were growing up.

one was always slightly bigger than the other one when they were little. And then by the time they reached like the same sort of sizing level that so different personality. So different.

 

You could recognise that you never had this same dress look.

 

When they wanted to dress like twins. They used to dress like twins. If they didn't want to look like twins. They didn't dress like twins.

 

But it's always interesting. We had the one of our first participant Michelle, she's I think episode number three. And she's one of the twins and she was telling us through a lot of fun stories.

 

Yeah, they have that twin thing going where if one gets injured, the other one can get the concussion or so they've like, yeah, the oldest twin had a wisdom teeth out and the younger twin rang me this is only a couple years ago and she's like Mom, I don't know what's going on. My mouth is killing me. And I'm like you do remember that you have to call us the other one is getting her wisdom teeth out at the moment and she's like, Oh my god. And the one that got the wisdom teeth out. Never had any pain or anything didn't take painkillers or anything for like the two weeks. And the one that didn't have them out. Had to have pain.

 

Oh my god, this is weird. That's interesting. Yeah. Yes, your connection. I wonder what it is because I studied psychology in university and we studied twins. And still it's not discovered completely, you know, some mystic connection.

 

How there's no real way to explain it, you've got to actually see it.

 

It's like your other half. Just in different body.

 

Yeah, it's similar to yours. This is exactly the same then 99.99 Hang on. 99.999957% identical.

 

And they have different personalities imagined like it's

 

it's unimaginable seriously. So they wanted to find out for their 21st birthday. We didn't know to win. So they did like a genetic test. Yeah.

 

Perfect. Exciting. So what? If you could go back to any age of yours? What it wouldn't be? Why? And what advice would you give yourself at this age,

 

I don't think I'd go back. Everything that you go through that you've been through, makes you who you are. Now, if you go back and change even one thing, you're not going to be the same person that you are now.

 

It's like a butterfly effect.

 

So as much as you'd like to go back and just change any of the crap, so to speak, I wouldn't be who I am now. Wouldn't be as strong as I am now. Wouldn't be as determined as I am now. So all those little triumphs along the way make you who Yeah,

 

it's cool. 100% percent acceptance of your path.

 

This is mean, yeah. And I'm not ready to accept that 100% Here, I would go back in time to some age. But it's good. Yeah, I love this. We talked about it this morning. And I could go back to when I was three, and try and stop my father passing away and that but try and remember a bit more. But if I went back to them when I was three, well, I'm not going to actually remember. Any anyway. So

 

So if you could, your body could talk, what do you think it would ask you will tell you at that moment,

 

probably not to play so much nipple on that when I was younger, I can't run anymore. As soon as I run, I get shin splints. But look, you my body now is a result of everything I've been through throughout my whole life. By changed parts of that body, I changed parts of my life, and then I'm not who I am.

 

So what what your body will tell you

 

relax a bit more. Take time out, enjoy your life, enjoy it to the fullest because we never know when it's going to be over. And it could be over in a blink of an eye.

 

So where do you think those body related issues come from?

 

A lot of its social media. A lot of its social media. A lot of it's peer pressure. Doesn't matter what you say to a person that has body images, image issues. They have to go through it themselves. They have to get to a point where they're okay. With themselves. Sometimes trauma sparks it. But no matter what they have to get through their day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour until they accept themselves for who they are.

 

Because it leads to another question that do you think people need to accept themselves because it affects their relationship in every area like the work area, personal relationship,

 

if you're not happy within who you are, it affects your whole life. That's one of the reasons why I'm doing this crash swim where I'm not having normal models. I am having everybody every shape Sighs every scar, everything is real normal people. Yeah, not models, but real because life isn't about models. It's about real normal people. And we need to start putting that out there otherwise, this next generation is not gonna survive.

 

But do you think it's possible that people don't have body issues, or if it's born inside of the person, there are things which affects it, I just wonder if women had Body Issue. Like in the 15th century, if they were worried,

 

it's a taught thing. I think it's a taught thing with the social media, the magazines. You look at different areas of society, like we're in the city at the moment. But a small country town that doesn't have access to so much there is not as much of an issue with body imaging, as what there is in a big city. There's no, it's definitely a taught thing. And it's definitely a pressure thing.

 

I see it as like you have inside some kind of insecurities. And then this outside factors triggers that somehow. And so you can it can, if you're in a good environment, it can slip there. But if you're in an environment, competitive or demanding for you to look good, then it triggers that thing, you know, and it's depends on each person can have it in a big amount of small amount depends on their inner state, let's put it this way.

 

We're going to teach people to be more positive about themselves.

 

So this project that you're planning this business you planning to do, it's I think it's part of the initiative to for women to show them this.

 

Who you are, yeah, embrace it.

 

I really, really love this idea. I I hope it will work out really well for you.

 

Because this, we only get one body, we've got to be heavy with it.

 

Yeah. And we only get one life. And God we do with our bodies, like a lot of stuff. And our body is so resilient. And it can bear a lot of things before it says that's enough. Exactly. Yeah. So how do you overcome it from time to time if you have any body related issues? Because sometimes we have days where we're not happy or something? So how do you overcome that? What's your go to method? One day you wake up, look in the mirror and say, I don't like what I see today. So what would you do?

 

does not bother me at all what I look like, it's I am who I am. People don't like it. doesn't worry me?

 

Yeah. And you never there's no cases where you don't like yourself?

 

Oh, look, I could change bits and pieces. But what's the point? I am who I am.

 

So you accept it yourself?

 

Yeah, this is me.

 

And you I have to say that people don't see you but you are really good. You in the great shape.

 

My favourite song at the moment is that this is me from the greatest showmen. I think that should be the number one song everywhere. Anybody that's having self doubt to just play that on repeat.

 

So is it is it your favourite quote about being a woman or you have more?

 

Oh, I probably have hundreds of them.

 

So give us give us more.

 

Dare to dream because it's our dreams that motivate us to live. That's one that I've under No, I made up, up 20-30 years ago. I've got it printed on my mirror. Look at it every morning. So if again, dare to dream because they're to dream, dare to dream because it's our dreams that motivate us to live. So you've got to have a goal. You've got to have something that you want to do. You've got to work towards it. Even if it's five minutes a day, five hours a day, a minute a day, or even thinking about every day. You've got to just put that positiveness somewhere in your day. Everything happens for a reason. So when something toxic or bad or something happens in your life, not so good. Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes you just don't understand the reasons at the time. Might be five or 10 years before you understand The reasons but I believe everything happens for a reason. I just had one and it just went straight out the window.

 

Maybe you all remember that. Thank you very much for sharing your story. And I hope that this project you're doing will thrive and make happy a lot of women.

 

So if it makes one person happy, I'm happy. Yeah. And I hope you can change the life of one person. It's worth doing. Yeah,

 

I agree. Some people can change many lives. And some just one but still, it's worth it.

 

And every life counts. Yeah.

 

I want to thank you again. And I hope you will have a wonderful day. Because today you together with your friend,

 

we're gonna have a ball.

 

And she was in the episode before yours and enjoy the day and welcome to the project again. Thank you.

 

If you have an interesting story, we'd love for you to participate. You can email us at info@aleksandrawalker.com That's Aleksandra spelled with a K S. Or visit our website aleksandrawalker.com

 

This is the 45 over 45 chapter of MY BODY MY STORY podcast, where we celebrate rule breakers and role models - the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show their SENSUALITY,  BEAUTY, SOUL, and TRUE ESSENCE.

 

For more information about the project visit:

https://www.aleksandrawalker.com/45-over-45

 

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