If mentioned at all, childless people can be portrayed in the media as pitiable, grief-stricken loners or heroes living independent and inspired lives liberated from the shackles of parenthood. This can diminish or lionize us, and often doesn’t reflect the complexity of our lived experiences.
So what’s the reality? What do respectful, real and empowered childless media representations look like? How can we create, influence or own this? Instead of talking about us or for us, how do we ensure the talking is done by us, and our diverse perspectives are represented?
This webinar draws on the wisdom of four childless women experienced in presenting our personal childlessness stories and advocating for childless people in the media. Why do we do it? What’s it like? What are the benefits and challenges? What have been the responses? What have we learned? We’d love to hear your experiences.
You might be thinking about going public, perhaps you already have. You may never go public with your story, and that’s ok. Behind the scenes, connecting with each other strengthens our collective advocacy voices. Come join us for this rich discussion as we explore this together.
DATE: Thursday 14th September
TIME: 12pm BST - Find your timezone HERE
REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR HERE
Please note: Whilst the panellists will be recorded, your camera and audio will be turned off. If you are unable to attend the webinar live, you DO NOT need to register to watch the replay on the website.
PANELLISTS
Sarah Roberts - Australia
Sarah is a World Childless Week Ambassador for the Asia/Pacific Region and Founder of The Empty Cradle.
Sarah’s media work in childlessness began almost a decade ago with a personal blog. It felt like screaming into the void as she sought connection with others who shared her story and to validate the disenfranchised grief and social isolation.
In relationship with childless women, (and a lot of personal therapy), her heart began to heal and she noticed the commonalities of our social and cultural
experiences. These relationships, and her academic and clinical counselling work, honed her thinking and crafted her writing and messaging in her current media work.
Sarah is a passionate advocate for rights, inclusion, cultural and social change, and just social policy for all people, especially the involuntarily childless.
Sarah is deeply curious about what respectful, real and empowered childless media representation looks like and how to include our diverse voices and perspectives.
Yvonne John – UK
Yvonne John is the author of ‘Dreaming of a Life Unlived: Intimate Stories and Portraits of Women Without Children’ (2016).
As an activist and public speaker Yvonne has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes, including ‘Woman's Hour’ on BBC Radio 4 and the Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me documentary, to talk about her experience of recovering from the devastating grief of involuntary childlessness as well being a panellist for the Independent Newspaper’s conversations on ‘The Parenthood Question’ and ‘What does being a woman in 2023 mean’.
Yvonne is a graduate of Gateway Women (GW) year-long Plan B Mentorship programme, a trained facilitator of the GW Reignite Weekend workshops and a World Childless Week Ambassador.
Yvonne is passionate about creating an inclusive space for black women and women of colour to openly talk about their childless journey and is the leading voice on the childless WoC’s experience of infertility.
Sian Prior - Australia
Dr Sian Prior is a writer, broadcaster and writing teacher.
She has been a presenter on ABC Radio Melbourne, Radio National and ABC Classic, and a regular columnist for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sian has been teaching journalism and creative writing at RMIT University for almost two decades. She also runs her own online short courses in Writing as Therapy and Creative Non Fiction.
Sian is the author of two books; 'Shy: a memoir' (2014) and 'Childless: a story of freedom and longing' (2022) which was short-listed for The Age Book of the Year. 'Childless' recounts Sian's long, complex and ultimately unsuccessful quest to have a child of her own.
Civilla Morgan - US
Civilla Morgan has a wide-ranging background in hospitality, healthcare, and financial services. She was a stockbroker for several years and loves to discuss the markets and market strategies. Civilla has a Master’s degree in Management, with a concentration in Marketing, and currently works as a licensed insurance agent.
Civilla was born on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, and raised in New England–Massachusetts and Connecticut. She likes to say she has multiple hometowns!
Civilla says that despite her life experiences, she believes she has found her calling in her podcast, Childless not by Choice. For the last eight years, she has been encouraging childless not by choice women and men globally, to realize that they can live relevant and joyful lives.
Civilla does not have much time to relax, but when she does, she heads to the beach! She has a favorite beach, but honestly, any beach will do!
REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR HERE