Down to Brown

Lahari of Down to Brown gets a chance to talk to Priya Mareedu, model and adventurer. On Instagram, Priya is known as @thewildindian girl, and has a 168K+ following tracking her outdoor lifestyle, gorgeous modeling, and global travels. Priya talks to Lahari about how she identifies with her South Asian identity and where she connects with and honors her parents, while living a seemingly "alternative" lifestyle. She goes into traveling as a lone woman, including some of the details we take for granted. Most importantly, they get into the joy of taking risks and seeing failures as pivots, standing up for your own passions, and being your most authentic self.

Sanjana Jhaveri is a manager at Facebook, co-founder of Privosa, and a fusion fashion blogger/creator. She and Lahari talk about their careers in their respective points of it - early and mid. They ask how their South Asian identities uniquely influenced their desire to honor their parents' hopes and dreams, while also carving their own paths. They both discuss tech, networking, building confidence, moving forward, etc.

Lahari Rao talks to Instagram star Cas Jerome (@casjerome,) represented by Slash Management. We talk about how hard it is to be a brown woman trying to be the person they "should" be according to South Asian AND American society, approaching it from the lens of messages from social media and the influencer world. We talk touch on racism in the influencer community, what it means to deviate from the conventional South Asian woman's look/feel, dating as an influencer, and being unafraid to be your most authentic self.

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Part 1 of 2. In their first collaboration together, podcasts Down to Brown's and Cultured or Nah's hosts, Lahari Rao & Shabnum Gulati respectively, come together to talk about Bollywood. Shabnum, who spent a year auditioning for Bollywood in Mumbai, and Lahari healthily critique the impact of the films they watched growing up in the 90s as kids: the role women played and the agism they observed, relationships and marriage, and divorce.

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Roz Kaur is a 54- year-old creative stylist and a pro-diversity and age advocate. Currently, she is a senior stylist at Anthropologie, but has a rich past of working in fashion. We talk about where her inspiration comes from, owning "desi" style, crediting cultures in fashion, working at Anthropologie, Roz's relationship with her age, and what true style is.

saahil m. (Brown Girl Mag editor for the Brown Boy section, Fullbright scholar, & starting their MFA in Creative Writing this year,) talks to Lahari about their journey to understand who they are. They talk about the tension of belonging - how one can reject and accept oneself on their path to examining their intersectional identities. They touch on their ethnolinguistic minority community, Bhagnari (now in modern-day Karachi, Pakistan.) We also cover the power of language, unlearning to learn, and extending grace.

Anita Kalathara, actress, and Lahari of Down to Brown talk about colorism and its impact in our lives. We cover the challenges of being brown-skinned in the entertainment industry, as well as what it did to our self-esteem and sense of identity. We also cover the implications it has for jobs, desirability, dating, family, and more. Ultimately, we identify the ultimate danger of colorism: racism and white supremacy. You won't want to miss this one!

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Longtime friend Mina Toor and Lahari Rao approach mental health from the perspective of 2 friends diving into how the topic was discussed in their families. They talk about how they learned to express their mental state despite upbringings that didn't always teach them that, loved ones they've lost to mental health struggles, and how one can find a therapist. This is a bonus episode, in honor of May's Mental Health Awareness and AAPI Heritage Month.

Reena Bhansali, founder of 'Hindi by Reena' and Lahari Rao of Down to Brown center their conversation about language, and how it can - or not - help one feel better connected to their culture. Reena and Lahari also talk about how they found partners with people outside of their cultures - Greek and Russian - and how that determined conversations futures, family, and children. They also cover vulnerability and communication, the foundation for any community, whatever language you speak.

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