Katie Sturino is the founder of Megababe, the innovative beauty brand known for nontoxic, cult-favorite products like Thigh Rescue and Bust Dust. She's also a body-acceptance advocate with a highly engaged community of close to one million supporters across platforms. Sturino joined Hillary Kerr on Second Life back in 2020 to talk about her winding career path from PR to social media to beauty (listen to her first episode here), but we had to have her back on to discuss her most recent pivot to fiction writing. In this episode, Sturino shares why she decided to write her debut novel, Sunny Side Up, and gets refreshingly candid about the challenges of continuing to transform your career when everyone has feedback. She opens up about what it's like to work with a ghostwriter and where she hopes to take this creative endeavor moving forward. Of course, she also catches us up on the last five years of bootstrapped growth for Megababe and shares what's on the horizon for the business.

Buy Sturino's new book, Sunny Side Up, here! (It's Hillary Kerr approved.)

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Ann Foley is the costume designer behind the grounded and detailed wardrobes of the hit show The Last of Us. In this episode, Foley (whose extensive career also includes work on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and She Hulk) sits down with Who What Wear Senior Fashion and Social Media Editor Tara Gonzalez to discuss the costume design process for The Last of Us season 2. Foley shares the journey of developing character-driven styles, the inspiration behind the apocalyptic fashion and how it reflected the different environments, and the subtle styling changes that marked character growth after a five-year time jump. She reveals the challenges of costuming an apocalyptic world, why The Last of Us is technically a period piece, the significance of specific items like Joel's jacket and Ellie's Converse, and the collaborative process with actors and showrunners that brought the characters to life.

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Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a prominent grassroots organization fighting gun violence in the United States. She initially aspired to be an investigative journalist, and she earned a journalism degree but transitioned into a career in public relations, spending nearly two decades in corporate communications at companies like Anthem and GE Healthcare. After taking a step back from her career to become a stay-at-home mom, the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012 spurred her into action, and she founded Moms Demand Action with a simple Facebook group. She leveraged her communications and branding expertise to transform the group into a powerful nationwide movement, now part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country, with nearly 11 million supporters. She has since been recognized as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and a Forbes 50 Over 50 Changemaker. She’s also authored books including Fight Like a Mother and Fired Up.

Buy Shannon’s new book here.

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Emilia Wickstead is a New Zealand–born, London-based fashion designer known for her refined yet playful approach to feminine dressing. Since launching in 2008, she’s evolved her namesake brand from a made-to-measure model to producing seasonal ready-to-wear collections, shown at London Fashion Week for the past 13 years, and expanded into bridalwear. In this episode, Wickstead joins Senior Fashion Editor Anna LaPlaca to discuss her early design influences, the trademarks of an Emilia Wickstead piece, and how she selects artistic muses for her cinematic collections. Wickstead also shares which pieces to shop from her pre-fall collection and details on her upcoming collaborations with the Palm Heights Hotel and Paperless Post.

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Jessica Malaty Rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator renowned for making complex public health information accessible, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While initially premed at USC, she pivoted to studying health promotion and disease prevention, and worked in the nonprofit sector after college. She was later recruited to research emerging biological threats at Georgetown University and simultaneously decided to pursue a master’s degree there in biohazardous threat agents and emerging infectious diseases. While she’s always loved science, she began to realize that where she truly excelled was in “speaking science.” And the deeper Rivera got into infectious disease epidemiology—whether through work or academia—the more she realized how critical the communications aspect of science was to public health. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she joined The Atlantic to lend her expertise to the COVID Tracking Project to provide publicly available, comprehensive data on COVID-19 cases in real time. She then began using Instagram to explain and interpret global health news, unexpectedly gaining a large following for her easy-to-understand information. Over the past five years, she has grown her platform, launched a Substack, and is currently completing a Doctorate in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, all while remaining dedicated to science facts and public health literacy.

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Kathleen Felix-Hager is the Emmy Award–winning costume designer behind the vibrant and evolving wardrobes of the hit show Hacks. Felix-Hager, whose extensive career also includes work on Veep and Dexter, sits down with Who What Wear Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen to delve into the sartorial world of Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels. In this episode, Felix-Hager shares the journey of developing distinct styles for each character, the inspiration behind Deborah's maximalist looks drawn from her own grandmother, and the thoughtful elevation of Ava's wardrobe through four seasons. She reveals the challenges of costuming a comedy, the evolution of Ava's infamous cropped pants, and the collaborative process with actors and showrunners that brings these characters to life.

Shop our editor's eBay picks here!

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Anushka Salinas is the CEO of the parenting tech company Nanit. Salinas began her career as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor, discovering her love for fashion and business data. She then pursued her MBA and serendipitously met the founders of the groundbreaking clothing rental company Rent the Runway when it was still just an idea. She began working for the company as an unpaid intern during business school, and then, upon graduation, left a secure job offer behind to continue growing the business, eventually becoming Rent the Runway’s VP of merchandising. She went on to apply her e-commerce expertise to Hudson’s Bay and a start-up called Resonance before returning to Rent the Runway to run its subscription business, and then ultimately become its president. Then, in 2024, Salinas pivoted again to lead yet another groundbreaking company, this time in the parenting space. Salinas joined Nanit, a technology company revolutionizing baby monitors with AI insights, offering a data-driven approach to modern parenting. Under her leadership, Nanit continues to innovate and expand, becoming an essential tool for families navigating the joys and challenges of raising children.

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Christos Garkinos, the self-proclaimed "Robin Hood of fashion," joins Who What Wear Market Director Bobby Schuessler to unpack his winding career, from growing up working in his family's Greek restaurant to becoming a reality TV personality and pioneering the world of luxury resale. Garkinos grew up infatuated with the Home Shopping Network, and after stints at big corporations like Clorox and Disney, he began to forge his own path in the resale market. He opened a store, starred in Bravo's Dukes of Melrose, joined HSN as a host, and then ultimately found his niche selling his curated goods on Instagram Live during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Garkinos discusses how he turned his pandemic project into Covet by Christos, an Instagram shopping network that now airs seven days a week. Plus, he shares which vintage items are trending and what brands are the most valuable to collect right now. 

Buy Christos’ book here!

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Courtney Claghorn is the co-founder of SUGARED + BRONZED, the nation’s largest sugaring and sunless tanning destination. Claghorn's journey began in 2010, out of her Santa Monica apartment, while juggling a full-time job in the fintech industry. After becoming dissatisfied with the high prices and underwhelming experiences of local spray tanning, she saw a gap in the market, and with just $1000 and encouragement from her then-boyfriend (now-husband and co-founder), she started offering her own services. Over the past 15 years, SUGARED + BRONZED has grown exponentially, now boasting over 35 locations nationwide—with 10 more in the pipeline—as well as a thriving e-commerce business.

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Tom Broecker is the costume designer of the legendary NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. Broecker, who has been with the show for over three decades, is responsible for the design and creation of all of the costumes for the show—sometimes creating up to 200 for just one episode. Today on the podcast, he joins Who What Wear Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer Hillary Kerr to discuss the intricate process of creating iconic character costumes under tight weekly deadlines. He shares behind-the-scenes stories about the show's 50th anniversary, the massive costume archive, and the blend of psychology and resourcefulness needed to dress characters from Bill Hader as Stefon to Bowen Yang as the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

Shop our editor's picks here!

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