Hi friends! We're finally back with another episode. This week I bring back my guest Carlos as we chat about life after graduation. Graduating high school and doing Grade 13, graduating undergrad, and the pressures within ourselves, our family, and society.   

We also chat about working minimum wage jobs, figuring out what defines success, and what advice we'd give our younger self. Thank you so much Carlos for coming on the podcast and being a guest! I hope you find value and enjoy this episode. And congratulations to 2021 graduates!

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Please feel free to rate and review the show. I love hearing your feedback and support! Stay updated with me on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! We're here with a fresh new series, and chatting about women in the gaming industry with Maii + Mango. Welcome back Mango, and thank you Maii for reaching out to speak more about this important topic.

In this series, we'll be talking about stereotypes and stigmas, challenges of minority groups in gaming, the sexualization of women in gaming, and toxic gaming environments.

In Part 2 of this intro episode, we chat about marginalized communities including the exclusion of the black community in gaming and we get to learn some top gaming terms to know.

If you're looking for female communities in gaming feel free to check out Femme Gaming on Instagram (@femmegaming) who empowers and supports the female gamer.

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Please feel free to rate and review the show. I love hearing your feedback and support! Stay updated with me on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! We're here with a fresh new series, and chatting about women in the gaming industry with Maii + Mango. Welcome back Mango, and thank you Maii for reaching out to speak more about this important topic. In this series, we'll be talking about stereotypes and stigmas, challenges of minority groups in gaming, the sexualization of women in gaming, and toxic gaming environments. 

In Part 1 of this intro episode, we get to know Maii + Mango's background with gaming, our experiences in male-dominated gaming spaces, chat about what defines someone as a "gamer," and focus on League of Legends. 

Stay tuned for the rest of Part 1 soon! 

If you're looking for female communities in gaming feel free to check out Femme Gaming on Instagram (@femmegaming) who empowers and supports the female gamer.

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Please feel free to rate and review the show. I love hearing your feedback and support! Stay updated with me on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! We're finally back with Part 2 of Surviving Covid with Charlene and Edline. In this episode we chat about recovery, what it's like to go back to work post-covid, and vaccinations. Stay safe and well, protect yourself and others, and be kind.

Disclaimer: We are just sharing our personal experience with covid. Please speak to your doctor or medical professional if you're experiencing symptoms and do your own research.

Telehealth Ontario for medical advice: +1 866-797-0000

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Please feel free to rate and review the show. I love hearing your feedback and support! Stay updated with the podcast on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! In this episode, I bring back Charlene and Edline and we talk about our covid experiences. In Part 1 we chat about, what happened when we first got diagnosed, our symptoms, and what we went through when we found out we were positive.   

We hope you enjoy this episode, we'll be posting Part 2 in a couple of days where we’ll chat about our recovery, what it’s like going back to work and life post-covid, and the effects of mental health during recovery. Stay safe and well, protect yourself and others, and be kind.   

Disclaimer: We are just sharing our personal experience with covid. Please speak to your doctor or medical professional if you're experiencing symptoms and do your own research.

Telehealth Ontario for medical advice: +1 866-797-0000 

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Please feel free to rate and review the show. I love hearing your feedback and support! Stay updated with the podcast on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! It's been a while but, we're back doing the series with my faves, Cruz + T, and we're chatting about dating. Can you believe we're already on Part 5? In this episode, we talk about how our mental health has affected our dating, our needs and wants in a relationship, and our love languages. 

We also chat about issues that arise because of our mental health, advice for dating someone who has a disorder, and things that aren't helpful to your partner. Thank you for your continuous support of the series! Catch us in a couple of weeks for Part 6 talking about psychedelics.

We are not experts but we hope that having these conversations and sharing our own experiences help educate others and help those who are feeling the way we are. Thank you so much to Cruz + T for doing this series with me, for being amazing guests and for sharing their vulnerability and experiences with us. 💛 Support their creative work on Instagram!

Cruz 🌻

@vnyvc (https://www.instagram.com/vnyvc)

@creatingstrongties (https://www.instagram.com/creatingstrongties)

T 🌻

@itsbbtea (https://www.instagram.com/itsbbtea)

@loosefade (https://www.instagram.com/loosefade)

You are strong to ask for help. You are brave. You are loved.

Below are some resources for mental health.

Free therapy (people living in Ontario)

💐 MindBeacon https://info.mindbeacon.com   

💐 Abiliti CBT https://myicbt.com  

💐 Friends of Ruby https://www.friendsofruby.ca

💐 Stella's Place https://stellasplace.ca

CAMH: 416 535-8501

GTA: 416-408-HELP (4357)

Peel: 905-459-7777

Mental Health Helpline: 1-866-531-2600

Canadian Mental Health Awareness resources: https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-mental-health-supports

Hi friends! Wow, it’s been a while since I did a solo episode, huh? I’ve missed speaking y’all one-on-one. Here we have a raw and real episode of my acne journey and trying to shift my mindset to embrace the skin I’m in.

In this episode, I chat about growing up with acne and struggling with finding beauty, a time where a manager told me I had to wear makeup, and chatting about Lou Northcote’s #freethepimple.

This was a difficult episode to record because I’m not yet there with loving myself and my blemished self, but one day we will get there and this is a step in the right direction! To everyone who has experienced acne and is struggling, your acne doesn’t define you and you are beautiful.

Links to the articles and stats mentioned:

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Stay updated with us on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! We’re back with our first podcast live stream for the "Raising Mental Health Awareness" series with my lovely friends Cruz and T. This series chats about all things mental health — from disorders to therapy, to how to get diagnosed, to the health care system.

In this episode, we hopped on Instagram Live and answered all your burning questions! From mental health, to how many tattoos we have, to what's our skincare routine? (Note: This episode is an edited version of what's on IG). Thank you to everyone who sent in their questions and viewed the live stream! To view the full Instagram live stream on @SpeakUpErika, you can check out the IGTV here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNWAi8YCbqb. 

We hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you'd like more live stream episodes please let us know! Stayed tuned in a few weeks where we'll be chatting about Mental Health & Dating. 

We are not experts but we hope that having these conversations and sharing our own experiences help educate others and help those who are feeling the way we are. Thank you so much to Cruz + T for doing this series with me, for being amazing guests and for sharing their vulnerability and experiences with us. 💛 Support their creative work on Instagram!

Cruz 🌻

@vnyvc (https://www.instagram.com/vnyvc)

@creatingstrongties (https://www.instagram.com/creatingstrongties)

T 🌻

@itsbbtea (https://www.instagram.com/itsbbtea)

@loosefade (https://www.instagram.com/loosefade)

You are strong to ask for help. You are brave. You are loved.

Below are some resources for mental health.

Free therapy (people living in Ontario)

💐 MindBeacon https://info.mindbeacon.com   

💐 Abiliti CBT https://myicbt.com  

💐 Friends of Ruby https://www.friendsofruby.ca

💐 Stella's Place https://stellasplace.ca

CAMH: 416 535-8501

GTA: 416-408-HELP (4357)

Peel: 905-459-7777

Mental Health Helpline: 1-866-531-2600

Canadian Mental Health Awareness resources: https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-mental-health-supports

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Stay updated with us on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸

Hi friends! Welcome back to the Speak Up Erika podcast. I'm your host Erika and this podcast talks about topics we're afraid to speak up about but should. This week, I chat with Caroline a.k.a. Vaybe on what’s it like being a creative. Caroline and I chat about what it’s like working from home as an artist, personal tips on how to deal with creative burnout, and why she decided to rebrand from Art by Caro to Vaybe Art.

Thank you again Caroline for being a guest on the podcast, for being with me throughout this journey, and for sharing your perspectives of the struggles working from home and in the arts.

If you didn’t know, Caroline drew the lovely botanical illustrations for my book & for my Instagram posts. She’s a painter, artist, and pianist who paints landscapes and anime. Check out her artwork on Instagram as @vaybe.art, http://instagram.com/vaybe.art.

Hi friends! We’re back with Part 3 of "Raising Mental Health Awareness" with my lovely friends Cruz and T. This series chats about all things mental health — from disorders to therapy, to how to get diagnosed, to the health care system.

In this episode, we chat about therapy. We talk about why we decided to take therapy, the stigmas behind therapy and normalizing it, and what we think of the pros and cons. We end off by chatting about times where therapy may not have helped us and where we see ourselves in the future taking care of our mental health.

Book recommendations from this episode: 

📚 Let That Shit Go by Bruna Nessif

📚 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

📚 The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Stay tuned for Part 4 on Tuesday, April 13th as we'll be doing a mailbag episode! Send us any questions you may have, it doesn't have to be mental health-related! We'll be doing an Instagram Livestream of the mailbag episode on Tuesday, April 6th @ 6pm (EST), catch us on our Instagrams @speakuperika @itsbbtea & @vnyvc.

We are not experts but we hope that having these conversations and sharing our own experiences help educate others and help those who are feeling the way we are. Thank you so much to Cruz + T for doing this series with me, for being amazing guests and for sharing their vulnerability and experiences with us. 💛 Support their creative work on Instagram!

Cruz 🌻

@vnyvc (https://www.instagram.com/vnyvc)

@creatingstrongties (https://www.instagram.com/creatingstrongties)

T 🌻

@itsbbtea (https://www.instagram.com/itsbbtea)

@loosefade (https://www.instagram.com/loosefade)

You are strong to ask for help. You are brave. You are loved. Below are some resources for mental health.

Free therapy (people living in Ontario)

CAMH: 416 535-8501

Thank you so much to my friend Josh for letting me use his beats. Find him on SoundCloud as Owa! 👀 https://m.soundcloud.com/owa-ever. Stay updated with us on https://solo.to/SpeakUpErika! 🌸