This was a very special interview for me, Alyssa is such an inspiration to me as she's a brilliant, beautiful writer but she also lives with Crohns disease which some days is too much to push through but other days, she absolutely kicks its butt and I love how real and honest Alyssa is about that. That honesty makes me feel stronger and okay about my chronic illness sometimes getting the better of me too. We chatted about her wonderful short story which has just been published on the "centre for Stories" website, the FABULOUS new book she's working on that I can't wait to read, what makes someone a "valid" writer, puzzles, staring in a Gym video, people watching and so much more. We're wearing purple here because we filmed this on "Wear it Purple Day" 2020, which is a day to celebrate and acknowledge LGBTQIA+ youth in Australia. I was particularly wriggly in this vid, I guess this is what I look like when I'm dealing with a bit of sensory overload (two interviews in one day) and during a high pain day. Alyssa was very kind to ignore it :-) Here's the link to read "Swift" centreforstories.com/story/journal-alyssa-shapland And the link to the "Girls With Guts" blog: www.girlswithguts.org And Ayssa's instagram: www.instagram.com/gameofcrohns14