Gemma Styles is the woman behind one of the most celebrated podcasts of 2023: Good Influence, which cuts through the crowded market to deliver insightful weekly interviews with people like model and activist Rain Dove, clinical psychologist and trauma specialist Dr Sam Akbar, and financial advisor Emmanuel Asuquo. She's also just collaborated with fashion editor-favourite Rachel Jackson, together creating a pedant necklace in aid of Choose Love. With 100% of proceeds being donated to the charity's work with refugees and displaced people around the world, Gemma, as an admirer of Rachel's, admits she felt a touch of imposter syndrome when she was asked. 'I've tried to support them in various different ways over the past few years,' she says about the collaboration. 'I was very flattered and very pleased that they wanted to work with me.'
The necklace features a rose-cut peridot shaped like a heart, which hangs on a 22ct gold-plated chain. 'Choose Love' is engraved on the flip side so that it sits against the wearer's skin. 'I think it's really nice to have that reminder,' she says. Subtle yet special, Gemma hopes it will become a lasting part of people's jewellery collections.
www.racheljacksonlondon.com
She only started the podcast in 2020 - a product of trying to find a way to connect with people during lockdown - but it's gone from strength to strength, winning her bCreator's (formerly Blogosphere) Podcast of the Year Award. One of the things she loves about it is the fact that podcasting isn't about what you look like but what you're saying, a refreshing change from the majority of social media. 'You're not focussed on what does my hair look like? What's my thinking face doing? Am I nodding too much?' she tells Grazia.
The episodes that get the biggest response tend to be interviews with mental health professionals like Dr Julie Smith, who she spoke to in December 2020, and Dr Sophie Mort, who appeared on the podcast in May 2021. 'I feel like having access to therapy is something that, in an ideal world, everyone would have. That's sadly not the case in the world as it is at the moment. So I think being able to hear a therapist talk more in a more abstract way about something that you are maybe going through, people have tended to find really helpful,' says Gemma. She also singles out an episode with Marie Beecham, a writer, public speaker and online educator, who talked to her about echo chambers and how social media can sometimes encourage us to 'stick within our own bubbles and reject differing opinions without listening to them'.
Gemma speaks to people on a wealth of topics like fertility, social anxiety, sabotage, dyslexia, homelessness and climate justice, but usually finds that mental health becomes part of the conversation. 'If I'm talking to someone about sustainability activism or something, I always like to know how that kind of work and how people's different roles end up impacting their mental health,' explains Gemma. 'Talking to people about mental health is a really good way to humanise everyone and take people off their pedestals.'
How does she cope with imposter syndrome? 'I think it's good to remember something people say quite often now, [which is that] all the best things and all the worst things that people say about you probably aren't true.' With this charitable project, however, she's comfortable drawing attention to her work. 'It's not about me. What I'm trying to do is raise money for Choose Love.'