Join our panel of young women activists from the Toronto community in a collaborative discussion about self-image issues concerning young women, with the aim of taking back body ownership.

We understand that lack of child care support is a barrier to single parents. We encourage the fostering child-friendly spaces. If you bring your children to the event, they are more than welcome to remain with you. If you are in need of a child-minding service, please contact sierra@womenatthecentre.com.

Panellists:

Amanda and Yuli

Amanda Ama Scriver is a passionate storyteller and community builder who has strongly advocated for and worked within the food, feminism, events and body-image worlds. She has used her unique flair for relationship-building to become the Community Manager of Gastropost, Head Bee in Charge of Fat Girl Food Squad and has earned several noted by-lines with Paste Magazine, Biz Bash, Eater and BlogTO over the past seven years. In her off-time, she can be found having serious feels for all things coffee, hip-hop, drag and pizza.

Yuli Scheidt is a Visual Communications Artist passionate about community, music and coffee. When not taking photos, mapping data or trying to archive the whole world, she can be found on and offline trying to advocate for women in tech. Yuli is currently the co-founder and Artistic Director of Fat Girl Food Squad.

Amrit

Amrit identifies as a second generation Punjabi, able bodied, cis gendered feminist completing her Master's degree in Sociology at York University. Before beginning her studies at York, Amrit was an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia. It was during this time that she found Sociology to be the most insightful lens to frame her research interest. Her current research project focuses on further understanding skin lightening practices among South Asian Canadian females. The aim of this research is to better understand how complex and differing beauty ideals reveal notions of gendered racism within Canada that manifest as shadeism and colorism. Amrit's hobbies include exploring the city one coffee shop at a time.

Kristan

Kristan is currently completing her Master's degree in social work at Ryerson University. Prior to entering social work, she completed a science degree in Psychology and Mental Health where she focused on body image and how mass media impacts how individuals feel about themselves. Currently, she is completing her MSW field placement at Egale Youth OUTreach where there is a focus on crisis intervention, housing stability, and support for LGBTQ2S youth aged 16-30 in the GTA. As someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ2S community, the issues facing her peers are of great importance to her. Addiction, mental health issues, homelessness, trauma, homophobia, transphobia, and poverty are just a handful of the issues she sees on a very frequent basis and as a result these issues have come to have great importance to her.

Currently, her research focuses on social constructions of gender, particularly masculinity, and how they influence help-seeking behaviors among emergency first responders. The goal of this research is to understand the ways in which patriarchy and media impact masculine identity construction and influence behavior.

Lia and Tessa

Tessa and Lia are two grade 8 girls living in Toronto. In late December they created We Give Consent, an awareness campaign to advocate for consent to be a topic in the updated Ontario health curriculum. The two created social media accounts and a petition on Change.org that gathered over 40,000 signatures. They met with Premier Kathleen Wynne to discuss the new curriculum, as well as Education Minister Liz Sandals. The campaign started with a class project at their alternative middle school, creating a short documentary about rape culture in the media. Soon it blew up and We Give Consent became talked about, featured on Metro Morning twice, had a spread in the Globe and Mail, as well as many other media sources. They're both so excited to be a part of the GirlTalk Panel, and they hope that their work will inspire other young people.