Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother.
She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about this world.
In these difficult times in human history, we need to bring the people of the world together.
And when we hear the voices of women, when we listen to real lives of women from other
countries, we connect our cultures without differences or stereotypes.
And we get inspired by their stories to live a better life.
That's what this podcast is all about.
My guest today is Yulia Manuilova.
Yulia is a young European ambassador and a law student from Kharkiv, Ukraine, currently
living in Zaporizhia.
At her university, she is a representative of student Ombutsman, and Yulia was an intern
at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and a deputy assistant at Kharkiv City
Council.
She participated in various international conferences, meetings, and schools, many related
to leadership and women's rights.
Yulia loves reading books, especially the writers of The Lost Generation, watching old
movies, riding the bike, doing yoga, as well as playing the piano and the guitar.
Yulia, how are you today?
Hi, Aziz.
Thank you for inviting me.
It's really an honor and a pleasure to be here and to speak up.
I'm feeling great because I look forward to our conversation and really feel motivated.
I'm happy about that.
I'm really excited to get to know you more, and I'll begin with this nice first question,
which is, if your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
Thank you.
That's an interesting question.
So I guess if I ask my friends this question, they would say that I'm ambitious.
Because first of all, I'm a Scorpio, my zodiac line is a Scorpio, so I'm really ambitious.
And they would say that I'm a smiley person and friendly.
I really love talking to my friends to spend time with them, and I really love them.
So I think they would say that I'm ambitious, friendly, and a nice person.
Thank you.
And it's especially interesting that you mentioned zodiacs.
I'm curious about how you perceive the world.
Are you a girl who believes in zodiacs, horoscopes, the metaphysical, and you have like tarot
sessions with friends often?
Tell me about this.
Actually no, I'm not that kind of person, but I believe that maybe it has some impact
on my character, but I don't believe it all.
I understand.
And I'm curious about your ambitious attitude.
What really motivates it for you to be so motivated and outgoing and active because
we seem to live in a time where a lot of people, either because for example, the pandemic,
they get used to social isolation and stay in home, or because of social media and distractions
and easy TV series, et cetera, they don't have the drive to achieve more.
So to you personally, what pushes you forward towards your goals and makes you so active?
Thank you, Aziz.
You raised such an important subject.
So I always repeat myself the words of John F. Kennedy from his speech that he said, do
not ask what your country can do for you, better ask what you can do for your country.
And from this perspective, I really understand that if I improve myself, that I develop my
skills, it will have the impact on the future of my country.
And I think that my actions will define my future and not only my future, but the future
of my country and the people who surround me.
So I think it's important to always go forward to develop our skills in such a complicated
world.
I agree 100%, and I love that so, so much.
And to ask you, you had a lot of conferences and meetings related to leadership, to women's
rights, and you want to impact your country and the world as well, hopefully.
What are the biggest issues that really touch your heart and that really you get motivated
to try to change them and to create projects around them?
I guess first of all, I believe that youth has a power.
So we need to develop the impact of youth on political and social processes because
youth not only the future of the world, but also is the present.
And also I'm concerned about women's rights.
I believe that women should take more places in the government, for example, or in local
authorities.
So it's one of the issues that we face nowadays.
And I believe that women can do anything and they have this power to make the world a better
place to live.
Thank you.
I agree 100%, but I will play the devil's advocate a little bit.
There are many people who worry about the next generation and the younger generation
and when they will become leaders because they grew up on TikTok, they grew up with
no attention span, they get bored so easily.
They don't go deep too much, or at least this is the stereotype.
They don't try to understand things deeply, but love drama and emotions and adventure
and thrill.
Do you agree with this or do you feel that the younger generation, when they become leaders,
they bring a fresh, new, more modern perspective, that they are as active as any other generation
and it's unfair to say those words?
Or is it one of the things that worry you and you try to change it and are motivated
to transform it?
Okay.
I support the second alternative that you said.
I believe that in the modern world, the youth is motivated as never.
I can see in my friends or the other people, the young people, that they are so inspired
to make changes in these conditions, especially in Ukraine, when we see what our country is
facing currently.
We understand that if it's not we, then who?
I think the youth understands that from their actions is dependent.
I really, really like this perspective and I want to understand even more of the part
of you that gets inspired, that takes care of your mental health, et cetera.
Can you tell me, for example, about yoga, riding the bike, playing the piano and the
guitar, all those things, what emotions do they give you?
Are they a way for you to recharge and forget all your troubles or actually it's a way for
you to wait for new ideas to come, like some people, they get their best ideas in the shower?
Or how does it work for you?
What side of your personality is developed through those activities?
Thank you.
You are talking about my favorite things.
When I need to recharge and if I feel stressed or even depressed, I love doing yoga.
I find some videos on YouTube and I write in the search that what I want to exercise,
for example, if it's upper body or I have some pain in my neck, I find these videos.
My favorite blogger in this sphere is Boho Beautiful.
Your listeners can look for it.
I love doing yoga.
I'm doing it twice a day, I guess, in the morning and in the evening or during the day
if I feel the need to do it.
I love riding bike as well.
It helps me to recharge.
When I'm riding a bike, I always listen to the music in my earphones, so I guess the
best ideas come to my mind when I'm riding a bike.
Also, I love playing the piano and the guitar.
I played from my early childhood, for example, I started playing the piano at the age of
seven, and I love playing Ludovico Einaudi's music.
It's one of the greatest composers of the 21st and to the 20th century, I guess.
I also play the guitar, but not as good as I play the piano.
At the age of 14, I really loved listening to rock music, and now I do, but at the age
I really liked Pink Floyd and Nirvana.
I wanted so much a guitar that my parents gifted it to me at my birthday.
I started playing it, I looked for videos, and I learned it all by myself to play some
songs, simple songs actually.
I was so happy to have the opportunity to learn this skill, but right now I play mostly
the piano only.
Thank you.
I like that you're so active.
At the same time, there are some people who will wonder where do you get your energy from?
A lot of people, they have to study and do homework or work, and then they only have
the energy to do one thing in the day or just sit on the couch and watch Netflix and all
that.
Is it your secret that you do yoga twice a day?
Is it healthy nutrition?
Is it a desire and a feeling that life is too short and you don't want to waste any
day?
Or what is your advice for other young people who don't find the energy to do so many things
yet they want to do with all?
Thank you.
I think it's really important, but as any person, I have such issues.
I can also watch Netflix all day, but the secret to finding the energy, I guess it's
a good sleep.
If I sleep, for example, eight hours or 10 hours, so then I feel really good and I believe
that I can do any task, but sometimes the yoga helps me because it wakes up my body
and mind, and also you need to find those things that will inspire you or will help
you to forget about the things that are in the world right now.
If you find the happiness in those scenes, for example, for me, it's playing the piano
or riding the bike, you will find the additional energy.
And also I get the energy from people as well because I'm kind of an extrovert.
So when I speak with people discussing some topics and I see that they are facing the
same problems as I do, so I really feel motivated at the same time.
And I guess that's from such discussions with other people.
I give them my energy and I also at the same time receive.
That's really, really interesting.
And when it comes to people, what kinds of people inspire you the most?
Is it people with passion who have that fire and spark in their eyes and you feel their
passion and energy and that motivates you?
Or is it because since you love things like writings of the lost generation, it's people
with more experience who have things to teach you and stories of overcoming problems and
struggles and that inspires you?
Or is it just the vibe and chemistry that with some people you feel, you know them all
your life and you feel motivated together to be a team, et cetera?
Or what is it about people that you adore so much?
Okay.
I really love courageous people and who isn't afraid of anything, who will face the problems
and will solve these problems.
I really love friendly people and ambitious who know that they want from life.
And also I like people with visions for the future, for making our country, for example,
a better place to live.
Thank you.
And to understand more, why are those characteristics, especially if I can summarize courage and
vision, so interesting for you?
Is it because they are rare or is it because you love new emotions and the idea of doing
something that doesn't exist yet and making it happen gives you that dopamine and new
emotions and adventure you need?
Or what is it about those two characteristics?
Are they rare nowadays and so people feel so unique and special if they have them or
tell me more.
Yes, I guess those characteristics are important in nowadays lives.
People who are brave enough, they are not afraid of change and to be changed and they
are flexible to the world's conditions.
So I guess it's a pretty important skill that you need to have, not only in your social
life, but also for your career life.
Thank you.
And I'm curious about something that happened before the invasion, which is that you chose
to study in Kharkiv.
Why not Kiev or Lviv or Odessa or anything like that?
Why did you choose to study law in Kharkiv, Ukraine specifically?
Right now there will be an ad of my university.
So from my early childhood, I knew that I'm going to relate my life with some political
or social processes and I decided to choose law.
And in Kharkiv, there is one of the best law universities in Ukraine.
It's Yaroslav Mudry National Law University, where I started right now at the third course.
So I really love my university and I think it provides me with opportunities to study
better and to express myself in this sphere.
So I started living in Kharkiv in 2020 and I love the city so much.
It has so many opportunities for youth.
Some people say that it is a student city because there are lots of universities and
organizations.
I love Kharkiv more than Kiev.
It has a special vibe, I guess, for me.
So Kharkiv is just my love.
Thank you.
And I know Kharkiv is one of the cities that was most hit by the invasion.
I know the war started already in 2014 or if you think about it, maybe it started a
long, long time ago, hundreds of years ago, about the Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian
people and trying to make it disappear.
But February 24th specifically, how was that day for you?
How did you hear about the invasion?
Did you believe it or you said, no, it's impossible for war to be in Ukraine in 2022?
Or what happened?
How did you spend your day?
Did you go outside Ukraine and then returned or you stayed someplace in Ukraine?
And tell me about your story from February 24th until today.
Three days before the invasion, I was talking to my friend and I've said something like,
I don't think there is going to be any war because they just can't make Kharkiv disappear.
It's such a beautiful city and I wouldn't believe that they would do that to the city.
So when the war started, I woke up at six o'clock and first of all, I see that there
are many messages on my phone.
I started reading them and I see that there is something like the war happens.
And first of all, I called my mother and she said, well, I don't think that's the war.
Maybe it's something like provocative things I say to her, but you see what happens around
the country.
I don't think that's the provocative things.
And the first thing that I did, I bought the ticket to my home, to Zaporizhia.
And then I started packing and I wanted to send half of my clothes by the mail, but they
already didn't work at the time.
So I had two suitcases with me and I remember that my windows were shaking when there are
explosions around 20 kilometers from my home in Kharkiv.
So I felt really horrible at the time because I couldn't imagine that this could happen.
And at the end of the day, I was at my home in Zaporizhia already, three weeks from that
time I was at home.
But now I understood that I need to get going to the West because we had some explosions
heard in Zaporizhia and there are missiles which are flying over my house every day.
So my sister and I went to Slovakia and then we went to Austria.
We've lived in Vienna for one month and then we came back home because we understood
that there were no occupation in our region.
In my region, in my Zaporizhia region, there are 60% of the region are occupied, but the
place where I live, it isn't occupied.
And we understood that there is a quite safe place home.
So we came back.
It was in May, I guess.
I understand that.
I imagine how difficult and hard that was.
And all I can say is slava ukrayini.
Hello, I'm Slava.
Thank you.
And to finish this, because I know you're a girl and someone who likes to develop herself,
to learn, to grow, and the experience of the war also gives you more maturity.
What are some lessons or advice you have for younger people from all over the world and
girls from all over the world that you think if they know and remember, it will help them
live a better life or have more courage and ambition and that you think when sharing,
it's really important?
Okay, the lesson I've learned due to the war that we need to live for today.
And what I wanted to say to young girls around the world is what we think we become, what
we feel we attract, and what we imagine we create.
And also I repeat my favorite quote from JFK that do not ask what your country can do for
you, better ask what you can do for your country and always improve yourself and know that
there is always a place to improve your skills and to try yourself out and know that you
are unique and every girl is unique, I guess.
So I believe in every girl on this planet and wishing peace for everyone.
Thank you so much, Julia.
Honestly, this was my privilege and my honor to have you here.
Thank you for participating in this project.
Thank you for sharing your truth and having your voice heard.
I wish you to keep going.
I wish you success.
I wish peace and victory for Ukraine and thank you again.
Thank you so much.
It was an honor for me too.
So I look forward to the next conversation we may have in the future.
