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 life.
Too many women in this world feel alone.
They worry about the judgment of others, and they struggle with their mental health.
But when they listen to the Rare Girls podcast where empowered women share their voices and
tell their stories, many women will feel inspired to live a life of freedom and to
overcome all their insecurities.
They will feel it is a safe space to find their confidence, to remember their unique
beauty and to feel their self-worth, and they will connect with the sisterhood of rare girls
who encourage their success and support their dreams. That's what this podcast is all
about. My guest today is Emma Sassi. Emma is a 20 years old living in Paris, studying
cinema in a film school. Emma lived most of her life in Barcelona, Spain. She also
lived in South Africa when she was 15. She went there on her own. Emma loves to travel.
She needs to escape a lot because she needs to feel free. Emma is a photographer and clipmaker
in the French rap industry. She also takes documentary photos during her trips. She
writes poetry, takes photos, makes videos,
and she loves going to concerts, museums,
conferences, and festivals.
Emma is also very close to her family.
She is a very committed activist
regarding the place of women in today's society.
She was in an NGO for peace education.
She has traveled to Mexico, Brazil,
and Vietnam with this NGO.
Emma wants to change the world
because changes need to be made.
If not us, who?
If not now, then when?
Emma, how are you today?
Hi, I'm good.
Thank you for having me, Aziz.
How are you?
I feel blessed.
I feel excited to have you here.
And I will begin with an unexpected
but different question, which caught my attention.
You need to feel free.
You love being free. What does freedom mean to you?
I feel like freedom means a lot to me and
the previous generations before me I
My mom is a
Feminist she is the one who raised me into the spirit
So to me freedom is just a big. Thank you to all the women that fought for us before
Whether it was for the right to vote or being able to abortions, whatever it may be.
I just feel as though today with what we have and what we've seen, freedom is just a way
to say thank you and to put that mindset and the system that it is possible for
us women to achieve whatever we want and to not be under someone's surveillance all
the time.
I love that. And it makes me also wonder in your experience, there are many women who feel stuck
in their comfort zone worrying about the judgment of other people, what people will think, anxiety,
mental health, etc. What do you say to such women so that they will go after their big dreams
and they will actually live with freedom? Like you said, it's in many ways a big thank
to all the women who have paid the way before. What is the thing that allows you to be free
while so many others are not? Well, I do feel as though people who feel stuck in their comfort zone
or that feel judged all the time. I mean, we're all like that. We all have those phases
where we feel as though, no, I don't want to take this job or I don't want to do this
opportunity, because maybe I'm not good enough, or what is
this person going to say? How? What is going to be the result
of this? And I feel as though something that scares you, you
need to go like you need to go straight to it, and just fight
whatever it is that you need to fight in order to be able
to do what you want. So comfort zones, every time I
was going to my trips, every single trip that I went to the
day before, I was just scared. When I went to South Africa, the
whole day of leaving there in the airport in the airplane, I
was feeling as though I was making a huge mistake. And then
you're so proud of yourself when you do it. So it's
really, it's something that you do for yourself. And
you'll see the results like, when you care just about
yourself and happy you're going to feel, it's the most important thing.
I agree.
And I love that you mentioned that every trip you've been on, you felt
like you made a big mistake.
But some women will think, well, I trust my intuition.
My intuition is what guides me.
And if I feel scared, it means it's a mistake.
So I shouldn't do it.
How do you differentiate between both when you are trusting your intuition
versus feeling afraid
because you're stepping out of your comfort zone.
So I do feel as though instinct and stress
can be often mistaken together.
But also I do feel as though
if you made the choice to do this,
there is something in you that probably needs that change.
And obviously I'm talking about a job opportunity,
moving out, whatever it might be,
that you feel as though you're gonna regret it, it's pretty much about like a tattoo. Like if
you get a tattoo and you can never fully regret it because you wanted it at a point in time
and whether after you like it or not, it's just like you're building yourself and building
what life you want for yourself. And if you made the wrong choice, I don't feel as though
there's a wrong choice because you always learn from something and you always get
places whatever choice you make. So I feel as though as women you just need to
trust yourself and just go with your guts. I love that. And then you as a
photographer, filmmaker, clip maker, etc. Do you trust your gut? How is your
creative process happening? Is it very subconscious in the sense like you
seeing the elements that you need to put in place and things make sense and you
create that into reality or is it you start with some formulas and story
boarding first and then you let the creativity come later or how do you
approach your art as a creative woman? I don't specifically have a certain way
to do things but when it comes to photography I feel as though I'm very
much aligned with what's happening with me right now, like I could get ideas of what kind of photos I would want to make. And then as soon as I'm doing it with the person I'm taking photographs off, we can do so many different things from what we planned. But we it's really a process that I love to do with people to go and see together what it is that we can make that is unique to us. And when it comes to, for example, my poetry, it
something that I absolutely do not force like so many writers or even like musicians that make music
and stuff like singers and all of that they get so much pressure from writing from having things
to like post and to give to people when it comes to my writing I really don't ask myself that like
I'm just going with the flow if I have the inspiration I write if I don't I don't write
But there is that kind of pressure when it comes to photography, because I do feel as
though people need to see much more than they need to read, which is kind of sad.
But yeah, I just love to go with the flow and it is important for me to have people
that are motivated and that trust me with what needs to be done.
That is great.
mentioned uniqueness. I sense and I understand that you're someone who searches for the uniqueness
of people and to express your own uniqueness so that you don't want to be average as in like a
copy of someone else or similar to anyone else. At the same time, there are women who have that
uniqueness in their heart, but as soon as you are outwardly unique, you get more attention
often negative people become haters or judge you,
or if they're not used to it, they're like,
what happened, you changed or whatever it is.
So they hold themselves back because they cannot
or do not feel the strength to go even through a period
of people getting used to their new you.
How do you deal with that?
Maybe you go somewhere and you get more attention
than other people.
And what's your advice to women
so that they express themselves
even in the way they dress, et cetera, in a unique way,
without worrying about the judgment of others.
Well, I do have this little sentence
that I've been telling myself since I was a kid.
It was whenever I wanted to do something,
I was telling myself, I would tell myself,
what would your 80 years old self would think
about this choice, you know?
If you think that the 80 year old self
would just not care and would not even remember, then who cares what they're going to think if you don't even remember it.
We don't think we don't care about what people think.
And I just feel as if you take enough, like if you look back on things, you just realize that no one cares about you.
Like you can do silly things in the streets thinking everybody's looking at you, everybody's staring at you.
Nobody's looking at you, girl.
You need to make yourself comfortable
because if you want to do this,
or you want to dress that way,
or you want to make movies,
or whatever it is that you want to do,
do it for yourself.
And I, for example,
I've wanted to do like a business school
before doing film school
because I was like cinema,
like it's impossible.
You know, I can't do that.
Like, it wasn't like in my life pattern, you know?
But I did have the chance to have amazing parents
who just pushed me in the,
like what they always say is
as long as you're happy, we're happy.
And doing what your heart wants
is the most important thing,
because at the end of the day,
the only person that's gonna be with you forever
is yourself, so make yourself proud
and make yourself comfortable and happy.
We don't care about anyone.
I love that mindset.
I agree with it 100%.
And to link this to other parts of you,
there is also another saying that I mentioned
in the introduction, which is,
if not us, who, if not now, then when?
A lot of people actually have that tendency to think,
oh, other people take care of that,
or someone else, the government, the society,
whoever it is.
So what allowed you to take that responsibility
upon yourself and to actually want to change the world
and be the agent to do it,
rather than like most people who live a life
more passively where they think,
yes, there are many problems,
but I'm not strong enough,
it's not my responsibility, I'm nobody.
Even some women, I remember I interviewed one
who before joining an NGO, she used to think, well, I'm just a woman. I'm just a girl. I'm just like,
who will listen to me? Like, nobody will care. But then she had the bravery to start volunteering
and people heard her ideas. But before that, she would not even tell her ideas because she
thinks, well, who am I to like, my ideas, maybe they will make fun of them or they're
I feel like people have the tendency to think that you need to be someone already known
by the population in order to be able to make a change or to be heard.
But I do feel as though anyone could make any change in the world, whether you impact
one person or a thousand persons, like as long as you have your beliefs and you live by them
and you just want to transmit a message, it will get across no matter how. And all the people that
have inspired me, whether it is my mom or the historical figures that have brought everything
that I believe in today, they weren't someone else before they started to like spread the word, right?
So I do feel as though we need to be more confident in ourselves as in everyone needs to tell themselves like,
hey, okay, I'm not someone already, but I don't need to be in order for someone to listen to me.
One hundred percent. Thank you for that very, very much.
And to know even more about you.
Now we discuss different topics,
but if the people who know you, know you well,
they know your uniqueness, they know the side of you
that maybe some people need time to get to know,
how would they describe you?
What is the personality you have
that is your unique fingerprint on this planet?
Well, I do feel as though something
that my friends and family tell me often
is that I'm very honest, and whether it isn't the good
or in the bad, I do feel as though honesty
in what you say is important,
but honesty in what you see is something else,
as in I do see things that are happening
around the world, and I've been seeing them
since I was a kid.
It gives me this raw point of view on the world
that might be a bit negative like when I see everything that's happening to every single
minority ever is just it I mean it is heartbreaking and I do feel as though uh honesty is important
to yeah it's what what you bring into the world like bring your own point of view bring
what you see what you feel what you like and it will always impact someone like someone will
get it. Other people won't. But yeah, I do feel like honesty is important. If you want
to, if you want to change the world, I guess.
I agree. I love that attitude of honesty, sincerity, and caring about the unfairness
that humanity is subject to. And to finish this, is there something, I don't know,
a message that you want to relay to women or a lesson you have learned that is something
that is making a change in your life that you want to share with other girls or something
that you believe everyone should hear and remember in order to live a better life
that you can share in this podcast.
Well, I do want to say that no matter what you do, no matter who you are, there will
always have people that will find something negative about you. So might as well go 100%
into whatever it is that you want to achieve. And I would say, yeah, the words that matter
the most to me in my life is as long as you're happy and not hurting anyone, go
ahead, do your thing. We all have something to do here in our lifetime. And yeah,
Feminism, sorority, all of this is so important
and giving the voices to women
so that they can feel heard and understood.
And we're just like everybody else.
We're all the same.
And yet we all have our little flame inside,
our little fire that makes us go different places.
And it's just beautiful to see all of us doing our thing
and feeling equal.
And that's something that we need to fight for.
I agree with you.
It's the most important fight.
And thank you so much, Emma, for sharing your voice,
your perspective, your story.
It was always my honor to do this.
I wish you to succeed and progress
and impact the world in your fight for fairness,
for equity and feeling equal with and spreading that as well as spreading your creative vision
all over the globe. Thank you so much. Thank you, Aziz. It's amazing what you're
doing for women. It's really great. I appreciate your support and thank you.
