Taryn Brumfitt, being. with Lael Stone | The Forever Changing Body ♥︎

In this tender, honest, and quietly fierce conversation, I sit down with Taryn Brumfitt, the filmmaker behind Embrace and Embrace Kids, 2023 Australian of the Year, and a woman who’s spent more than a decade asking us to stop apologising for the bodies we live in. I first watched Embrace in a cinema back in 2016, with my (then) 13-year-old daughter. I still remember the sadness that moved through my body that night... nobody had ever spoken to me like that when I was her age. And underneath it, this enormous joy that she was getting a different story than the one I got. Taryn and I get into the imprints. The change room floors, the monkey bars, the throwaway comment at a table that lands in a young body and just stays there for forty years. We talk about what it’s cost us, all those hours spent at war with ourselves, and what opens up when we put the weapons down. Taryn shares what being Australian of the Year revealed to her: that she’s strong and she’s tough and she can still be hurt. And she shares the losses in her own family that shaped her relationship with trust. We explore: Why what we say at home matters more than anything on a screen Making peace with a body that never stops changing Focusing a little more on how you feel than how you look, and what that could shift Habit stacking, the inner critic, and giving yourself five minutes to talk smack What we say about ageing, and why we could be so much gentler with it [Recorded Online May 2026] About Taryn Brumfitt: Taryn Brumfitt is an Adelaide-based filmmaker, author and speaker, and she is the reason a lot of us started talking about our bodies differently. In 2013, she posted a reverse before-and-after photo, her bodybuilding competition body as the before and her natural post-babies body as the after, and it went everywhere. Around seven thousand emails and messages came back, and they were not light. She made Embrace in 2016 and Embrace Kids in 2022, she co-founded the Embrace Collective, she was named Australian of the Year in 2023 and awarded an honorary doctorate by Flinders University in 2024. She’ll also tell you straight that she is still a harsh critic of herself. Connect with Osher: Instagram: @bodyimagemovement The Embrace Collective (and all the free resources): theembracehub.com Taryn's online community: Embrace You Watch: Embrace (2016) Watch: Embrace Kids (2022) If this episode hits close to home: Butterfly Foundation, for body image and eating disorders: 1800 33 4673, butterfly.org.au Lifeline: 13 11 14, lifeline.org.au — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.