How to saw what you want: interview with Hannah from Cheek Media.

How To Say What You Mean w Hannah from Cheek Media

interview Dec 13, 2022

It’s early December as Hannah Ferguson (who you may recognise as the insightful, endearing and earnest face of Cheek Media) is sitting in her empty house in Brisbane and we talk over Zoom about her big move to Sydney in a few days to expand the Cheek empire.

Over the last two years, Cheek has cemented itself as an Australian feminist platform that brings you insightful, searing, and well-researched perspectives on the topics and challenges that we face every day - from consent education to politics to book recommendations. Hannah brings her charismatic and thoughtful approach to every topic, managing to make the most complex topics seem accessible and understandable - giving you the “this is exactly how you could say this” response, when you don’t have the words yet yourself.

How to say what you mean!

BRIGHTEN PROJECT: Hannah, Cheek touches on so many broad topics - how do you decide what to talk about and when to talk about it?

Hannah Ferguson: “Firstly, I am hyper aware that everyone is fatigued right now. When I’m looking at topics for the platform, I always want to find the balance between making difficult topics accessible and finding the entertainment angle where I can. It can be really hard to deliver what I want to deliver sometimes though, for example this week it would be irresponsible to have fun memes and try to lighten people’s loads while we’re all coming to terms with the outcome of the Lehrmann trial.

I’m not a journalist, my background is legal but I’m not a lawyer and I want to use my skills and the platform as an opportunity to learn why the system is failing. Let's look at what reform means and looks like, and what the pathways are. I am creating a space where we can share our emotions and be angry or sad or joyful, but for me, it’s also an opportunity for education.

Whenever something really bad happens, that’s when Cheek grows as a platform, and I find that hard to face. When things are difficult, people need me more - and I could be overwhelmed by that or I can see it as a time to educate and to advocate for change.

With our platform, I'm offering an articulation of something that people don’t have themselves. It’s for people who don’t feel that mainstream media represents their opinion. The aim is to incite conversation, I don’t want people to read what I write and take my position, I want them to read it and feel as though they understand the issue more and are able to find their own position. I’m not an expert, it’s just my opinion. In this media landscape that’s highly concentrated, and right leaning, I want to offer a position that’s more relevant to your own friends circles or to give you a space to talk about these topics if you don’t have anyone else to talk about them with.

BF: How do you find the balance between giving enough information to educate, and staying accessible?

HF: “I know that many of these topics are too academic, and I want to make them more accessible. Feminism is white washed and it’s over intellectualised and it shames people who try to get involved. One of the things I’m trying to combat is being able to cater to how varied my audience is. We have women who are just learning about consent and healthy relationships and gender equality for the first time. I want to offer a space for people to learn and feel like they’re part of a conversation and not shame them for not meeting the knowledge threshold. So sometimes it means I’m simply explaining what words and phrases mean and other times it’s about making more sophisticated arguments and explanations. I want to offer different pieces of the puzzle. A lot of feminism is for tertiary educated white women, I’m a tertiary-educated white women and that’s part of the reason why I created Cheek because feminism needs to feel more inclusive.

BP: How do you navigate the pressure of using your platform and your voice for such crucial, important topics?

HF: “I navigate this by being blatantly, painfully honest about who I am, and what I can and can’t do. It’s so important to me to be honest and realistic, I'm not sitting here saying Cheek Media is the be-all-and-end-all of journalism. It’s not, it's a new commentary platform offering accessible, entertaining discussion. I’m not claiming to be an expert or an academic on the topics I'm talking about, what I’m saying is, ‘this is who I am and this is what I'm interested in talking about.’ The idea of Cheek isn’t to offer big scholarly articles but to be modelling healthy conversation. To be talking about issues in a voice that people can’t find anywhere else”

BP: It’s incredibly inspiring how you are able to find your voice to speak on contentious, raw, complex topics and still do so with your trademark irreverence and sharply worded perspectives. This is something that I see many young leaders challenged with, finding their voice to have tough conversations or advocate for their position.

How do you push past your own obstacles and find that tenacity to say what you mean, when you mean to say it?

>> Do your research and be open to (or ask for) feedback.

HF: “For me there is a responsibility to do my due diligence on a topic before I talk about it. I always make sure I'm doing my research and feel comfortable with my position. Sometimes I get feedback and I think ‘great point’ and that’s part of the success of Cheek too. It makes our platform more interesting. I love getting feedback and other perspectives on my thoughts, and I like being able to consider that feedback and talk about it in stories. I’ll often continue the discussion, so I can understand what I could have done differently or better. For Cheek, it’s important to own the human side of what I’m doing, and not pretend to be perfect or unbiased like we see with many traditional media platforms, when we clearly know they are biased. I’m not saying I don’t have prejudice, or bias, I’m saying I am a progressive feminist voice, I’m 24 years old and and I’m just having a go. My grammar isn’t always going to be perfect, my point isn’t always going to be perfect - it’s about having a conversation with people that feels very human. It’s about taking responsibility for my own mistakes, and being human, being who I am and being as transparent and accountable as I possibly can be”.

>> Practice and use your network.

HF: “I’m always reading multiple articles and doing my research before I put something out, but there is rarely something I write that I haven’t spoken about with my friends first, I’m not checking their opinion, but I find that our discussion helps to refine my angle. Sometimes I might sit on a piece for a few days if I feel that the angle isn’t there yet or the position doesn’t feel right. I’ll go away and speak about it with my friends, and while I won’t change my opinion, it helps me clarify how I want to share it. For example with the Kardashians, I'm not interested in doing a takedown of an individual, but I DO want to talk about the impact they have on diet culture. When I talk with my friends, it helps me reshape where I'm coming from.”

>> Trust yourself.

HF: “It’s important to have positive self belief. I think my communication style is enhanced because I trust myself. I want my content to be informative, accessible and thought-provoking. Your inherent values are what will shine through in your communication style so it fundamentally comes back to who you are as a person.”

>> Respect who you're talking to.

HF: “I trust who I'm talking to, and communicate as equals. I talk as if I'm having a conversation with a friend. For me, it’s about the mentality you bring to the communication. The voice I write in is always coming from a place of “I’m talking to like minded or interested people who want to have their thoughts challenged.”

>> Fight the inner people pleaser.

HF: “Every time I am assertive, I am fighting against a small child inside me who wants to people please. So often in social interactions, when presented with an opportunity to people please, the first voice is my inner child, wanting to people please and act in the way that we’re taught as small children. The second voice is more rational, more adult and for me, it’s about giving that second voice the time to come in. I am trying to allow that second voice to come in, and say it’s ok to be perceived as assertive. I’m not perfect, but each day I try to be independent and driven and assertive.

Generationally, we are doing a good job of letting go of that mentality but it’s something that we need to be talking about with our friends. Supporting our friends to send their meal back at a restaurant if it’s not right, or helping our friends to check themselves when we’re dating, engaging with our parents, just being around and being able to say to them ‘you could have stepped up there.”

Editors note: I love the synergy with this approach and some of the concepts from “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. Giving yourself time to engage rational, logical thinking rather than acting on the knee-jerk response is a crucial part of developing your self awareness and your EQ. When we’re trying to unlearn harmful behaviours like “people pleasing”, giving yourself that extra time to examine and refine your behaviours helps to change your thinking habits and create new ways forward. We want to put ourselves first, without putting someone else down, and searching for the equity in a situation rather than putting other people first, which is what we do when we people please.

BP: We’re all here to grow as humans - to be better, to learn more about ourselves and the world around us. Hannah - what have you learnt about yourself through this journey with Cheek over the last two years?

HF: “It’s been hugely validating, I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m not claiming to, so this has been a really empowering exercise. When we created Cheek, I knew it was something that I personally would have followed even if I wasn’t the creator and now, two years on, I feel validated that people want to hear my voice and thoughts, it’s been shocking the level of trust from the audience, when they say to me “when this story came out, I went and checked cheek”. I was just writing to see if people liked what I thought, I never saw myself as someone who runs their own business so it’s been really affirming. It’s taught me that anything is possible.”

Bright Sparks:

A book you’ve read recently and loved: It's a Shame About Ray by Jonathan Seidler I’m really interested in exploring men’s mental health and how we can bring men more into these conversations about mental health and equality.
Your favourite person to follow on IG: @samleightondore