Combating taboo subjects in women's health with founder Lina Chan

07/18/22 • 31 min

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Brave New Girls - Well Beings, Well Planet

This week’s guest is Lina Chan. She had a stillbirth, a miscarriage & trouble conceiving. The impact it had on her physically and emotionally was tremendous, so she founded Parla, a Femtech Start-Up platform & community by women for women that changes the conversation around fertility. Parla was recently acquired by Holland & Barrett.

Born and raised in Brazil, by Chinese Immigrant parents Lina learned about resilience, hard work and optimism by watching how they thrived through their hardship. She loved to travel, exploring new cultures, being outdoors & active. She got her education and worked hard through her career.
Then came her baby loss when she was 6 months pregnant. It was devastating, not least because there was no where to turn to, no one she could find to talk to who understood her pain. No community, no women's heath care support.
Lina's experience informed her next moves. She would create a platform that would provide the support, expertise, and community that she had found missing.

Her mission was to build a better health and wellbeing journey for women around the world. Her company Parla was born.

So much of women's health is shrouded in taboo which means women systematically have poorer health and wellbeing outcomes. There is so much we can do to close this gap and it is Lina's determination to do just that.
Now with two daughters she is even more motivated to created a better future for women and their healthcare. She wants them to grow up in a world that they don't have to be ashamed about their periods, infertility, miscarriage or menopause.

She sees courage as believing that you can do hard things! Trusting yourself and reducing the self-critical voice that can be ever present. Knowing that even if things don't go your way, you'll learn from it, you'll become stronger and more resilient!

Thank you so much Lina for sharing your journey of infertility & loss, and for making other women feel less alone, and helping them to see that from difficult situations you can find strength and purpose.

And thanks too for showing us that when we are empowered to have access to care & understanding of our bodies we can demand the help we need & we can create a world where there is better healthcare for women, at every stage of life.

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Brave New Girls podcast is an Audio Archive Art Project with pioneering, creative & entrepreneurial women at the head of the curve, who are inspiring us on the airwaves, to work towards the health & wellbeing of ourselves and the planet. Brave New Girls podcast ranks in top 2.5% globally, and No 7 in the "45 Best UK Women's Podcasts to Listen to, in 2024", with Host Lou Hamilton, artist, author & wellbeing coach.
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Her mission was to build a better health and wellbeing journey for women around the world. Her company Parla was born.

You can find ou

Support the show

Dare to Share- bestselling guide to podcast guesting
FEAR LESS- coaching guide to living more bravely
Brave New Girl- How to be Fearless

Paintings & Public Art www.LouHamiltonArt.com
Insta @LouHamiltonArt

Previous Episode

Creating a fab future beyond the booze with Radio 2 DJ & Sober Club founder Janey Lee Grace

This week’s guest is Janey Lee Grace, bestselling author of Happy Healthy Sober and the Imperfectly Natural series. Formerly a singer and now DJ on Radio 2, Janey is founder of The Sober Club and is a coach and media trainer for those wanting to find clarity and vision and then looking to package it & send it out into the world in a way that will make people listen.

Born in Nottingham, Janey knew she wanted out of the kind of life that was expected for her. She knew she wanted to a singer and as soon as she could she launched into doing nightclubs and singing for a covers band. Her ambitions were higher than that and soon she was working as a backing singer and eventually with a quick turnaround formed a vocal set and got the gig working for Wham!
It was a work hard play hard culture but not so much for Janey. She didn't have the family back-up to let herself lose control and that kept her from doing drugs. However she was still searching for something else and she went down the road of exploring every alternative health option there was out there. Anything but give up the booze. Which characteristically wasn't out of control. It was what was considered 'normal'.
But normal kept not feeling good. And in January 2018 Janey took the plunge and went sober. What she discovered what that once you'd got through the adjustments, life was a whole lot more fabulous.
She was inspired to help others on their sober journeys and founded The Sober Club. Having a community is vital in navigating a world which heavily revolves around alcohol. But with Janey's help and the community support more people are able to take those courageous steps.

Thanks so much Janey for encouraging and supporting people wherever they are on their sober curious or sober committed journey, and for showing how important and exciting it is to be part of a community who are all headed on a similar path.

And thanks too for showing us that if we choose to go sober, that we don’t have to go it alone.

You can find out more about Janey’s work on https://janeyleegrace.com/ https://www.thesoberclub.com/ and follow her on Linkedin @Janeyleegrace

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Support the show

Dare to Share- bestselling guide to podcast guesting
FEAR LESS- coaching guide to living more bravely
Brave New Girl- How to be Fearless

Paintings & Public Art www.LouHamiltonArt.com
Insta @LouHamiltonArt

Next Episode

Optimizing your brain with Founder Portia Asli

This week’s guest is Portia Asli, a licensed engineer and founder of Optimyzed Brain. She helps entrepreneurs optimize their brains for high-performance using a science-based method that supports people to prioritize their brain health and empower them with actionable ways to increase their mental performance for success in business.

Founding Optimyzed Brain Portia went from a small offline consulting practice to building and launching a global-based business during the pandemic, helping company leaders optimize their brain health for peak mental performance, engineering a step-by-step science-based system that improves sleep, energy levels, concentration, focus, and mental clarity, less work hours and more more quality time.

Portia emigrated at the age of 10 with her family from Iran to Canada. Hard-working immigrant parents role modelled strong work ethics in her but also being a woman immigrant in North America provided the freedom that didn't exist in Iran and this was the motivation to seize the opportunity to travel, explore and discover how she could create a positive global impact

She went to a top University and worked hard but burn out and depression during her rigorous engineering studies began a 15-year journey of studying how our lifestyle and behaviour impacts our brain performance.

Now she helps driven senior leaders to achieve great heights by helping them optimize their brains for peak mental performance through science-based micro behavioural and lifestyle improvements.

When striving for success brain health & mental performance can take the back seat. This can show up as stress, anxiety, overwhelm, brain fog, exhaustion, imposter syndrome, insomnia, procrastination, and low self-confidence. She is helping senior leaders improve their sleep, and nutrition, reduce stress and anxiety, enhance mental clarity and focus in less than five weeks.

Thanks Portia for sharing how you have developed ways to help people to optimise their own natural abilities so that they can be their most effective, productive and happy. And also for showing us that we can find ways to optimise our brain so we aren’t running on empty but instead, living and working in a balanced and fruitful way.

You can find out more about Portia’s work on

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