Always Looking Up

In this week’s episode I am sitting down with someone who is not a little person but has grown up in this world, my younger brother Ben. Ben grew up going to LPA conventions with me and lived in a house with sideways sinks and too many stools. He could be the biggest pain in the butt, cracking the good joke whenever he can, but he is also one of my biggest (no pun intended) supporters. I sat down with Ben to discuss being an average-sized person immersed in the little people community.

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast

Website: www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Ben Curwin

In this week’s episode I am sitting down with Camila Falquez. Camila is a photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Italia, Vogue Spain along with many other publications. She photographed Jillian Mercado for Teen Vogue, Secretary Deborah Haaland for InStyle Magazine, and President Biden and Vice President Harris for TIME Magazine. Earlier this year she reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to participate in an upcoming project where she would take my portrait. This project, BEING, is a visual essay that reclaims and re-writes ideas of beauty and power. We discuss how this project came to be, my involvement in it, and it’s immediate and everlasting impact.

Support BEING: https://www.beinginhistory.com/print-sale

Follow Camila: Instagram: @camilafalquez ; Website: http://camilafalquez.com

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast ; Website: https://www.jillianilana.com

In this episode I am sitting down with Dave Duminuco. Dave is my personal trainer at Equinox and today we are talking all things health and fitness. I am the first little person he has ever had as a client and it has been quite an adventure for the two of us. We discuss how I came to be his client, his approach to training me, and what we’ve both learned from this experience so far.

Follow Dave: Instagram: @daveduminuco

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: www.jillianilana.com

This episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week’s episode I am sitting down with not one, but two badass, beautiful women- Christina Chambers and Liv Hope Bender. Both in wheelchairs, they host the podcast Sit The Fuck Down where they talk about what it means to be disabled. We discuss our similar and different disabled experiences, along with the changes we want to see and make in order to make the world accessible.

Listen to Sit The Fuck Down: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sit-the-f-ck-down-podcast/id1551074126

Follow STFD Podcast: Instagram:@stfdpodcast

Follow Christina: Instagram:@christina_chambers

Follow Liv: Instagram:@livhopebender

Follow me: Instagram:@jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast

Website: www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week’s episode I am sitting down with Lakshmi Shyamakrishnan. Lakshmi is a writer, a TED conference speaker, and an advocate within the little person community. She is currently an MS Candidate for the Marketing Analytics program at the University of Maryland and was recognized in 2021 as a Disability:IN Next Gen leader. We discuss the issue of public accommodations, her work advocating for them, and her upcoming book about the little person experience.

Follow Lakshmi: Instagram: @shyamwow.laksh

Follow Me: Instagram: @Jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast

Website: www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week’s episode I am talking to Michaela Healy. Ever since being diagnosed with hydrocephalus, water on the brain, at the age of one, she has been giving Wonder Woman a run for her money. Simply put, she is the strongest person I know and, through a series of very fortunate events we became best friends. She has survived over 300 surgeries, the halls of Washington Township High School, and crazy adventures with me, all with the biggest smile on her face and the occasional middle finger in the air. Though she is not a little person, I knew when starting this podcast that I wanted to have her on and tell her story. We discuss her medical and personal journeys, her constant positive outlook on life, and how she never stops defying everyone’s expectations.

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast

Website: https://www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

This weekI am sitting down with Rebecca Cokley, someone I have always looked up to in the little person and disabled communities. Rebecca is currently serving as a program officer in the President’s Office of the Ford Foundation, a global grant-making philanthropy that challenges inequality, where she is developing the U.S. disability rights program strategy. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Rebecca was the co-founder of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, the executive director of the National Council on Disability, and a presidential appointee under President Obama where she worked in the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. We discuss her career, what it means to be a disabled advocate in 2021, and the changes she wants to see and make in the world.

Follow Rebecca: Twitter:@RebeccaCokley

Ford Foundation: https://www.fordfoundation.org

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week’s episode I am sitting down with Shelby Holloway. We met at the LPA national convention in Brooklyn twelve years ago and she instantly became a best friend and big sister. Though she lives 3,000 miles away, she has always been there for me through times of laughter, tears, and everything in between. Today we are discussing Little People Of America- what it is, what it means to us, and what happens when the little person community comes together for a week or weekend.

Follow Shelby: Instagram: @shelbyhollowayy TikTok: @shelby_holloway

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week's episode I am sitting down with Becky Kekula, a mentor of mine in Little People Of America and an advocate for disability inclusion. Becky currently serves as the Disability Equality Index Director at Disability:IN, a non-profit organization that advocates and provides resources for business disability inclusion on a global scale. In addition, she currently serves as the LPA Employment Chair and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Center For Disability Journalism (NCDJ) at Arizona State University. I sat down with Becky to discuss her advocacy work, the issues people with disabilities face when seeking employment, and what is being done to make employment more accessible.

Follow Becky: Website: www.beckymotivates.com

DisabilityIN: https://disabilityin.org

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin

In this week's episode I am sitting down with Lauren Humphries. Lauren is someone I have always looked up to in the little person community. For the past few years she has helped organize the annual LPA fashion show and is a brand ambassador for the German fashion label AUF AUGENHOEHE, one of the first fashion labels that design for little people. In this week’s episode we discuss the current state of the fashion industry as it applies to little people, her work in the fashion industry, and how the industry needs to become more accessible.

Follow AUF AUGENHOEHE: https://www.aufaugenhoehe.design/en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aufaugenhoehe.designInstagram: @aufaugenhoehe.design

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.comThis episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin