Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS PODCAST: When I Grow Up with Ben and Sienna

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

We've got a special guest in our podcast feed today! We're excited to share with you Ben's brand new podcast "When I Grow Up". If you like what you hear, follow the podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. About the show: This week Jazz Thornton, a renowned mental health advocate and TikTok sensation, joins Sienna and Ben to share her inspiring journey and offer valuable advice to young people facing challenges in today's world. In this episode, they delve into: Jazz's mental health journey: Her personal experiences, how she found hope, and the steps you can take when you're feeling down. The impact of social media: Jazz's insights on the positives and pitfalls of social media, especially for young people. A royal mix-up: The surprising story of how Jazz almost unintentionally missed an opportunity to meet Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. About The Show: Sienna Boyce is 13 years old and constantly tells her Dad, Ben Boyce, what she wants to be when she grows up – an actor, scientist, rugby player, singer, chef or politician.  Each episode of ‘When I Grow Up’ aims to showcase inspirational females from around Aotearoa and shine a light on them, what it takes to do their job and learn about their story of how they got to where they are so that Sienna can help make up her mind. This is a podcast to help the teenager in your life dream big. Follow The Podcast on Socials: TikTok: Ben | Sienna  Instagram: Ben | Sienna | The HitsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, kia ora. Welcome to a very special episode of our podcast. Yeah. Promoting another podcast. It's podcast inception right now. Now, I feel like I had no choice to plug this one because my daughter Sienna is in here with us right now. Hello, Sienna. Hello. Yeah. Now, what's going on? What's happening? Well, I've got a brand new podcast called When I Grow Up.

You've got a podcast too? I've got a podcast. Your mum's got a bloody podcast. Yeah. You've got a new podcast. You're going to hear the first episode of the podcast. But why don't we plug? I mean, I guess I'm on the podcast with you. But why don't we? Well, you created Siena, so you need to plug the podcast.

Yeah. Well, all the free stuff and skits I've done for you guys over the years. Fair enough. Child labour, though. Child labour. You never think about when the children grow up from those factories. They start wanting money. And they start learning about rights and human rights and okay so this is if this is the

least we can do yeah you're right it's the least you can do give me once we once this little plug done we're square yeah so this is the first episode of the podcast actually really rewarding podcast to be part of uh sienna uh you host it with myself and explain the idea behind the podcast well it's very hard to know what you want to be when you explain the idea behind the podcast. Well, it's very hard to know what you want to be when you grow up. So on the podcast, we're going to talk to inspirational females to hear their story and inspire young people. It's great to listen with parents and with your kids. Okay.

What big bangers are we talking here? Yeah, what's some of the guests we've talked to so far? Okay, we're ready for this list. Eliza McCartney. Oh, yeah, Paul Volta. Yeah, Paul Volta. the guests we've talked to so far? Okay, we're ready for this list. Okay. Eliza McCartney. Oh, yeah, Paul Volta. Yeah, Paul Volta. Lucy Lawless, actor. Nanogirl, science educator. Oh, yeah, good.

Engineer, actually. Jazz Thornton. Yep. No Jazz Thornton. Mental health advocate. Yeah, she's actually the first episode of the podcast you're about to hear shortly. Yes. Karen Walker and Grace Nowicki.

Karen Walker, fashion designer as well, and the netballer. Grace Nowicki. Well, that sounds like and the netballer Grace Nowicki well that sounds like a great line up where are the men where are the inspirational men maybe in season 2 no

it's for inspirational females so inspire a new generation what about the inspirational men telling the kids what to do

they've already had the yeah I mind you there's a lot of men with podcasts out there aren't there so yeah it's a real cool thing to do if you listen with your kids uh as well 30 minutes long yeah so good for like shorter attention span so here's the first episode with

jazz thornton a lot of great stuff from jazz she is amazing a lot of great stuff for dealing with mental health with anxiety oh and also social media whether it's good or bad and it's interesting coming from someone who's got millions and millions of views on social media, what her thoughts are. Now, yeah, can I say something about Jazz Thornton? I love her. Love her dearly. But the other day, we ran into her across the road at the cafe. And my coffee order, it comes in a tiny little cup Sienna.

It's called a Piccolo, okay? It's a very mockable drink. And I hold it like this. And she's like, that is the tiniest little cup of coffee. And she's like, boom, photo taken. I didn't even consent to the photo. But I was like, don't mock me on social media for that. I checked my photos of going to bed last night.

I'm tagged in. She's like, look at this tiny public shaming of my tiny little coffee. Oh, little tiny coffee. Yeah, and I said, you said that was for your personal collection. Well, that's not. She said the people in America are blowing up about this. Yeah, they've never seen such a tiny cup of coffee. Oh, well, Joanna's got a tiny coffee.

We've got a tiny podcast that I would love you to listen to. You can catch up with it every week on iHeartRadio, wherever you get your podcasts. It's called When I Grow Up. The Heads Podcast Network. My name is Sienna, and this is my dad, Ben. Hi. And when I grow up, I want to be a TikTok star.

Right. Or a sports player. Okay. A hang on, a scientist would be cool. Yeah, yeah. Even a fashion designer. Right. Actually, maybe an author.

Yeah, yeah. Or own a business. Okay, okay, slow down. Maybe we should talk to some amazing females who inspire you and who you want to be like. Yeah, and we can find out what they did to get where they are. Yes, and let's do it as a TV show.

No, Dad, only old people watch TV. Let's do it as a podcast. Okay, yeah, I guess that works too. This is When I Grow Up. Today's guest is Jazz Thornton. As you'll hear, Jazz does incredible things to help people with mental health, especially young people.

She shares her inspiring story on the podcast. Yeah, Jazz is awesome, eh? She's great. I'd say Sienna, Jazz is awesome, eh? She's great I'd say Sienna, like, she's got lots of riz Please never say that Every time you see someone cool Or you think someone's cool You're like, oh, they've got lots of riz

But you could tell the pen that it has lots of riz Because you think it works well I love saying it because it winds you up so much Oh my god No, seriously though, Jazz is amazing It was really cool to find out some tips For mental health, for teens, for parents, you know, actually for everyone. And also some good ways when you're dealing with like anxiety and when you're feeling low.

Jazz, at one point on the podcast you'll hear, she even got me crying with one story. Dad, you're crying with every movie, every animated movie. Toy Story, Up, Lying Hang, Inside Out. And that's if you don't fall asleep, because then all I can hear... Okay, okay, all right. Enough about me watching the movies, okay? Yeah, that's true. Jazz is also a TikTok star with millions of followers.

And I found it really interesting asking her to answer to whether social media is good or bad. Yeah, and the power of the block button is quite interesting, right? And she also hangs out with famous people. We find out how she almost missed the chance to hang out with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. And now Jazz got to hang out with me. So that's great, isn't it?

That's not quite as cool for her or me. But I hope you enjoyed our chat as much as we did. It really filled me with hope. Yeah, and as your dad, I'd be pretty proud if you ended up helping people like Jazz does.

Hey, Dad. Today, when I grow up, I'd be pretty proud if you ended up helping people like Jazz does. Hey, Dad. Today, when I grow up, I want to be someone who helps people like Jazz Thornton. Okay. Well, I don't know if it's awkward or not, but Jazz is with us right now. As you say that. Jazz, it's so nice to meet you. I've been such a big fan for a while now. Oh, it's so nice to meet you.

I think that was the best introduction I've ever had. Oh, yeah. I love that. I'll put you on the spot meet you. I think that was the best introduction I've ever had. Oh, yeah. I love that. I'll put you on the spot, AS. What do you admire about jazz then? Why would you want to be someone like jazz? Well, first of all,

I love your TikTok. Thank you. I love your dances and everything. How come you don't love it when I do TikTok? How do I get involved? You're like, dude, you're embarrassing me.

Oh, that's just because you're you. Yeah, fair enough. Okay, okay, fine. But I also love that jazz helps people so many, like so many people my age by sharing a story and giving people hope. Now, jazz, you help people with their mental health. And with doing this work, you've got to experience some amazing things, making movies, meeting famous celebrities and royalty,

writing books and even speaking of the UN. Yeah, but i guess to get to where you are now jazz it was such a journey for you you know going through some horrible horrible times and that and that's to put it lightly how do you feel when you look back at that and you go well here i am now but i had to get through that to get to where i am now yeah absolutely and i think i often find myself kind of looking back at it and being like man would i like trade all of that bad stuff so that I could just have like a normal life yeah um but every day that someone

comes up to me and they're like oh your stories helped me so much or like it allowed me to see hope to stay another day I'm like oh you know what actually all of that stuff as much as it sucked and it was so hard I wouldn't take it I wouldn't change it because I now get to do all of these things and just impact people and be able to share my story, which is 12 year old Jazz would have never thought was possible. So Jazz, I read around my age, you didn't want to be around anymore, which is really sad. But what would you tell your younger self at my age? Yeah, well, I guess what you're saying, are you looking back at 12 year old, 13 year old Jazz Oh, man. I just like, there's so much more in the world than what you can see now.

And I think that when you're 12, when you're 13, that all you can kind of really see. I think for me, because I didn't have the opportunity to travel or see anything outside of the small town that I grew up in New Zealand, my perception was that the world was just this tiny kind of town that I was in and like nothing could ever change and it's like oh man there's so much out there like yeah getting to finish school and going to the ball and then going into you know whether it be university or whatever it may be there's just there's so much more of the world than what than what you know

yeah I mean I grew up and mastered in a world before social media I mean you know. I mean, I grew up in Marston, in a world before social media. I mean, you know. No one wants to hear about your stupid Marston. All you talk about is, when I grew up, I didn't have social media. I'm Marston. Okay. But when you do grow up in Marston, or wherever you grow up, I mean, your world is

school and everything around it at the time. And I think what happens and what happened for me, especially around that age and with bullying, which is such a prominent thing in schools now for young people, was that when you're in that position where you're getting bullied, you feel like the whole world hates you because your perception of the whole world is so small.

So again, it's quite hard to see like, oh, actually, this isn't the case, and not everyone in the whole world doesn't like me. It's just a couple of bloody school bullies. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. The teenage years is hard for everyone. I'm looking back, I wore a Looney Tunes duvet and made it into a waistcoat and bandana and pants and went to the school ball. And now I'm like, what was I doing? Do you have photos of that? Yeah, it's terrible. I'll show you one afterwards. It's not good. No one wants to use a teenage boy's duvet set as something you wear for the ball, but I did.

Now you're talking about your embarrassing school ball stories. Oh my gosh. But it is hard to be teenagers. I mean, any teenager, right? Jazz, you're a bubbly kid. And I look at Sienna, my daughter, you know, and she's a bubbly kid. But you somewhere, you lost that light as a teen. And as a parent, that's heartbreaking to hear that that

happened i think my um my child protection files literally said that i went from being happy and bubbly to dull and lacking emotion and i think that for me was like knowing and seeing people like you know yourself in this real bright bubbly teenage and being like man that could have been me um and it took me so long to find that bubbly again and to find the kind of person that I used to be but then once I found it I was like oh my gosh like this is this is who I am this is so much better. If someone's getting bullied feeling down or feeling helpless what are good ways to cope? I think that the biggest thing and the best thing that you can do is to ask for help I think that there are so many people,

especially in school, like teachers that are older and wiser and are able to kind of guide you through that. Being able to kind of sit there in silence is just going to make it a lot worse. Yeah. And so, yeah, I do think that the best thing that you can do is to ask for help. But in doing that, to also always ask for help

from older and wiser. I think when you're really struggling asking for help from people that are your own age or friends at school, it's good that people know what's going on, but they're as wise as you are. Sometimes probably not even as wise as you are. And so, you know, older and wiser and just learning to ask for help is, yeah. This is When I Grow Up. What about as, I guess guess as a parent as well we advise you know for someone who's just got a daughter 13 you know i think it's mine i think you know hey well no so

yeah but this is worrying me in all seriousness about you know the things that kids have to go through these days whether it's you know bullying whether it's even vaping whether it's social media body image all those sorts of things is quite worrying as a parent what advice i mean it's probably you haven't been a parent before but what advice would you give for people like me that want to support our you know my kids through that time i think that the biggest thing to do is to be having these open and honest conversations as much as possible i think you can't expect them to come to you when things are happening at school or when you know even things like vaping or social media is happening if you haven't been opening up especially like i think the dinner table used to be really good for that

but now it's kind of just become we go and watch screens or whatever it may be but if you're not having that constant space where you're just like allowing your kid to debrief their day or, you know, constantly asking like, how are you really like, how's your day going or doing it in a way that's not judgmental too. Because what I've noticed, especially with social media, the parents that try to be super strict on it, that's when the kids turn sneaky and the kids don't want to talk. And so learning to, you don't have to understand it. Or, you know, don't be like, oh, back in my day it was so much worse. It's going to silence you, kid. But just having those spaces. Try and reactivate dinner times if you can.

Or just even like a couple times a week where you're at the dinner table, no screens, and having this conversation so that if stuff does hit the fan, they feel like they can talk to you openly and honestly without sneaking around. And drop them off at the school gate. Still give them a big hug in front of their friends. You love that, don't you, Sienna? Oh, yeah. That sort of stuff, you know?

You're already at work by like five in the morning. Yeah, true. You don't get me picking up. I can pick you up inside school. Do you want me to pick you up inside school? Oh, it's all right. Okay, that's fine. You bring a lot of people hope with what you've done,

but I read that you didn't do it alone as a teenager you were in a pretty dark place and a doctor named dr steph helped you out yes dr steph yeah i guess that was someone that you well you turned to not but i guess by choice at that moment but someone who did like you're saying before someone older and wiser that sort of sat with you for a long time a long time it was supposed to be like a 15 minute doctor's appointment ended up being 90 um and she said that reality is is that if it was a physical thing if someone was having a heart attack then it doesn't matter how long you spend with them you will stay with them until you can make sure they're stable and she said it's the same with mental health to be able to sit and stay with someone she's like just responding to it the same

way which is the same thing with learning to ask for help, like responding it to the same way as you do with physical health. But yeah, she was amazing and said a lot of stuff to me that I'd never really heard from medical professionals. Medical professionals hadn't told me that there was hope for me,

that things could change. And having someone like that tell me that, I was like, whoa, like if she thinks this, maybe things could change. And now many, many, many years later later she's on the board of our charity and I have adopted myself into their family you're like holiday with her and stuff don't you yeah we're just in Fiji yeah see see young people can hang out with old people it's cool see that oh yeah people did think she was

my mum over there she wasn't too impressed so, do you recommend for young people when they're low to talk to someone that, well, they trust, to find your own Dr. Steph, someone you can talk to? Always, always. And I think just keep asking until someone listens because there always will be. And sometimes you might not get someone who understands right away. And I didn't.

It took me so long to find Dr. Steph. But eventually someone will listen and be able to help. Yeah. Can I ask on any tips, like, things like anxiety? It happens to all of us. I get anxiety. You get anxious. But you have a technique, right?

I do. And it's quite a known technique as well. But box breathing is a really... Have you heard of it before? I think I've heard of it. Yeah. So it's basically where you breathe in for... You count to four, breathe in for four. Hold it for four. it for four breathe out for four and then hold like no air for four and you keep

doing that over and over again and it will literally calm down your nervous system like biologically scientifically will calm it down yeah and so you just take a moment for yourself somewhere if you're feeling it and just kind of go through that breathing yeah and i i will do that often before i get up on stage and and speak at things and because do you still you know you deal with some of these things and you find what techniques and ways to deal with them now right yeah absolutely yeah it doesn't just mean because you were feeling low one time there you're not anymore it's not going to happen again you know it's kind of ways to find ways to dealing with it that's been the thing is learning yeah learning the tools learning the techniques and that way things won't get as bad as they were

because now I know, I know what to do. I know how to handle it. I know when to get off my phone and sign up social media. Yeah. All of those things are very, very good. But yeah,

box breathing is a really good thing for people to learn. Now you, your charity, you know, voices of hope. You've got your podcast. Hope is real as well. I guess your message is always about finding hope.

I hope I've got, I hope I've got the right message from all the things that you do. Yeah, I think that's about it. How do you find that hope though, sometimes when things feel a bit hopeless? So you, oh geez,

I used hope a lot during that question, didn't I? Hey guys, dads, stop rambling. Sorry, sorry. Jazz,

answer the question. Sorry, okay. Couldn't run out of time. Okay, you go, you go, you go,

you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go,

you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go,

you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go,

you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go,

you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, run out of time. Go, go, go, Jess. I think that what I found is when it was really dark, I thought that hope just didn't exist. And I'm like, oh, hope is always there. Sometimes it's just really hard to find it. And sometimes that's where other people can come in and kind of try to hold the hope when you're trying to find it.

And that's what Steph did with me. She was like, no, Jess, there's hope for you. But I think being able to try and look forward and dream to the future if you could do anything what would it be because it's really hard to fight if you don't know what you're fighting for and so if you can say like for me one of the biggest things and i remember writing this down in the hospital one day they kept trying to make me write a bucket list and i was like i don't want to write a bucket list and eventually i did and at the top of that bucket list was to visit new york city and then when I finally was there I now work there all the time yeah you go there quite you're going

in a couple of days to speak at the UN tomorrow United Nations yeah um yeah and so to be able to like stand there and be like oh my gosh like this is what you know 15 year old Jazz was fighting for to one day have that moment um being able to hold hope that way is yeah just a day at a time sometimes as well yeah so when did you decide to use your story and your profile your social media public speaking books speeches and your podcast like use it to help others did that just like happen or did you decide to do it i mean it was it was definitely a decision but i never expected it to be what it's become. Like, it's wild. Like, I remember actually your dad and Jono were in our first ever

Voices of Hope campaign that we did. You probably don't remember. Do you remember that? We had a rugby ball and you were, like, throwing the ball. But I decided to go to film school because when I was in the middle of my struggles, I spent a lot of time trying to research other people's stories just to know that there was hope. And back then I couldn't find anything.

I think John Kirwan had to kind of just come out with his story and that was really it. And so when I came out the other side, I was like, I just want to learn to tell these stories so that people can, no matter what it is they're facing, can go and find hope. So study directing. But yeah, my first show got picked up

two terms into film school and then the movie got signed and the books got signed the year after and then it kind of just then i got on tiktok which i never wanted to do you don't want to be on tiktok no dr steve's kids but like you gotta get on tiktok and i was like no and the first video i ever posted was so lame it was a freaking dog with a stick like a right i don't know what i was doing um and then started to share but i i did the series and the movie and the first book before tiktok existed um and i guess tiktok really is just what blew up yeah everything but yes it was it was a decision to tell these stories not necessarily my story to this extent yeah um but it happened and now i'm like oh well

if people find hope in it this is what it is is it hard putting yourself out there and like how many nasty comments you encounter like how do you deal with that yeah i mean there's always negativity i guess jazz i mean just google jonah and ben if you want to make yourself feel better i've learned the power of the block button on social media love a good block you love a block if people are mean i'm like i don't have to see this no you're right um and people don't have to comment this is the thing and it probably sounds like an old man ranting here and you know we'll roll our eyes but you don't have to comment on everything if you

don't like something you don't have to comment it's true you can walk away though like why do you feel the need to comment on someone else's video all the time you know but that's kind of i guess we think social media has encouraged the comment. Yeah. But it is hard. Sometimes I'm like, oh, don't. You can probably walk away and not comment. Well, I think a lot of the main backlash that I've had was at the start. And it was all like middle-aged, specifically, to be honest, middle-aged men. Sorry about that.

Yeah, honestly. It was basically just Ben over here. But they were very much just like, because they still couldn't get past the attention-seeking aspect. Really? So they were just like, the film was getting announced, and they were like, there's attention-seeking, beep, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, my gosh.

Like, come on. But they've started to kind of, I'm like, hey, most of our statistics are middle-aged men. So this is not just for our teenagers. Yeah, you're right. It is for you. Everyone. Everyone. Yeah. You didn't just upset older people like that you upset people in the uk when you ate

one of their chocolates wrong that is the most viral thing i have ever done so if not if people listening in the what the heck was this there was a chocolate from the uk you got sent from a friend and you weren't sure how to eat it but you ate it on tiktok and everyone was like it almost caused a national incident between new zealand and the uk because you ate it wrong yeah yeah it was it was and all the like media radio stations from around the world were covering this and what world do you get a bloody if any food item and go oh you know how i eat this i smash it on a table yeah true and then i ate it yeah i thought the way you ate it to be fair was the was the way it was how How did you eat it? I bit it.

Yeah. So you're supposed, the whole concept of it. Isn't that how you eat chocolate? Thank you. You're supposed to smash it and then it falls into segments and then you eat the segments.

But I didn't know this information. Does it have instructions on it? No, mine didn't because it was a 90th Jubilee box. Oh, right. Well, then they can't, they can't get mad at you because it didn't have instructions.

They have tried to prevent me now from getting in the border of the United Kingdom. It was like a petition that went out. Really? Yeah. Really? I'm like, oh, that's the internet sometimes. That's funny. This is When I Grow Up.

You're big on TikTok. Love what you do. But you have millions of followers. I find myself watching too much TikTok and dad tells me to get off. Yeah, I do. Yeah, yeah. So what do you actually think of social media? Good or bad?

I think both and. You say good? Yeah, I say good. Well, yeah, but there's, yeah. I think what is amazing about social media is that when your dad was growing up, and especially, I think, a woman that, you know, your age i think a woman that you know your age the only idea that you had of people were magazines was the kardashians was edited things that was selected by the media yeah so there was no other way unless it was like reality tv there was no other way to

see normal lives so you were only kind of growing up seeing this picture perfect body and like these perfect bodies and that's it. Whereas social media has completely taken that power away from the media and is like, this is real life. These are real bodies. These are real stories. My life is not glamorous. And I think there's definitely a lot of negatives to social media. We all know that.

Yeah. The bullying, the time consumed but the stuff that you can learn on there the fact that you can grow up and see people like myself on there or people that don't aren't Kardashians or have pitch perfect lives like that's actually really healthy in my opinion yeah no you're right yeah no it's a good way you're right it's opened the world up to not just that select yeah screen time not as healthy I don't even want to know what mine is um and obviously there's there is a lot of danger to social media and stuff but I think the reality is it's not going anywhere so learning how to use it setting screen time limits for especially your age yeah um is very important otherwise then your world just becomes social media and how many likes can i get in that which is not important in the

real world at all but you can see how things can go i put this video up and it didn't get, oh, you know, and that one did. And then your self-worth starts to go with it because you're like, oh, this photo didn't get as many likes. Or you're looking through to see who liked it. You're like, my friend didn't like it, whatever it may be. So my biggest thing is how do we teach young people to not put their worth and their identity in social media? That's kind of more, I think, even how parents and stuff, how we can encourage that. You've done so many amazing things

from winning reality shows to speaking at the UN, movies, books. Podcast, this podcast. Yeah, this podcast is number one. What is the one thing you're most proud of? Oh man, I think all of these things have been really cool to do.

And I would have never imagined dancing with the stars or being able to work with Prince Harry and do these crazy things. But I think above absolutely everything, there was a moment I'll never forget where I was speaking at a conference. And there was this mother that came up to me and she was just crying. And I looked at her and I hugged her. And then she just said, my daughter, she's been in and out of psych wards for a long time she's been really struggling and she I got her your book and when she read it it was the first time that she felt her the first time that she felt like there was hope and I remember kind of looking up and the daughter was there and she's crying and I just in that moment

was like man this is this is why this tops anything any kind of achievements you don't do it for anything else than those moments of going these people know that there's hope it must be special for you you know yeah and i mean your story has helped so many people i i think i cry every time that i meet people like that and it's and you and now it's happening all over the world i was in the us or the uk and scotland and there's people coming up to me there saying the same thing. And it's so cool to go actually like, all I've done is gone, hey, there's hope. And other people have chosen to fight to stay.

And I think that's what's really cool. Yeah, but what came up, Prince William and Prince Harry hanging out with them, you know? I mean, cool, but not as cool as that parent. Like, I'm like, I would give give up all i don't care about it like it's cool and i'm like wow how do i end up here but that's never the reason you do it and i stopped getting if people weren't getting impacted by the story i'm not doing my job right so it's you know that 100 is always those stories that just oh that's why that's why that's the way

you do it okay so we need to ask how did you end up hanging out with megan and harry so we actually nearly missed this entire opportunity um we were getting this this email i do a lot of speaking and i got this email from this woman who said she was from wellington being like hey um can you come down and speak at this conference and at the time i was like i'm really busy like i just she was like give me a call when you can we played phone tag for like two weeks and eventually i was like i need to answer the lady from wellington um and so i answered the phone and she goes i know i don't actually want you to speak at an event um i'm a royal advisor and prince harry and megan are coming to new zealand and they want to have coffee with you oh my god and i was like oh and so afterwards their emails the first time i think

she just wanted like to know i was legit or like I wasn't just going to jump on it for that reason. And then the signature afterwards added Royal Advisor. And I was like, no. You could have told me that in the first place. So you met them for a coffee? What happened there? Yeah. So we went down to Wellington.

We met them for coffee. And I remember sitting there being like, what are we? Do you bow? Do you say your voice? being like what are we do you bow do you say you're like what are you doing and then came in and they just kind of like shook our hands sit down and like afterwards were hugging us and i was like i feel like we weren't supposed to do that and you're also not supposed to like like take photos properly with them but we we did that which i'm so glad that we did um but yeah they they were so nice. And then, wait, I don't know. This is really funny.

We were doing interviews afterwards and one of the reporters was asking us, how was it? Was it good? And Jen, so we were having coffee and then there was like slices and stuff on there. And she was like, the ginger crunch was really good. The reporter thought that she was talking about Prince Harry

rather than the slices. So he got the nickname, the Ginger Crunch, from that coffee. From that coffee, yeah. I mean, that shows they are, you know, I'm sure they're just real people, you know. Like, yes, they have, again, they have a thing that their jobs, whether they're actors or royal family, puts them on a real public profile. I think it's really funny, though, because we even then, I don't know if you know this, but me and Jen got an award from Her Majesty the Queen.

Did you go to Buckingham Palace, right right we were supposed to go to buckingham so we we did some stuff with um obviously with harry and megan and then um we went and met with the royal foundation which is the people that they were doing stuff with um but yeah the award from the queen we were supposed to go and receive it in buckingham but it wasn't covered so we couldn't so it arrived at our house in the post cracked and in this like it was so bad and I was like this is from the palace and it's like in this little or anything no but it's got a little queenie signature on it RIP but what was it it was um an award for our service to mental health wow in the commonwealth yeah you get one each just one to share one each oh that's good That's good Yeah It was a great time You've done a lot of reality TV

What was harder Learning Dancing Steps And Dancing with the Stars Or going without much food On Celebrity Treasure Island Celebrity Treasure Island Hands down Really

Oh my gosh Dancing Harder than learning Dancing Steps Through the day and night I mean Dancing with the Stars Was rough Like that's 11 hour

Like 11 hour days 11 weeks Like you don't have a single day off. 11 weeks? Because we were in rehearsals before anything was announced. And so it was crazy. You're like, just do a TikTok 20 second TikTok Dancing with the Stars. And it was live as well, which was scary.

There's a show on that, TikTok Dancing with the Stars. Just put it up. Who gets the most views over a week? That's a great idea. Make a dance. I said, I was like, please, dear God, don't you go on that. You've tried to teach me stay in my brain though dancing obviously it does with you you know you can learn

steps manage to do it but treasure island first of all i'm like there's so many reasons that i could i was just terrible i had just had covid as well like i was pushed out a day from going because i had covid um and then i'm you know i'm asthmatic, I'm dyslexic, I'm ADHD, my hand was broken. And so trying to do anything was so hard. But I think, yeah, living on rice and beans, and I'm allergic to seafood. And so like people were trying to catch fish and I was like, well, I can't, you know, eat any of that. And then you're doing these big endurance challenges. And yeah, it's like it's crazy you get like we got emergency evacuated one night um and it's just you just cry every day

you feel like for tv that would go and stop record and then be like all right guys great shoot let's go to the airbnb hotel nah but it's like it's legit you guys are in there we don't you don't have pillows i think that was the big thing like you had and i was just like could you bring a pillow no no you weren't allowed so you had think that was the big thing. Like you had. And I was just like, could you bring a pillow? No, no, you weren't allowed. So you had to like roll up sweatshirts and like just try to use that. And you had to bring like a pillowcase and stuff it with clothes. So that's what some people did.

I didn't know this information. And so I'm going to out myself here. And when we got emergency evacuated and we went to the hotels, I took the hotel. I'm so sorry. I will pay the hotel back um they have so many of them because some people did that but yeah you just kind of had to like roll up like clothes and then just kind of use it as that pillowcases might oh you think it'd be like school camp they give you a list of going all these are all the things you kind of yes but i got so much stuff taken off me because they bag search you as if you're like coming into a new country and you've got all the illegal stuff.

So like I had like baby wipes got taken off me because they could be used as toilet paper. You're like, okay. We're not allowed to use toilet paper. I was like, this is all like no mirrors, but they let us have makeup. So you could do your makeup without any mirrors, which was, I just was like, there's no point. Maybe you could like smash the mirror or something. Well, yeah. Or like maybe the mirror would start a fire.

Gotcha. If like, you know, and where we were in Wanaka, like it's quite dry land. But yeah, it was quite, I think Sleeper to Choose Ryland was the hardest thing I have done. The hardest thing you've ever done. Oh, absolutely. Like it was wild. Would I do it again? Probably.

Probably. Probably. Because I love that kind of thing. It's fun, but it definitely takes a toll. Before we go, I want to fire at you some quickfire questions to find out if I really want to be like you. This game is called This or That. Okay, ready?

Yeah. TikTok or Instagram? TikTok. Harry Styles or Harry Potter? Harry Styles. Okay. Jandals or Crocs? Crocs.

Minecraft or Fortnite? I haven't played either. It's okay, you can pass on stuff too. Prime Energy Or Frank Green drink bottle Frank Green Yeah What is it

Everyone I love Frank Green Emotional support water bottle Okay good okay Okay Kindle or a real book Oh Real book Netflix or Snapchat

Netflix AirPods or a 0.5 photo Oh Because the 0.5 is the new, well, it's probably not the new thing. I feel like I've just got onto it. It's very cool. A bit of high angle stuff.

Yeah, but I have my AirPod Maxes, which I love. Oh, that kind of counts as a difference. Yeah, is it different? Okay, I'm going to, in that case, I'm going to do 0.5. But also AirPod Max as well.

AirPod Max, yes, 100%. Okay, all right. Sleep in or stay up late? Sleep in. Barbie movie or Fast and Furious? Barbie. Prince Harry or Prince William? They're probably not going to hear this.

Well, yeah. You never know. You never know. She didn't think anyone was going to do the chocolate thing either. We don't want another. How about we don't answer that one? We don't want to cause another international incident. The final.

Jono or Ben? Oh, you can't put that in there. Sienna. Hey, Jess. Thank you so much for what you did. I definitely want to be like you because you help so many people. What you do now literally saves lives. Thank you for sharing your story and giving people hope. Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. How cool is Jazz? Do you see why I want to be like her? I do. She is cool. But also, she chose you over me right? Yeah, now really inspiring so much great advice

from Jazz and I actually found really interesting her answer about how she choose to help people over anything that she's achieved personally. It was really awesome It shows what sort of person she is Yeah, I know, so it's settled, you want to grow up and you want to be Jazz Thornton, right? Well maybe, but there's plenty of other inspiring people who I could be like.

Oh, so we're doing this again, are we? Yeah. Don't forget to like and subscribe, or you'll miss out on who the next inspiring person could be.