"I Was Overwhelmed and It Was My Answer"
Interview with Brittany Charnley on Party Personas, Mommy Wine Culture, and Shifting Mindsets
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I interviewed Brittany Charnley, The Cool Hip Mom, right before Halloween and I finally got around to transcribing it. If you’d rather watch the video, you can find it on my Instagram but I must warn you, there’s about five minutes where we lost Brittany’s connection so I just started rambling about Halloween triggers for a while there. Anyway, she is such a positive presence and I love her energy. Here are some excerpts from our conversation… (slightly edited for flow)
Brittany: I started drinking when I was 15. Typical curiosity… I lived in a town where drinking was really heavy at a young age. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was Halloween, coincidentally (Brittany also quit drinking around Halloween). I can remember down to the drink I had. It was a Mickey's 40 ounce and I shared it with two other friends and from that moment I was hooked. For me it was always it was always a party until it wasn't.
I was an athlete and I always felt like I was a part of something but deep down I felt like I wasn't a part of something. I feel like a lot of times in my childhood I just felt like I was told what to do. I was told I had to play soccer. I was told I had to play basketball. I was told I had to do this and so I never really found my own place. And for some reason I found that in drinking.
I found who I was -- so I thought. I found I was the party girl -- so I thought. That was my persona. I would go and play a basketball game and then the next day just live it up.
I grew up drinking throughout my high school years moved on to college. I didn't know anything about sororities but I ended up joining the party sorority because “hi!” I knew I had to do that and I didn't want to sacrifice that so I still in that same mindset of being a part of something but not really having feeling like I have a place. I graduated and continued with that drinking cycle. I didn't know who I was and, mind you, I learned all of this in therapy so this is not just me saying I didn't know who I was!
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