We speak to the broke brown girls behind the female-centric podcast ‘Broke Brown Girls’.
Raw, unfiltered and honest. These words best describe ‘Broke Brown Girls’, a podcast hosted by, you guessed it, two broke, brown girls. The title is a nod to their identity as two Malay-Muslim girls on the brink of adulthood, trying to find their footing in life.
Through the podcast, hosts Asyiqin Musta’ein (Asy) and Sabrina Tulos (Sab) hope to shed light on the struggles and experiences of being a minority women in Singapore. Topics they will cover include relationships, transitioning into adulthood, mental health, gender inequality and how these impact women in society.
Growing up as an introvert, Asy kept most of her opinions to herself. When she got older, she realised how her words were able to impact those around her. This formed the starting point for content that she creates. A firm believer of “YOLO”, Asy, 25, makes the most of her free time outside of work. If she’s not dancing she’s either doing creative work or podcasting.
Sab, who is turning 21 this year, always dreamt of having her own podcast to speak about issues she advocates strongly for. When she’s not chasing her dreams, she spends her free time reading, playing football and cafe hopping.
Having met each other through an internship, both girls discovered their shared passion of wanting a better, more inclusive society for women. They hope this podcast can serve as a launching pad for more conversations regarding issues that tend to be swept under the rug.
We spoke to both of them to find out how the idea for this podcast came about and what are their plans for the future.
What motivated you to start ‘Broke Brown Girls’?
Asy: We realised we shared the same aspiration of starting a podcast to talk about pertinent issues we both faced as minority women. And the podcast was lowkey an opportunity for us to be as chaotic as possible.
Sab: One day while I was talking to Asy, I told her that I’ve always dreamed of having my own podcast to ramble about life and talk about issues that I care about deeply. I really want to raise awareness about the struggles minorities face and I aspire to make society a better place for women.
What are some of your goals for ‘Broke Brown Girls’?
Asy: My biggest goal for the podcast would be to reach out to as many women, whether locally or internationally, who can resonate with the issues we bring up on the show, and to create change in how society views women and the obstacles we face due to our gender. Apart from that, I hope we could become the frontline/pioneers of minority women-led podcasts in Singapore and inspire more women to speak up about the topics we discuss on the show.
Sab: To be the top female podcast in Singapore. Most importantly, I hope our podcast encourages other women, not just minority women, to speak up about issues that they’re passionate about.
What are some things you would like listeners to take away from tuning in to ‘Broke Brown Girls’?
Asy: I hope listeners are able to take away some hard-hitting lessons we discuss on our show and to have these conversations with the women and men around them.
Sab: I hope listeners will be more enlightened and educated about pertinent issues that affect marginalised groups in society, and contribute by making a change through conversations, documentaries, blogs and campaigns.
Did you do any research before launching your podcast? Were there any other podcasts that you found interesting or were sources of inspiration?
Asy: Sab and I always make it a point to support all the topics we discuss with plenty of research and opinion pieces to make sure we weren’t misinforming or swaying our audience towards a certain ideology. I love watching social commentaries on YouTube like miiasaurous and Shanspeare.
Sab: Definitely, a hell lot. Aside from watching videos, we’ll read various articles and books and even ask our peers for their opinions on a certain issue as their perspectives may be useful for us. Personally for me, I love listening to ‘Anything Goes’ by Emma Chamberlain and her podcast mainly inspired me to start my own as well.
Are there any exciting things lined up for the podcast? Special episodes, or guests, maybe?
Asy: We’re starting out by inviting our close friends to share their opinions on certain topics and hope that we can have bigger guests on the show. We’d also like to dive into more hard-hitting topics to really step out of our comfort zone. Apart from that, we do hope to connect to more listeners by actively reaching out to them on our social platforms and, maybe in the future, find a way to connect with them through other methods.
Sab: Of course! I think it’s too soon to say now because we just started out and we’re still a very small fish in the scene. But we’re always planning new and engaging content for our listeners, and hopefully when we have the budget, we’ll expand our podcast and invite exciting guests over. So stay tuned!
Listen to ‘Broke Brown Girls’ on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.