next up we're going to talk with Adina miles aka Flatbush girl about the power of women in the Jewish Orthodox community and later a new film about another Brooklyn woman who's broken a few barriers Ruth Bader Ginsburg all media bring into sharp relief the divisions between tradition and modernity but social media is a special animal in this way plastering your face and your thoughts all over the Internet there's just no precedent so let's face it it makes them more traditional among us a bit uncomfortable nowhere is this more true than in the traditional Eastern Orthodox
Jewish communities of Brooklyn especially when it's a woman doing the plastering our next guest is trying to break down some of these barriers under the moniker Flatbush girl she's a social media sensation among Orthodox Jews and she also runs a successful consulting firm Flatbush media right now we're excited to have her here in the studio in person welcome Adina Myles 2 1 1 2 VK hey what's up how are you I'm fantastic Adina you come in here so bright and shiny and light up my whole studio and I'm really happy about that I'm so glad
I can do that for you for those who aren't following you who are obviously missing out what can they expect to find on your social feed on your Instagram in your stories like what is Flatbush girl out in the city doing okay so I know this sounds a little funny but the way I create and communicate with my audience is in a very haphazard spontaneous way it's not like we sit there in storyboard and reverse-engineer what we're going to be putting out for the audience and that I know exactly what I'm gonna be doing but
I guess like the spectrum of it the broad spectrum of it would be me trying to create social commentary that can resonate through humor because humor is a soft way to sprinkle in these nonconformist messages and really empower young girls that is my main target the girls who are still in elementary school who are being told amazing messages about you know their sense of Independence and their abilities and their strengths but the teachers are not going all-in right there's always like that fake ceiling and I'm trying to break the ceiling so that they know like
your teachers are saying your ceiling is here your ceiling is much higher than yes absolutely I like that and it sounds to me like if people come to your social feed there is something that they can expect and that's a level of authenticity and a level of encouragement and maybe even empowerment a little bit I think so I think that they'll also see someone who's really not afraid of hate I get a lot of hate I get a lot of dm's private messages from anonymous names sometimes not anonymous I get emails I've even gotten phone
calls people trying to scare me into you know stopping to speak my truth and really my goal is not as Extreme as they believe it is my goal is not to shatter the system my goal is not to have people like you know just say like well as a fairy have doing any of this I think that there is a very important role in tradition in in the family unit and and you know in the culture in our tribe I think those things are beautiful it's just we're it limits girls from really reaching their potential
and understanding their power as females rather than their weakness as as females do you find that some of what comes back at you is from the very people who you're like you have to understand we were girls we know how hard it was to be girls growing up and wanting to you know work in certain industries and believe in ourselves certain ways it's like how come you can't really make the connection between what I'm trying to do here and your experience I definitely hear you I think there's a certain I want to say bitterness that
comes from the women who see me doing what I do and thinking to themselves like but I couldn't do that so how come you're allowed to and yeah I would say most of the most of the backlash is from females and even if it's not coming from a place of bitterness it does come from a place where they are trying to protect the tribe but there has to be someplace we can meet in the middle and I think you're actually creating that space I'm trying to do your channel I want to switch a little bit
from Flatbush girl into Flatbush media give me a description about what you do at Flatbush Media so I kind of helped bring brands that are not familiar with social media into the digital age I have the sensitivities in place to understand from their perspective like the kind of ways they want to you know portray themselves on social media because it is a tricky place for Jewish brand to be absolutely and so I have that sensitivity but at the same time I have the ability to to know how to how to marry the to do you
find that Flatbush girl in any way has gotten in the way of Flatbush media because you I mean Flatbush girl was used to build Flatbush media right now and so people could understand exactly what you could do right which is phenomenal do some people go the other way because of definitely I've had a lot of brands who say listen we see what you can do we know you have the mind of someone we want to work with but we don't want you we don't want that you in the beginning initially this was hard for me
it was hard for me not to get defensive and protective over myself and feel personally insulted right but as the months have progressed and it's really a consulting firm in its infancy it's really almost only a year old right you know and we've gone from two clients to twelve cards which was really great but you know over those months I've been able to build the muscle where I understand they're just operating out of fear and that kind of engenders sympathy for me rather than feeling defensive what happens when companies leave you know it's it's hard
to hear from a company words like and I've actually I did a post about this recently where this this month I had two clients leave me who told me that they loved work they love the work ethic they love the communication they love the customer service and they're happy with the metrics but they are afraid of what people will say about them if they continue to work with me let's say they'll have one anonymous phone call from someone saying now I'm not going to shop in your store anymore if you keep using five-ish girl and
they go oh no no no we can't have this and they be preemptively prepare themselves for some sort of backlash which I personally think would never happen I can't imagine what with the backlash be about I gotta tell you listen I would just recently become familiar with that Bush girl but if somebody come down my street with some sort of anti Flatbush girl poster I would probably be like you need bigger problems you need much bigger problem but in addition to having the same perspective as you like you need like you have wee bit of
your problems I also would venture to say that if they had the muscle for it they don't realize that that kind of controversy that fake controversy would be amazing for their brand I wasn't gonna say it but here we are moving forward what are your big dreams big goals for Flatbush girls and for Flatbush media I really don't have a long-term goal other than just something having to do with empowering young girls right and somehow growing my business but other than that the nuances the the between the lines all those things I really just allow
it to change and involve naturally day today for me it's like art for me it really is like you know waking up and seeing what's on the canvas and saying like oh like I now I see it needs that brushstroke and being willing to be so nimble because things come into your life because you're open to them sometimes and you don't miss them you see them because you're open to them when you close yourself off you don't know when they're coming but when you're open anything can come anything can happen and you sort of build
your dream on the way up what you are is an effective communicator and a really good messenger and you have good timing and good timing is requisite for good humor so when you land you land girl it's been fantastic having the opportunity to talk with you today so much I cannot wait to see what continues to happen in your life I've got a good feeling thank you so much pleasure I really enjoyed it and my pleasure
