00:04Hello, I'm Yinka Bikini and today I'm sharing a diet coke break with influencer, style icon
00:10and blogger Tia Ward. Hello. The subject is dating and we're going to get into it talking
00:15about breakups, talking about dating advice. Are you ready? I'm ready, let's go. So you spoke about
00:21relationships a lot, covering a broad range of topics on YouTube and you obviously went through
00:26like a big breakup. So why do you think that it's important to share your experience? I just think
00:32that there's so much to learn from sharing. The minute you don't voice your experience, even just
00:37with your friendship group, no one learns anything. I guess that you never know what other people have
00:43been through as well. So everyone smiles and like, hey, I'm great. But behind that, the experiences
00:49do happen. Yeah, definitely. And we all put on this mask for everyday life. Some of the most bonding
00:55and fabulous conversations I've had with my female friendship group specifically have only been
01:02so informative because of the honesty. You're not always going to agree with people and you're not
01:06always going to be right and your friend's going to have to check you sometimes. But that's fine,
01:10you know, because you grow. And again, then you when you know better, you do better.
01:14So that's what what inspired you to to start this series?
01:18I think when you go through. Oh, that was satisfying. Yeah, it was. It was quite snazzy.
01:24I was so bored of seeing makeup tutorials and, you know, perfect family life. I had an influx of DMs
01:33and questions from family, friends, strangers. And I just thought, what a better way to answer these
01:38questions than on YouTube? When a relationship does become tumultuous, it can sort of like break down
01:43your confidence. How did you build that back up? For me personally, spending time by myself
01:49and really get into the core of who I was again. I let myself fill my own cup up again
01:55because you can't pull from an empty cup. When I met you the first time, you had like knee length
02:00hair, I swear. Maybe not knee length, but it was long. It was on its way there. Yeah. Do you
02:05think
02:05it's part of the healing process? Do you think it's sort of like cutting off the old...
02:09Powered energy. Yeah. The old you. Is it symbolic that way? I think so. For me it was.
02:13It looks good. I wanted a change. I wanted to feel like a new person because I felt like your
02:18image is something that you can control. You can pick your clothes, you can pick your hair,
02:22your colour, whether or not you wear makeup or not, what jewellery you have on. These are all
02:25expressions of yourself. And again, being in a situation where I felt like I'd lost part of my
02:30identity and I was finding my feet again, part of me was like, I just want a transformation.
02:36Yeah. What is the strangest date that you've ever been on? I can let you know mine.
02:39Go on. Yeah. So. Oh no. There was this... Oh my gosh. Listen. It was mad. So this guy was
02:49like,
02:49oh, do you want to go on a date? Yeah. And I'm not really. But my sister was like, yeah,
02:52just go on. You haven't been on a date in ages. Yeah. Went, yeah, rocked up and he took me
02:56to a
02:56life drawing class. But like... Naked people. Yeah. It's like a naked lady. Yeah. Which is fine.
03:01Cause I like, I like drawing. It's lovely. But then it's like, if you saw what he was drawing,
03:06yeah. Oh no. It was really inappropriate. Oh no. And then it's like, he kind of hung around at the
03:11end of the class. Oh no. To speak to the model. Doing creep mode. Yeah. Just, just doing. And it
03:15was
03:15doing the most. He was doing the most. Okay. Do you know what I mean? He became teacher. He became
03:20student. Oh. He became creep. Oh. And I was just standing there, just like holding my pencil in the back.
03:25Confused. Can you tell me your best chat outline? I'm more of a banter person.
03:30I'd probably make a joke about your earrings. Like, did you know your earrings don't match?
03:34They told me they look nice. They do look nice. But it would be banter.
03:37You're playing on my insecurities to get me to want your... Oh no. No.
03:41I've got one. I've got one. Go on. I like your rings. You should give me a call.
03:46Oh. Okay. I see you. I see you. Done. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for coming
03:53my love.
