Sea FM's Heather Maltman & Bella Frizza Tell Us What International Women's Day Means To Them

It's March 8, which means it's International Women's Day! This day is a focal point in the movement for women's rights, so we thought we would take two of our Sea FM family members, Heather Maltman & Bella Frizza, aside to ask them what being a woman means to them, their inspirations & how we can strive to be better women overall!

Which woman inspires you?

Bella: It's going to sound cliché, but I love Beyoncé because she has so much self-love for herself. I think as women, we really struggle with that sometimes - we need a career, we need a man, we need everything to be perfect in our lives, but Beyoncé has always just been happy with who she is as a woman. She's never followed a crowd, she's never wanted to be like anyone, she's wanted to be herself and she's nailed it at life doing that. 

Heather: Every woman inspires me in some way, even the ones I consider not my friends because they remind me about humility, they remind me about kindness, they remind me about patience. The women that I'm incredibly close to, they are the most supportive women I've ever met in my life and I keep them as close as possible - as well as the obvious, like Oprah. 

What can women do better to build each other up? 

Bella: I don't know what it is about being a woman, but for some reason in this life we take each other down. One of my experiences where I had women coming at me in an aggressive way was when I was on Married At First Sight and I was getting messages from women calling me horrible names and I thought, as woman, why are we doing this? We should really be supporting each other. For some reason in this world, it's really hard for women to 100% support each other - it's more like we're trying to compete against each other all the time - I think we need to let that go and just support each other more. 

Heather: Actually just listen and look after each other. I realised today that I have extreme judgement towards women who put a lot of effort into their beauty. I then went and got a spray tan yesterday to remind myself how hard it is for women who actually want to put effort into the way they look. It's really hard, it's a lot of work, it's not as vain as we think. It takes a lot of effort, patience, time & money. It's about listening and letting the people around you be who they want to be. I hope #balanceforbetter makes us realise that there's still a lot of things going on in this country that are making it harder for women to exist every single day. 

The hashtag for International Women's Day this year is #balanceforbetter. What does Balance for Better mean to you? 

Bella: We're trying to be equal to men but I think there's still a lot of things in the world that need to be updated in the way that women & men are on the same level. One of the main reasons I got into radio was because there was hardly any women on the air 10-20 years ago. I still think to this day that if we got a list of what men get paid in radio and a list of what women get paid in radio, it would be very, very different. I think someone who is trying to change that is Jackie O. Kyle was getting paid more than her and she wanted to be paid equally to him. I think it is changing but there's still a long way to go.

Heather: I think for me it means reminding ourselves that just because it seems like everything is ok, there could be things that are underlying. For example, here in Australia there may be the belief that the issue of women's rights is not as big of a deal here because we are so forward-thinking, but we forget in this day & age that I just can't walk home alone, I'm afraid, I hold my keys in my hand a certain way.  

What song would you love to play every time you enter a room? 

Bella: This is going to sound random but probably Clap Your Hands by Sia because I'm always clapping my hands when I get excited! 

Heather: Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na MALTMAN!