Angie Kent and Katie McCready are committed to creating a paradigm shift in Womxn’s healthcare, one that prioritises empathy, accessibility, inclusivity, education, and empowerment as its core values.
We have seen and adored Angie on our television screens as our Bachelorette, commentating our favourite shows on Gogglebox, battling the jungle on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, decluttering on Space Invaders and being flung in the air on Dancing with the Stars. What hasn’t been so visible to us all, are her struggles with invisible, chronic illnesses for over a decade that have brought her rich and diverse insights into the challenges many face with healthcare navigation.
Teaming up with Katie, a physiotherapist and medical student, they’ve combined their skills, insights and strengths to usher in a transformative era in Womxn’s healthcare for Australia, through the development of their platform SEEN. The future these women are building is one where the pervasive issues of medical misdiagnosis and dismissal, diagnostic delays, and geographical barriers are relegated to Australia’s medical history.
SEEN aims to revolutionise Womxn’s healthcare and promote greater acceptance amongst care providers of Womxn’s lived experiences with chronic and invisible illnesses by connecting patients with reliable, accessible and specialised healthcare providers.
Katie and Angie spoke with WDEN entrepreneurs and The Adaptable CEO Podcast co-hosts Tiffani and Anja, on the creation of SEEN, women’s health, centring inclusivity, Angie’s silent health struggles in the public eye, why their platform is an absolute necessity in today’s health landscape and so much more. Listen to the full podcast episode here. Some key learnings from Angie and Katie:
How did you two meet and become business partners?
Katie: It was actually three years ago now. So I worked as a physio for a while and I just saw a bit of a disconnect between women and their health practitioners and the information that they needed. And then when I moved to Sydney, I was listening to Angie’s podcast at the time and she was talking about how difficult it was to find the practitioners that were out there. And I was like, “oh, goodness, why isn’t there just a central platform that women can go to find someone easily”. And so I literally just messaged Angie on Instagram and I was like, “Hi, I’ve got this idea”. And then Angie was like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been thinking the same thing”.
Angie: It’s like I literally just said to Yvie who I was doing a podcast with at the time that I wish there was a Yelp for Women’s Health like where you could type in and then it’ll be like, so and so from WA and what people thought, but there was just nothing of it. And then Katie had pretty much exactly the same idea. But the beauty of it is, Katie has the background and the medical mind, whereas I’m coming from more of a patient and the experience of a patient. I think the two of us together, it covers both. So it’s like I couldn’t just do it because people would be like, what does she know she only knows from her own personal experiences. Whereas Katie has personal experiences but she also has the knowledge because she will be a doctor and is already a physio.
What is SEEN Womxn’s Health, and what needs is it meeting?
Katie: We just really want to be that connection and make things easier for women. I know we talked about chronic disease and that’s a big area that we want to focus on, but also people who may not be going through things like that. Just the simple act of finding a practitioner. For example, I’ve just moved to Melbourne and I have the implanon and I just want to go online and find somebody who can take it out and who is interested in women’s health and who I can ask you about different things. But I have to go on to a lot of different websites and try and find things and I just want to streamline it all.
Angie: Having to sift through so much information can become exhausting. And that’s when you end up getting frustrated and not knowing where to go from there. So having something easy will just be such a game changer on so many different levels. But we really need to hopefully get the grants on the applications we’ve applied for and also if there’s anybody that’s interested in coming on board and funding something as magical as this and how many people that it is going to help. From 10 years old people start getting their period, and it goes until however long so it’s gonna help so many different people.
You spell Women with an X, for who may not have seen it spelt this way, can you explain the decision and meaning behind it?
Katie: It was a big goal of ours to be extremely inclusive. When we create this platform, we wanted to do that in a way that doesn’t discount things that women experience. To make sure that you’re inclusive, while not discounting a lot of people who need to access this. So we brainstormed a lot about how to do this. And then we found women with an X, which was an inclusive term for non-binary. And so we just want to use it in a way that doesn’t exclude people.
Angie: I’m part of the LGBTQ+ community and I have a lot of friends that are queer, trans and non-binary and they find it quite disheartening to always be referred to as women’s health or ‘women only have periods’. And we wanted to really make sure that we’re inclusive of everyone but we also understand that there is a generation that might not understand all of that as well. But we don’t want anybody to be feeling like they’re not a part of it.
So for us just spelling it with the X is people may look at it and not even realise that it is about being inclusive. If you don’t know what it is, maybe that’s fine that you don’t need to know. But if you do know what it is, what it’s there for and that you’re held and supported. Ultimately all we want to do is help people whether they identify as a woman, whether they identify as non binary, whether they’re trans, whoever gets their period and suffers with anything chronic invisible illness wise. That’s why the x’s in there. We didn’t want to have a long title or things in brackets. Everybody is included.
What are your dreams for the platform?
Katie: What we envision is a womxn who is any age and any stage of their life will be able to go on to this website and put in a symptom, a diagnosis, a treatment request, and then they’ll be able to look and see what different practitioners can provide assistance with that issue. Then they’ll be able to bring that down to their location and find someone close to them and then be able to book in to see them. We also want to be able to highlight products and educational sites and also promote our own education surrounding different things. So that this is a centralised platform that people go to, to get holistic health care. And of course, we have a big community of SEENies (which we’ve decided to call them) so that we can really share our experiences and grow in a really positive way.
What advice would you give to your younger self with everything you know now?
Angie: I would just say to trust your gut way more. Trust your intuition. Don’t let somebody else tell you who you are or how you’re feeling. I would say start some kind of therapy or healing way earlier than what you did, just to navigate what was projected on you that wasn’t your fault. Just be yourself and not care what anyone thinks because you’re not going to please everybody – like there’s no way in the world trust me (I’ve tried, it’s exhausting). And now I’m just like, YOLO. So I’d go back and I would just want to kiss her and hug her because God, she was such a little stress monkey. She would just wig out over everything. And she just wanted everyone to love her. And I just look back and I’d cuddle her and I’d be like, ‘you don’t have to please everybody’. Just love yourself sick and those who are supposed to love you will love you in return.
Katie: Just to be more confident in yourself. I think I always had a lot of doubts, like even applying to do the work that I’m doing. I was like, ‘Oh, I won’t even apply because I won’t get in’ and then messaging Angie, I was like ‘why would I do that? It might not work’ and then doing this. Like constantly questioning, Is this even a good idea? Just backing yourself and being like, who cares if it doesn’t work out at least you’ve tried, and you know what you might end up helping lots of people! Confidence is just a huge struggle for a lot of people.
You can connect with Angie, Katie and SEEN here. They welcome your recommendations of health practitioners, or if you’re a health practitioner yourself and want to be involved, get in contact!
SEEN Womxn’s Health – https://www.instagram.com/seen_wh/
Contact – admin@seenwomxnshealth.com
Katie McCready- https://www.instagram.com/katiemccready/
Angie Kent – https://www.instagram.com/angiekent_/
Listen to the full episode, and more on The Adaptable CEO – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and where you listen to your podcasts.