Your favorite podcasters, Keltie Knight, Jac Vanek, and Becca Tobin, are bringing more of their hilarious, insightful and honest commentary from their podcast, LadyGang, to an even wider audience with the launch of their second book, Lady Secrets: Real, Raw, and Ridiculous Confessions of Womanhood.
The book features a variety of confessional essays on womanhood ranging from silly white lies to totally cringey misadventures, honest truths and everything in-between. The idea all started when they published their first book, Act Like a Lady. “We included a special chapter for Barnes and Noble where we asked our LadyGang podcast listeners to submit things they wanted to get off their chests from womanhood,” the trio tells GRAZIA USA. “We came up with the idea for the book first, then wrote down about 15 different categories of secrets, next we decided where our own personal essays would fit in, and finally set up the hotline for all our listeners to submit. It took about six months to listen, transcribe and sort through the over 10,000 secrets we received from LadyGang listeners.”
The book became a sort of manifesto for readers to feel unashamed of “un-ladylike behavior” and own every part of themselves. “We quickly realized that no secret is actually that unique,” the LadyGang says. “Our ladies would confide in us these mind-blowing, wild, scary, heartbreaking, jaw-dropping secrets and we would be able to lump them together with another woman who had been through the same thing. We saw so many secrets of infidelity, family drama, body shame, work problems, body accidents, stealing, fraud. Our mission has always been to make women feel less alone, and we really did realize that we are all kinda going through the same thing.”
Knight (a three time Emmy Award-winning television host), Vanek (Queen of the Elder Emos author and a self-made entrepreneur) and Tobin (star of Glee and Turner & Hooch) created their podcast back in 2015 as a place to help women feel less alone. Fast forward to over 175 million downloads later, a TV series, clothing line, books and more, the trio can’t believe this is what they get to call their job.
“There is a huge sense of gratitude that this is our J-O-B, even when it’s exhausting or hard,” they said as they embark on a multi-city book tour.
The realities of working together all-day everyday can get pretty real, the trio says: “We all really know how to stay in our lane and focus on the thing that we are best at within the company, but it absolutely gets hard to work so closely together. We do have a good system of really being brutally honest with each other, so that when things do come up, we discuss, have our cry or get it out right away. We’ve also learned to listen, apologize and move on.”
As for what’s next, they say it’s hard to see beyond the day to day — at least for now. “What we are all really looking forward to at this moment is a proper shower and a night of sleep that isn’t driving to a new city in the bunk on our bus!”
As the LadyGang travels the country to celebrate the release of their book, they’re taking GRAZIA USA along for the ride. Hear more from the ladies and take a look at a day in the life of their time on tour.
Special Guest
“Backstage at our first show in Chicago with special guest Nick Viall. Feeling super nervous and excited. The show was sold out and a great way to start the tour.”
Center Stage
“Good Week/Bad Week is a LadyGang signature segment. It’s been extra fun to have a giant screen with us on stage to add a visual element to our disastrous lives,” Tobin shares.
All Together Now
“Keltie is actually pretty quiet until any type of camera or audience is in front of her,” says Vanek. “It was her idea to end each show with a Shania Twain sing-a-long, obviously.”
Seeing Triple
“Even though we are physically starting to morph into one person, we couldn’t be more different in our personalities.”
Eye for Design
“Not only did Jac design our entire book and cover, but she designs all our merch too,” says Knight. “She even had special pink versions of our sweatsuits made just for tour.”
Outfit Inspo
“Jac has the most unique style, she always finds a way to put together something super weird that ends up being the next big trend,” says Knight.
Same Wavelength
“Our outfits for our D.C. show really showcase how different each of us is. Something strange is that we never chat about what we are going to wear before an event but somehow we always end up with a cohesive look.”
Glam It Up
“Unless it’s a big press day we like to do our own glam for the shows,” says Knight. “I’m really into creamy, clean makeup right now. Here I am using the Tower28 BRANZINO cream bronzer backstage in Boston.”
Riding in Style
“Our home during the Lady Secrets tour. We always dreamed of having our own tour bus and it’s been a blast to live together and see our listeners all across the country,” Becca shares.
“The good part of being in such close quarters is that someone always has the thing you need, and the laughs, when you live this closely with six women on a tour bus non-stop weird things happen and you have to experience it to believe it.”
# 1 Fans
“By far the best part of the tour has been meeting our listeners IRL,” the LadyGang says. “It sound cheesy but when you podcast to millions of people each month from your own little studio, it’s easy to forget that people are actually listening. Hearing our ladies say we get them through their commute, or we feel like their only friend, or that they felt less alone because we shared something about our own lives, is deeply moving and rewarding.”
Hot Off the Press
“Each stop on the tour comes with a free signed copy of our book Lady Secrets. We made these cute little book carts to hold them in the lobby.”
Synced!
“Again, we never plan our looks beforehand but we always seem to be giving trio matching vibes! Backstage in Boston!”
Read GRAZIA USA’s Fall issue featuring cover star Nicola Peltz Beckham:
