Girl on Girl, an Astronauts Wanted production starring British YouTuber Hannah Witton, tackles all areas of feminism. During her show, Hannah sits down with female comedians, activists, educators and writers, while confronting controversial topics and challenges that women face in their everyday lives. The first three episodes in the series are brilliantly funny, delving into dating apps, body image and what it means to “have it all” as a woman.
We recently got to chat with Hannah about her new web series, and she gave us an inside look into all things Girl On Girl.
Her Campus: How did your show come about? Is this something you’ve always wanted to do?
Hannah Witton: Well, on my own YouTube channel, I talk about sex and relationships and feminism and all that stuff, so it’s always been something I’m interested in and enjoy talking about. I’ve been working with Astronauts Wanted on some other projects and Lindsay, the producer of Girl on Girl, asked me, “Hey, if we were to make another show with you, what [would] your dream show be?” I sent her this big list of stuff about women and sexuality and then she came back to me with this idea of Girl on Girl.
HC: Can you give us a little background on Astronauts Wanted?
HW: Astronauts Wanted is a new generation content production company, and they produce Girl on Girl with [me] and other shows that highlight digital creators—if they’re from YouTube or Vine or Snapchat or anything like that.
HC: Where did the name of your show, Girl on Girl, come from?
HW: Lindsay came to me and said, “What do you think?” I immediately loved it because I just thought, ‘We know what we’re doing with it.’ We know that it is a phrase that is used in porn and is sexualized. You know, Girl on Girl—listen to two women have an intelligent and funny chat about stuff.
HC: Where do the ideas for your episodes come from?
HW: That was a collaborative effort. Luckily, I was in L.A. when we started developing the show, so that meant me in creative action, sitting down together, and just bashing around loads of ideas, potential topics and potential guests. And so we had all of these ideas floating around. Then, as we started to reach out to potential guests, we started sticking a topic with a guest. It all kind of came together. All of the episodes are already filmed. They were shot in London, and so Lindsay from Astronauts Wanted came over, and we filmed all of it in the space of a week. So for the whole week, I was sleeping in a bedroom with a massive sofa taking up half the space.
HC: We know you’re an avid social media user, especially on Twitter, so have you ever thought of letting users submit ideas or questions for your series via Twitter?
HW: Yeah! For the dating app episode, I tweeted out asking for people’s date stories, like horrific date stories and stuff that we used in the episode. But because obviously it’s all filmed, it’s difficult to get interaction week by week, but that’s why it’s Girl on Girl. Girl on Girl has its own Twitter account and Medium and Tumblr. So, during the weeks, we still have that interaction from viewers who are watching the show.
HC: What has been your favorite segment you’ve done so far?
HW: So there is a segment that’s a Girl on Girl alignment system. The alignment system is most often used to categorize comic book characters and superheroes. The idea is that there’s good, neutral and evil, and they also have chaotic and lawful. So you’ve got your chaotic good or lawful evil, and so what we did with that was we took a bunch of slurs and names used to describe women and we got the guest to place them on this board to say, “How do you feel about the word ‘bitch’?” “Is it good; is it evil; is it neutral? Is it chaotic; a bit lawful?” Other words like honey, sweetie, babe, slut; there were just loads of words and that was one of my favorites, I think. Just everyone is born different and how they feel about certain words is different, and some people are like, “Yeah, I love the word ‘bitch.’ I use it all the time.” Others will be like, “No, I hate it; it’s disgusting.”
HC: One of the missions of your show is to bring together women who appreciate complex ideas. What types of complex ideas have you been challenged to think about more critically since starting the show?
HW: I think the last episode that went up, that one really challenged me because it’s an episode about what it means to have it all. And before filming that episode, I thought it was really simple—I just expected that I could have it all and I expected that I should want to have it all and x, y and z are what it meant to have it all. The theme just completely blew my mind and changed the way that I thought about it entirely.
HC: Feminism obviously plays a big role in your show. So how does feminism play a role in your everyday life?
HW: In my everyday life, I think it plays a role in a sense that it’s tiring in my everyday life. It really is, it’s like you kind of are run-down by seeing the patriarchy everywhere all the time. It’s frustrating and I think in my everyday life, the main conflict that I have is picking my battles and figuring out, do I say something about this that I could make a point to change or do I just leave it and walk away because it’s a waste of my time to engage? I think in my everyday life I’m constantly making that decision of whether I’m going to say something or not.
HC: Your 5-year YouTube anniversary is coming up soon. Any plans for a special Girl on Girl show to celebrate?
HW: There’s no special Girl on Girl episode. To be honest, I only realized recently—at the time when we were filming, I had no idea—but I have a special video planned for my own YouTube channel, which will be going up on the 17th.
HC: What can you tease about what’s coming up on Girl on Girl?
HW: I can tell you that we talk about reclaiming words with Juno Dawson, who is an amazing author. Can you reclaim words? Should you reclaim words? And then we also have Mae Martin, who’s one of my favorite comedians. We talk about female sexuality and we sort of threw dildos around a park, so that was super fun. We just went to a local park and played catch with some dildos and got some funny looks. So, we have that to look forward to.
HC: If you could have any comedian or guest on your show, who would it be and why?
HW: I would have Caitlin Moran on Girl on Girl. She is one of my inspirations for learning about feminism…so she was my gateway drug into feminism I think. My mum bought me her How to Be a Woman book when I just started university. That was a big, ‘Oh my god!’ It was also refreshing to see that you could talk about feminism and be funny at the same time. That was a big, ‘Wow, okay.’
To watch current and future episodes of Girl on Girl, subscribe to the Astronauts Wanted YouTube channel. To learn more about Hannah, check out her website and her personal YouTube channel.