In this week’s episode, Josh chats with Bianca-Jaye Mazzuchelli, finalist of the Spirit Super Create Change Award at the 2023 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards Victoria.
Bianca is a proud Gunditjmara woman who is currently studying her undergraduate degree in Psychological Science. She talks about the development of Auditory Sensory Prevention Technology (ASPT), which is an earpiece that emits white noise and is designed to help children and adults who are neurodiverse, to combat challenges they may face in social settings due to sound sensitivity. In 2022 her ASPT start-up won the Swinburn Venture Cup.
“I believe that it’s a human right for every child to have a friend”
If you enjoy the Inspirational Australian’s Podcast, we’d love it if you could subscribe, rate and review. Find out how here.
Links
To find out more connect with ASPT on Instagram
Follow us on our Inspirational.Australians Instagram Page
Want to recognise someone making a difference? Nominate them now in 2 mins!
Find out more about partnering with Awards Australia
Transcript
[00:00:08] Christine
Welcome to inspirational Australians, where we share stories of Australians making
[00:00:13] Christine
a difference in their communities and in the lives of others. We at Inspirational Australians Acknowledge the
[00:00:20] Christine
Wurundjeri and Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation as their traditional owners and
[00:00:25] Christine
custodians of the lands and waterways on which this podcast is produced. We pay our
[00:00:31] Christine
respect to elders, past and present, and those who are emerging and extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
[00:00:39] Christine
Strait Islander peoples. At Inspirational Australians, we are inspired by the world’s oldest living culture
[00:00:46] Christine
and pay homage to their rich storytelling history, when we share stories on our podcast.
[00:00:58] Josh
Thank you. Chrissy. Still getting used to saying that one. I said thank you Annette for a long,
[00:01:04] Josh
long time. But of course we are in season two of the inspirational strains podcast.
[00:01:09] Josh
So things are sounding a little bit different,
[00:01:12] Josh
hopefully love to hear people’s feedback. You can always follow us at inspirational
[00:01:17] Josh
Australians on Instagram and message just there. Let us know if you’re enjoying the
[00:01:21] Josh
new season or you can reach out via LinkedIn awards, Australia, or Facebook awards,
[00:01:27] Josh
Australia are our main channels. And of course, inspiration,
[00:01:30] Josh
Australian podcast is brought to you by awards Australia. And what we do is we
[00:01:35] Josh
bring community achievement awards and young chief awards programs to life with the
[00:01:40] Josh
sole purpose of sharing stories about inspirational Australians,
[00:01:44] Josh
which is why this podcast makes so much sense for us and why we love doing it. So
[00:01:48] Josh
the last thing before we get cracking into the episode is just
[00:01:50] Josh
a reminder to write and review the podcast, especially in Apple,
[00:01:55] Josh
Apple podcasts because it helps people find us and give us
[00:01:58] Josh
a good rating. So please, if you’ve listened and enjoyed, give us
[00:02:02] Josh
a quick rating five stars of course. But yes, let’s get into today’s episode,
[00:02:07] Josh
I’m really excited to be speaking to Bianca. And this episode is actually brought to you by Spirit Super,
[00:02:12] Josh
the Super fund for hard working Australians. Let’s be honest. First jobs are rarely glamorous,
[00:02:18] Josh
but whether you’re stacking shelves flipping burgers or starting an apprenticeship,
[00:02:21] Josh
we all want to start strong. Especially when it comes to our Super,
[00:02:25] Josh
thankfully Spirit Super understanding and looking after you Super, Super easy, with
[00:02:30] Josh
a focus on strong returns award winning service. And Super experts offering practical
[00:02:35] Josh
and helpful advice spirit strip is here for you and your Super right from day one.
[00:02:40] Josh
For more info, go to
[00:02:41] Josh
SpiritSuper.com.au. Do you consider the pads and TMD experience to become that I use
[00:02:47] Josh
those PDFs before making a decision. isra is motor trade association of Australia,
[00:02:52] Josh
Superannuation fund. Pty. Ltd advice is provided by quadrant first. Podiatry and past performance isn’t
[00:02:59] Josh
a reliable indicator of future performance. So now to our guest Bianca-Jaye Mazzuchelli.
[00:03:06] Josh
Who’s spreading awareness on autism spectrum disorder, and neurodiversity, Bianca Jaye is
[00:03:12] Josh
a proud Gunditjmara woman. She’s developed the auditory sensory prevention technology,
[00:03:16] Josh
or as Patty, as our show, referred to it early moving forward, designed to help children and adults with autism,
[00:03:24] Josh
or who are neurodiverse to combat the challenges they face in social settings,
[00:03:28] Josh
and live an inclusive social life. In twenty twenty two,
[00:03:32] Josh
she won the Swinburne Venture Cup for her aspt, and of course we know Bianca. As
[00:03:37] Josh
a finalist in the most recent 7News,
[00:03:39] Josh
Young Achiever Awards Victoria in the Spirit Super Create Change Award. So welcome to the podcast, Bianca-Jaye.
[00:03:46] Bianca-Jaye
Thank you very much for having me.
[00:03:49] Josh
Yes, fantastic.
[00:03:49] Josh
What’s the day been like for you so far?
[00:03:52] Bianca-Jaye
I started the day with my first first day back at University, so a full on day.
[00:03:59] Josh
Yeah, I can imagine so first day back from just term break or we had a bit of
[00:04:03] Josh
a break in your studies.
[00:04:05] Bianca-Jaye
Yes, I just a mid-semester break. So now coming into my third year of my undergraduate, so
[00:04:11] Josh
awesome. And so what is it that you’re studying?
[00:04:13] Bianca-Jaye
So I’m doing my bachelor of psychological sciences with a double minor in criminology and applied psychology. And
[00:04:19] Josh
criminology is one of those ones to me that’s like sad is so interesting. Is it?
[00:04:24] Josh
Is it like as interesting as it seems like, you know,
[00:04:27] Bianca-Jaye
I think it is so like I added on my mind or criminology just purely out of interest
[00:04:34] Bianca-Jaye
because you know, it was true crime documentaries and your law and order feels like, Oh,
[00:04:38] Bianca-Jaye
you know what? I want to learn more about this,
[00:04:40] Bianca-Jaye
so that’s how I got into the criminology side as well as obviously the psychology side.
[00:04:44] Josh
Glad it’s not just me. I thought that kind of stuff. That’s awesome. So yeah.
[00:04:50] Josh
Back into Uni. Thanks for making time to be on the podcast today. So much to talk
[00:04:55] Josh
about and you know, start in the obvious place a SBT,
[00:04:59] Josh
auditory sensory prevention technology. It sounds pretty complicated, can you, you know,
[00:05:05] Josh
give us the layman’s terms or help us kind of understand what that means.
[00:05:09] Bianca-Jaye
You know what, it sounds very complicated, but the basis of it,
[00:05:12] Bianca-Jaye
it is something actually really simple. So the auditory sensory prevention
[00:05:17] Bianca-Jaye
technology is an ear piece that disperses white noise. So it’s not
[00:05:22] Bianca-Jaye
a noise cancelling headphone, it’s not a hearing aid, it’s
[00:05:25] Bianca-Jaye
a one function ear piece that will disperse white noise to the person wearing it.
[00:05:31] Bianca-Jaye
That will counteract the over stimuli that people with autism and other diagnoses
[00:05:36] Bianca-Jaye
face in a social setting. So imagine a school excursion or a birthday party, places that are quite loud and
[00:05:43] Bianca-Jaye
a quite overwhelming.
[00:05:46] Josh
So my understanding of kind of sensory overload and you know,
[00:05:50] Josh
stimuli and things like that is coming from having two small children,
[00:05:54] Josh
myself and my wife, you know, is kind of sharing that, Oh geez,
[00:06:00] Josh
at certain times just the noise level is too much. And so yeah,
[00:06:03] Josh
we’ve talked about it heaps and yeah, I hate saying this,
[00:06:07] Josh
but I did my own research. You know what I mean?
[00:06:09] Josh
Just looking up and kind of yeah, uh, just understanding a bit more about it and why that is Such
[00:06:15] Josh
a trigger for people. So from that point of view, it does make sense what you’re talking about and having
[00:06:20] Josh
a family member who is on the autism spectrum. Yeah,
[00:06:24] Josh
I can see how that would would be helpful. What is it that led you down the path of
[00:06:30] Josh
working on these kind of things?
[00:06:31] Bianca-Jaye
So it’s with this, I want to say I came about it by accident,
[00:06:35] Bianca-Jaye
but it was done through a assignment in my human factors in psychology,
[00:06:40] Bianca-Jaye
which is how we as people work with technology on a psychological basis,
[00:06:44] Bianca-Jaye
I think like aviation or driving a car or you know,
[00:06:47] Bianca-Jaye
why do we want to push the red button that says do not press. And I had these list
[00:06:52] Bianca-Jaye
of assignment topics and I had a look and I was like, you know what?
[00:06:55] Bianca-Jaye
None of them are jumping out to me. None of them have,
[00:06:58] Bianca-Jaye
like sparked my interest. So I asked them like,
[00:07:00] Bianca-Jaye
can I do mine on autism studies or neurodiversity because it’s something very close
[00:07:05] Bianca-Jaye
to my heart. And something I’ve grown up with, you know, from,
[00:07:08] Bianca-Jaye
from birth having parents and family members. You know,
[00:07:13] Bianca-Jaye
who are on the Spectrum and then from that I had a think and I through my research,
[00:07:18] Bianca-Jaye
I went, well, why don’t we combine the use of headphones and noise canceling things with the use
[00:07:24] Bianca-Jaye
of white noise.
[00:07:25] Bianca-Jaye
So I sat down with a pencil and
[00:07:27] Bianca-Jaye
a bit of paper and the next thing you know, I’ve had,
[00:07:29] Bianca-Jaye
I came up with this design and my lecture went young,
[00:07:32] Bianca-Jaye
do you understand that this is something that can be made?
[00:07:35] Bianca-Jaye
And I was like, no, it’s not. And
[00:07:37] Bianca-Jaye
now here we are from that. So it’s been a really big journey.
[00:07:43] Josh
That’s pretty cool. Most people have ideas that sound good on
[00:07:47] Josh
paper and then you kind of explore and you’re like, Oh,
[00:07:50] Josh
that’s not going to work. That’s not feasible or it’s already been done. It’s
[00:07:53] Josh
released in, you know, fifteen hundred different models. So this is
[00:07:56] Josh
a rare occasion where you’ve kind of come up with this bit of an idea.
[00:08:00] Josh
And actually
[00:08:01] Josh
a, as you lecture said, you can make it and be, you know, utomi is,
[00:08:05] Josh
it’s something that’s readily kind of available already. Is this, I think that’s, that’s really common out there.
[00:08:10] Bianca-Jaye
It’s not common at all. So the example that I use is just say a parent, a teacher, or
[00:08:18] Bianca-Jaye
a child in primary school who’s neurodiverse. And this is the closest thing that we
[00:08:23] Bianca-Jaye
have to the device currently, that you’re at a school excursion,
[00:08:28] Bianca-Jaye
and you’re at the zoo and it’s loud and it’s overwhelming. And you know that you’re
[00:08:32] Bianca-Jaye
going to hit that peak of a meltdown.
[00:08:34] Bianca-Jaye
And other people can say you’re going to hit that peak of
[00:08:36] Bianca-Jaye
a meltdown. By the time you get out an iPad or an iPhone or headphones,
[00:08:41] Bianca-Jaye
and making sure that the five year old has the capacity to hold it or remove them
[00:08:46] Bianca-Jaye
from the situation. They’re already at
[00:08:48] Bianca-Jaye
a full blown meltdown level. So what we’ve done is made sure that this is very
[00:08:53] Bianca-Jaye
easily accessible and that it’s quick so,
[00:08:55] Bianca-Jaye
and it’s controlled by the person wearing it so that child can feel their emotions
[00:09:00] Bianca-Jaye
starting to rise. They can feel that it’s starting to get too much,
[00:09:03] Bianca-Jaye
and they’ve just got to press the button and the distraction chemistry as being the
[00:09:08] Bianca-Jaye
white noise. So the closest thing at the moment is that whole headphones and,
[00:09:14] Bianca-Jaye
and phone. And even if that is accessible at that time,
[00:09:17] Bianca-Jaye
so this will be worn by the person already to go.
[00:09:23] Josh
Yeah, that’s cool. Very, very cool. And I know you mean I’ve got a four year old and
[00:09:26] Josh
a six year old. So if they, if something is needed now,
[00:09:30] Josh
it’s literally now one minute delay and it’s too late. So exactly as you said,
[00:09:35] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, that’s it. And so my focus is predominantly on youth. But it’s also for adults as
[00:09:42] Bianca-Jaye
well. And we’re looking at different diagnoses on the neurodivergent scale like ADHD, where you might be sitting in
[00:09:50] Bianca-Jaye
a meeting. And it’s that fidgety and it’s all getting too much. And you don’t want
[00:09:55] Bianca-Jaye
to concentrate any more. Instead of having those urges, you know, to pattern or to leave or to stop wriggling,
[00:10:02] Bianca-Jaye
we can use things like green noise to come in in an ear pace. So yeah,
[00:10:08] Bianca-Jaye
wide range of uses. But it’s very exciting to see all these different things that potentially could be useful
[00:10:15] Josh
for sure. So you have to educate me what’s grey noise. I’m not aware of that one.
[00:10:18] Bianca-Jaye
So we’ve got a couple of noises. I refer to them as noises. So about white noise, grey noise,
[00:10:25] Bianca-Jaye
blue noise, pink noise brown noise, and the definition is pretty much the frequency of the noises is different. So
[00:10:32] Bianca-Jaye
where is the white noise? You have a quite high pitch that static think of an old TV noise,
[00:10:38] Bianca-Jaye
whereas green noise is quite low. I reflect, I think of
[00:10:42] Bianca-Jaye
a washing machine or an ocean sound. So it’s the same basis,
[00:10:46] Bianca-Jaye
but the frequency of the sound varies in level.
[00:10:50] Josh
Yeah. And so a grey noise is that meant to, you know,
[00:10:53] Josh
assist with people’s brain activity or something. You’re saying that in a meeting that, that could be useful.
[00:10:58] Bianca-Jaye
Yes. So things that we’re not noise cancelling. You can still actually hear everything that’s going on.
[00:11:03] Bianca-Jaye
It’s just,
[00:11:04] Bianca-Jaye
it’s just diverting the mind to something else rather than everything else. Yeah, that makes
[00:11:12] Josh
sense. Hmm, that’s interesting way to think about it completely different to you know, how
[00:11:17] Josh
a lot of people would be like myself, obviously speaking for you know,
[00:11:21] Josh
view how we should be hearing things. You want to hear everything.
[00:11:25] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah. That. And it’s, you know, there’s
[00:11:27] Bianca-Jaye
a safety reasons why we like you still want to be included and inclusive in these
[00:11:31] Bianca-Jaye
conversations. But those with diagnoses that are in, you’re neurodivergent, it’s not that easy just sitting there and concentrating like
[00:11:40] Bianca-Jaye
a divorce. I will say your typical person instead of your typical kid. So it’s in
[00:11:45] Bianca-Jaye
getting that inclusivity as well where people don’t have to remove themselves or
[00:11:49] Bianca-Jaye
feel like maybe being looked at or not behaving in a way that’s expected in these social situations.
[00:11:58] Josh
Yeah, for sure. So it’s part of the, you know,
[00:12:01] Josh
the bio I read mentioned that you won the burn Venture Cup. So you know,
[00:12:07] Josh
I think first you let us know what the Venture Cup is and, and how you went about winning it.
[00:12:12] Bianca-Jaye
So the swim and adventure Cup is through the innovation precinct at Swinburne,
[00:12:16] Bianca-Jaye
which is all about invention and business and getting things out from the ground
[00:12:23] Bianca-Jaye
from an idea concept you know, to a full blown product or company. And I did
[00:12:29] Bianca-Jaye
a couple of like science competitions beforehand and then the same lecture that
[00:12:35] Bianca-Jaye
said that the device could be made sent me the information for the bench Cup. I was like, you know,
[00:12:40] Bianca-Jaye
this is something I’m interested in. I enjoy public speaking. I enjoy competing and
[00:12:45] Bianca-Jaye
I get my idea out there like in front of a room of professionals. So I got together
[00:12:53] Bianca-Jaye
a pitch and I had training that was provided.
[00:12:56] Bianca-Jaye
So six weeks beforehand and very
[00:12:59] Bianca-Jaye
honoured to be up there with students doing their days or professors or alumni from
[00:13:04] Bianca-Jaye
Swinburne when I was still an undergrad undergraduate myself and went up there,
[00:13:09] Bianca-Jaye
spoke about my passion and, and which is, you know,
[00:13:12] Bianca-Jaye
helping people with autism and neurodiversity and actually I knew I’d want it,
[00:13:17] Josh
that’s pretty cool, especially as you said, against people doing PhDs and alumni and things like that.
[00:13:23] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah. It’s, you know, it still seems very surreal to be put in this category with people. I’m still
[00:13:29] Bianca-Jaye
currently in my undergraduate, so I just started the idea today. So you know,
[00:13:34] Bianca-Jaye
the future of where all this lies is very exciting and also having the help of
[00:13:39] Bianca-Jaye
these people alongside me through the journey has been Incredible.
[00:13:44] Josh
Was it a case of when you were announced as the winner? Like what was your feeling at that time?
[00:13:51] Bianca-Jaye
So I actually sat there and I was clapping in my seat because I hadn’t realized and
[00:13:56] Bianca-Jaye
then I actually had my mom with me who flew down from Brisbane. And she’s like,
[00:14:00] Bianca-Jaye
yeah, this is you and I was like, what’s your name? You know, this is me,
[00:14:04] Bianca-Jaye
I just want it. So it was absolutely surreal. Incredible.
[00:14:11] Bianca-Jaye
You know, there was
[00:14:11] Bianca-Jaye
a pickup given and a man like, you know,
[00:14:14] Bianca-Jaye
my name is going to be in that swimsuit and for the entirety of swim that. You know,
[00:14:19] Bianca-Jaye
it’s something that I can go back and show my kids and my grandkids that you know,
[00:14:22] Bianca-Jaye
my name is on this Cup with some amazing companies and technologies that have
[00:14:27] Bianca-Jaye
changed the world. So that’s, that concept is so hard to grasp. Still, you know, that’s my name there.
[00:14:35] Josh
We give out a lot of trophies with the young achiever awards and the community achievement
[00:14:39] Josh
awards. But I got to say there is something pretty cool about a Cup
[00:14:42] Bianca-Jaye
there is and it’s, you know,
[00:14:45] Bianca-Jaye
I was carrying around the Cup all night. So there was actually two winners. There was an alumni winner and
[00:14:50] Bianca-Jaye
a current student winner. But that Cup was mine for the night. That was I was very,
[00:14:55] Bianca-Jaye
very excited to have the big Cup and carry it around.
[00:15:00] Josh
Yeah, that is awesome.
[00:15:01] Josh
So, sounds like a really good program where you had, as you said,
[00:15:05] Josh
six weeks of kind of support leading up and you know, what,
[00:15:09] Josh
what kind of areas did you feel you needed the most support with and kind of where
[00:15:14] Josh
were you feeling already, you know, strong in
[00:15:17] Bianca-Jaye
so public speaking, I feel quite strong and I’m very,
[00:15:21] Bianca-Jaye
I’m quite comfortable. I grew up in the performing arts debate in front of
[00:15:24] Bianca-Jaye
a crowd. You know, it’s like a second home. But whereas, you know,
[00:15:28] Bianca-Jaye
coming to it towards a business perspective, I’m a, I’m
[00:15:31] Bianca-Jaye
a psych student like I know the brain and I know about behaviours. But in terms of the business,
[00:15:36] Bianca-Jaye
I really had no concept of idea. I what it took and then the
[00:15:43] Bianca-Jaye
engineering of the product as well, because again, I’m not an engineer. So you know,
[00:15:47] Bianca-Jaye
working with all these people and going from business everywhere from your ABN to,
[00:15:53] Bianca-Jaye
you know, your full blown patent and patents and everything like that. So, and it’s still
[00:15:58] Bianca-Jaye
a journey that I am on. So now working with Swinburne and medtech in conjunction
[00:16:03] Bianca-Jaye
and meeting people that work for the likes of Johnson and Johnson. And now going
[00:16:07] Bianca-Jaye
into the medical side of it,
[00:16:09] Bianca-Jaye
which is something that I never thought would be in my wheelhouse of things of
[00:16:13] Bianca-Jaye
working with people. Yeah. In a medical field. So
[00:16:18] Josh
yeah, well, you know, you kind of led me to one of the questions I want to ask you,
[00:16:21] Josh
which is perfect. Where is it up to? Now, you know, because as you said,
[00:16:26] Josh
there’s patents involved as medical side. I imagine there’d be quite
[00:16:30] Josh
a long process of getting something like this, you know, from concept stage to kind of rapidly, not rapidly,
[00:16:36] Josh
readily being produced
[00:16:38] Bianca-Jaye
yet. So this at the moment we’re working with different
[00:16:41] Bianca-Jaye
sound boards to get the sound correct. And then we’re going into,
[00:16:47] Bianca-Jaye
we get to go in to the research side,
[00:16:49] Bianca-Jaye
which is where I’m most excited for this to go. I’m planning on doing my master’s
[00:16:54] Bianca-Jaye
in research in this particular field because of the device and because of the spike
[00:17:00] Bianca-Jaye
in interest.
[00:17:01] Bianca-Jaye
So at the moment, yeah, we’re playing around with different sound boards and making sure that that
[00:17:06] Bianca-Jaye
frequency is correct, That the sound is safe. The volume is safe,
[00:17:10] Bianca-Jaye
everything works. And then we start with the functionality of it and you know,
[00:17:14] Bianca-Jaye
we get to test and on people that are, that are willing to come and be
[00:17:20] Bianca-Jaye
a Guinea pig for me. While we get all these up and running to see how grateful the
[00:17:24] Bianca-Jaye
impact we can have and how quickly we can measure brainwaves and everything from an
[00:17:29] Bianca-Jaye
overstimulation, you know, to a calm, a calmness within the brain using using white noise.
[00:17:37] Josh
So a device like this can usually or could take years really to, to be as you said,
[00:17:44] Josh
workshopped researched and then kind of all those things that need to happen.
[00:17:49] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, it can take years and I’m very fortunate that I’ve started this in my second unit
[00:17:55] Bianca-Jaye
and it’s been less than twelve months since I’ve won the Venture Cup. So it’s going very, very quickly for
[00:18:01] Bianca-Jaye
a new technology and in the medical field. Everything like that. However, for me, I want everything you know,
[00:18:07] Bianca-Jaye
ready to go and then learning that that doesn’t work in these kind of processes,
[00:18:11] Bianca-Jaye
that it does take time and a lot of patience. So it’s just taking it every step as it comes,
[00:18:18] Bianca-Jaye
working through it, and I don’t want to put out something that’s got any flaws. So getting it to that
[00:18:26] Bianca-Jaye
perfect status to be readily available on the market.
[00:18:29] Bianca-Jaye
And I’ve always said that I
[00:18:31] Bianca-Jaye
want it available at chemist warehouse, you know,
[00:18:34] Bianca-Jaye
for your everyday family affordable. Because I know the costs of what it can be
[00:18:39] Bianca-Jaye
with a child that’s got autism spectrum disorder or an other diagnosis of you know,
[00:18:45] Bianca-Jaye
occupational therapy, doctor’s appointment, speech therapist,
[00:18:49] Bianca-Jaye
and it all adds up. So chemist warehouse is my goal always has been so that’s
[00:18:55] Bianca-Jaye
hopefully where we’ll end up.
[00:18:57] Josh
Yeah, that’s awesome. Would you say that? You know, I guess maybe it’s just terminology but, but Bianca,
[00:19:03] Josh
would you say that you know, you’ve got to start up? Or is it something
[00:19:08] Bianca-Jaye
else that’s exactly what it is. It’s a start up companies. So,
[00:19:11] Bianca-Jaye
you know, there’s other things within this company which, you know, I’ve created,
[00:19:16] Bianca-Jaye
I guess now of things that I want to look into. One of them is, you know,
[00:19:19] Bianca-Jaye
writing children’s books about inclusivity and diversity and how we,
[00:19:24] Bianca-Jaye
as non neurodiverse people interact with those who are neurodiverse and it’s all
[00:19:31] Bianca-Jaye
for me, it’s all about inclusion and that sociability and I believe that it’s
[00:19:35] Bianca-Jaye
a human right for every child to have a friend or have the ability to make
[00:19:39] Bianca-Jaye
a friend, which we see a lot happening with young children with autism spectrum disorder where that
[00:19:44] Bianca-Jaye
sociability is not there due to being overwhelmed. And the startup company is on
[00:19:50] Bianca-Jaye
the way and hopefully I can dip my toe into a few different things,
[00:19:53] Bianca-Jaye
but still to do with the neurodiversity, Oh,
[00:19:59] Josh
so you did,
[00:19:59] Josh
you did touch on it earlier on, but you said
[00:20:01] Josh
it was a very personal to you. So, you know, happy to speak
[00:20:04] Josh
a bit more about that and kind of where that was founded and,
[00:20:09] Josh
and kind of why it’s so important to you.
[00:20:12] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, absolutely. So my best friend’s brother, Matthew, who is now twenty five years old,
[00:20:19] Bianca-Jaye
very high on the Spectrum. Verbal but very limited in communication and I’ve
[00:20:26] Bianca-Jaye
watched Matthew grow up and I’ve seen the struggles of what happens when he’s in
[00:20:30] Bianca-Jaye
a social setting and it does get too much and the way that people can look at him
[00:20:34] Bianca-Jaye
sometimes, and it breaks my heart that you know,
[00:20:36] Bianca-Jaye
he hasn’t had the same opportunity that I have had or my best friend has had, you know,
[00:20:42] Bianca-Jaye
he locked himself in his room some days and it’s I’ve seen how detrimental it can
[00:20:48] Bianca-Jaye
be to his mental health. Now, you know,
[00:20:50] Bianca-Jaye
this is something he’s lived with for twenty five years and you know,
[00:20:54] Bianca-Jaye
that friendships aren’t there. You know, and it’s,
[00:20:58] Bianca-Jaye
I call him one of my best friends because I love him to pieces. He’s like,
[00:21:02] Bianca-Jaye
he’s like my brother.
[00:21:03] Bianca-Jaye
So, you know, helping children like him from
[00:21:06] Bianca-Jaye
a young age being able to have that sociability can make
[00:21:09] Bianca-Jaye
a great impact even coming into adolescent and then going into adulthood. So he’s
[00:21:14] Bianca-Jaye
been a massive inspiration to me and everything I’m doing,
[00:21:18] Bianca-Jaye
I’m doing to help people like Matthew to be more included to be more included in everyday life.
[00:21:24] Josh
Yeah, for sure. I think that’s a really interesting point. You mentioned, you know,
[00:21:28] Josh
with that context in mind about, you know,
[00:21:30] Josh
books and things like that and kind of just making it normal and normalizing people
[00:21:35] Josh
because I feel sometimes, you know, and you can extend this to disability of any type that people almost sort
[00:21:42] Josh
themselves out of like,
[00:21:43] Josh
I don’t want to say the wrong thing or upset anyone and so they just think, well,
[00:21:47] Josh
it’s easy if I just don’t talk to them.
[00:21:50] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah. And that’s exactly right. And I was quite and with this once we had
[00:21:54] Bianca-Jaye
a family friend when autism was kind of first coming into focus
[00:22:01] Bianca-Jaye
with high levels of being diagnosed and Children being diagnosed with autism
[00:22:07] Bianca-Jaye
spectrum disorder. And I saw with him, you know, at five and six years old when he’d be at
[00:22:12] Bianca-Jaye
a birthday party and his behavior would be seen as out of control and the hitting
[00:22:17] Bianca-Jaye
and the biting would stop. And the parents of the other kids went, well,
[00:22:21] Bianca-Jaye
we don’t want him at our kid’s birthday parties because of the behavior. And the
[00:22:26] Bianca-Jaye
next thing you know this, you know, five,
[00:22:28] Bianca-Jaye
six year old boy is invited to birthday parties anymore. Out of Salt Lake that’s
[00:22:33] Bianca-Jaye
very much out of his control. And it’s heartbreaking to parents as well. You know,
[00:22:38] Bianca-Jaye
and it’s not just the socialization of the kid that suffers. It’s the socialization
[00:22:42] Bianca-Jaye
of the parent. Because then you only are ostracized because of your child’s behavior, which, you know,
[00:22:48] Bianca-Jaye
you don’t know how to control and the child doesn’t know how to control either. So
[00:22:52] Bianca-Jaye
it’s making sure that everyone is being included in a, in a social setting. And,
[00:22:57] Bianca-Jaye
you know, being able to enjoy these birthday parties without, you know, having that stigma attached of,
[00:23:03] Bianca-Jaye
but behavioral issues or all your diagnoses. So yeah, very big on inclusivity.
[00:23:10] Josh
Do you think? You said like I have now a diagnosis and I guess awareness is coming
[00:23:16] Josh
a bit more into focus. And, you know, you’ve said the word neurodiverse and your diversity, that’s obviously becoming
[00:23:23] Josh
a much more used term. People are more aware now of what that is. Do you think even
[00:23:28] Josh
things like that is helping the situation?
[00:23:31] Bianca-Jaye
Oh, absolutely, and I think it’s helping those who are diagnosed as neurodiverse as well. And it’s
[00:23:38] Bianca-Jaye
not that it gives an explanation to behaviours, but it’s giving that, you know, almost like
[00:23:43] Bianca-Jaye
a community of people who are neurodiverse that have found each other.
[00:23:47] Bianca-Jaye
And it’s
[00:23:47] Bianca-Jaye
like, you know, people can go, well, you know, I’m neurodiverse, you know,
[00:23:51] Bianca-Jaye
I’ve got autism spectrum disorder and then you’ll find someone else go, Oh,
[00:23:55] Bianca-Jaye
I’m neurodiverse, I’ve got extreme anxiety being around people,
[00:23:58] Bianca-Jaye
social anxiety. And then you know, you have people diagnosed with ADHD going on,
[00:24:03] Bianca-Jaye
I’m also neurodiverse and so and then through the likes of Social media as well.
[00:24:09] Bianca-Jaye
You see all these people connect and in university settings as well. We see now the
[00:24:14] Bianca-Jaye
increase of quiet spaces and safe spaces where we’re catering for people who are
[00:24:20] Bianca-Jaye
neurodiverse, which is really awesome to see and even tactile playgrounds,
[00:24:25] Bianca-Jaye
coming into play for kids. You know, where I know that there’s trampoline parks,
[00:24:31] Bianca-Jaye
especially catered for children with autism. Which is absolutely Incredible to see all these starting to come in.
[00:24:39] Josh
Yeah, for sure. There is lots of change happening. You know,
[00:24:42] Josh
even I’ve seen like the tic talks and rio’s normalising talking about being on the
[00:24:48] Josh
Spectrum and things like that, which is awesome.
[00:24:50] Josh
You know, for you being a researcher, obviously and still in university,
[00:24:54] Josh
what do you think are some of the future or Where’s that the field headed in terms of your diversity?
[00:25:01] Bianca-Jaye
All the field in your diversity. It’s something that’s definitely being explored a lot more. And you know,
[00:25:08] Bianca-Jaye
we still don’t have an explanation as to why people are diagnosed with autism. We
[00:25:15] Bianca-Jaye
don’t know the underlying causes of what actually happens in the brain. So this is
[00:25:20] Bianca-Jaye
something that’s got a lot of research ahead of it.
[00:25:24] Bianca-Jaye
For myself,
[00:25:25] Bianca-Jaye
my research will be with you and your device in the use of sound. You know,
[00:25:28] Bianca-Jaye
how far can we take something as simple as sound into the field of neurodiversity
[00:25:34] Bianca-Jaye
and then going on to other mental illnesses as well. Like an example I’ve been
[00:25:40] Bianca-Jaye
asked was, well, what about the likes of a diagnoses like schizophrenia?
[00:25:43] Bianca-Jaye
Can we use something as simple as sound to counteract voices in the head, from
[00:25:49] Bianca-Jaye
a change of concentration of going from one thing to the sound. So it’s
[00:25:55] Bianca-Jaye
a very exciting well that’s one side of the field. But in terms of neurodiversity,
[00:26:01] Bianca-Jaye
we’re learning A lot more. And now we have the likes of, you know,
[00:26:04] Bianca-Jaye
people doing their masters in autism studies. So all these things are coming about
[00:26:09] Bianca-Jaye
and I think it’s just going to make the world a lot more inclusive and people
[00:26:13] Bianca-Jaye
a lot more understanding of neurodiversity
[00:26:17] Josh
now I’m throwing a bit of a curveball question here at you. So hopefully it’s not too too curvy,
[00:26:24] Josh
but you know, I’m just thinking out loud. Like, obviously
[00:26:27] Josh
a lot of us would know someone who is neurodiverse and there’s probably
[00:26:31] Josh
a lot of employers or people, you know,
[00:26:34] Josh
working in teams that might have someone who’s neurodiverse in them. You know,
[00:26:37] Josh
with your kind of expert background. Do you think,
[00:26:40] Josh
did you have any tips for people on how to best connect with or you know,
[00:26:45] Josh
engage an employee, for example, for example, who has that? Yeah,
[00:26:49] Bianca-Jaye
absolutely. And look, the number one thing to do is if a person’s come to you said I am neurodiverse,
[00:26:55] Bianca-Jaye
ask what their triggers are. Number one and then ask them what they can put in
[00:27:00] Bianca-Jaye
place for when they may get triggered or overwhelmed. You know,
[00:27:05] Bianca-Jaye
making sure that that person doesn’t feel like they’re going to get in trouble if
[00:27:08] Bianca-Jaye
they need to escalate themselves. So they come back to be still involved. Yeah, that’s
[00:27:12] Bianca-Jaye
a problem. And everyone’s individual as well. So you might have something in place for, you know,
[00:27:19] Bianca-Jaye
we’ve got employees who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Not all their
[00:27:24] Bianca-Jaye
triggers are going to be the same and not all the treatments are going to be the
[00:27:27] Bianca-Jaye
same. So really customizing to the individual of what triggers them, what helps them for some people it might be,
[00:27:35] Bianca-Jaye
it might be the use of sound. For some people it might be having a bouncy ball or
[00:27:39] Bianca-Jaye
a clicky pen or something to fidget with while being in meetings and you know,
[00:27:43] Bianca-Jaye
not discriminating against those people for what they need to be included.
[00:27:48] Josh
Yep. That’s a good one. You know, on a personal note,
[00:27:52] Josh
I know someone who he’s neurodiverse, but he just loves researching
[00:27:57] Josh
a topic like he focusing in on a topic. And then he’ll, you know,
[00:28:01] Josh
research and research and research.
[00:28:03] Josh
He’s part of that team at awards,
[00:28:05] Josh
Australia and we use his skill because we have
[00:28:07] Josh
a lot of people who are nominated in the awards and they kind of, you know,
[00:28:12] Josh
and it’s, it’s really sweet because they’re so humble. They’re like, Oh, I haven’t really done anything. And
[00:28:17] Josh
a quick Google will show you that they’ve volunteered for twenty years that they’ve
[00:28:23] Josh
got a doctorate in this. And they’ve been helping the community in
[00:28:25] Josh
a myriad of different ways. And so he actually uses his skill on that and kind of says,
[00:28:31] Josh
I’ll look at them with this kind of fans information on you. Absolutely Incredible.
[00:28:36] Josh
You should definitely nominate and, and they kind of go, wow,
[00:28:40] Josh
like I didn’t even know that information was out there. About me. That’s unbelievable. And so, you know,
[00:28:46] Josh
I feel like you can just use people’s skills and their interests and,
[00:28:50] Josh
and trait trader as an asset rather than a negative
[00:28:55] Bianca-Jaye
or exactly, utilize, utilize these skills. And you don’t utilize the wealth of knowledge that comes with
[00:29:01] Bianca-Jaye
people who are hyper focused on a certain topic because you’re never going to find someone that’s better in the
[00:29:07] Bianca-Jaye
field or more knowledgeable in the field for someone who has Such an interesting
[00:29:11] Bianca-Jaye
appetite, almost live and breathe it, you know,
[00:29:14] Bianca-Jaye
and it’s sometimes it’s Incredible to sit down with people who’ve been diagnosed
[00:29:19] Bianca-Jaye
with autism and speak to them about what they love. And you can see the brain fire
[00:29:26] Bianca-Jaye
because they’ve got so much to tell you that sometimes you just have to be like,
[00:29:30] Bianca-Jaye
thank you enough information, but seeing that excitement,
[00:29:35] Bianca-Jaye
I have that with Matthew as well, like Harry Potter legacy is a massive one,
[00:29:40] Bianca-Jaye
which I’m a Lego fan myself,
[00:29:42] Bianca-Jaye
so I ask him about it and then the next thing I’ve been sitting there for three
[00:29:46] Bianca-Jaye
hours, and it’s like, Oh,
[00:29:48] Bianca-Jaye
I know everything there is to know now that every single Harry Potter Lego set that
[00:29:53] Bianca-Jaye
has come on the market. Yeah,
[00:29:55] Bianca-Jaye
it can be very heartwarming to watch when people have Such an interest and Such
[00:30:00] Bianca-Jaye
a love for a set and
[00:30:01] Josh
topic. Yeah, for sure. You know, another thing I want to ask you about in terms of, you know,
[00:30:07] Josh
the field of neurodiversity getting back to that I guess is, you know,
[00:30:11] Josh
you mentioned something to me off air about the amount of different diagnoses there are. You know, for me,
[00:30:17] Josh
I guess not being an expert in the area. My kind of understanding is very limited.
[00:30:22] Josh
So yeah. Can you help us understand what types of diagnoses there are and the background on that?
[00:30:28] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, absolutely. So the diagnosis is all of autism spectrum disorder has changed over
[00:30:34] Bianca-Jaye
the course of ten years. But ten to fifteen years where we’ve gone away from things
[00:30:39] Bianca-Jaye
like asperger’s which used to be a diagnosis in conjunction with autism,
[00:30:43] Bianca-Jaye
which now doesn’t exist. And now it’s on a Spectrum scale,
[00:30:46] Bianca-Jaye
so you’ve got your high functioning autism and your low functioning autism. So
[00:30:50] Bianca-Jaye
that’s one band of it. And then you, again you’ve got ADHD which can be categorised.
[00:30:56] Bianca-Jaye
Some people with ADHD
[00:30:58] Bianca-Jaye
may be quite hyperactive, which is what our stereotypical it looks like is that hyperactive can’t sit still,
[00:31:07] Bianca-Jaye
but there’s so much more on that scale there’s you know, the sometimes there is the hyperfocus where you know,
[00:31:14] Bianca-Jaye
I must get this done. I must finish it and
[00:31:16] Bianca-Jaye
I’m not going to sleep until I do. And there’s the big mood swings as well in between of,
[00:31:22] Bianca-Jaye
on one side being so happy and overwhelmed that all these energy builds up to then
[00:31:26] Bianca-Jaye
going down. And it’s like all that crash, almost like crash and burn of energy. And you’ve got anxiety,
[00:31:32] Bianca-Jaye
which of course has many different umbrellas with anxiety. Social anxiety is probably
[00:31:39] Bianca-Jaye
a big one for people. I feel like at the moment coming out of the covid pandemic,
[00:31:44] Bianca-Jaye
especially for somebody being locked inside for three years. It’s social anxiety of coming out,
[00:31:48] Bianca-Jaye
the other side can be quite overwhelming. Yes. And the social anxiety of that
[00:31:55] Bianca-Jaye
feeling, you know, is, are people watching me? Am I doing the right thing?
[00:31:59] Bianca-Jaye
This is just getting too much for me. So yeah, there’s a whole range,
[00:32:03] Bianca-Jaye
but they’re my three focus points. Majorly.
[00:32:07] Josh
Yeah. Well, very interesting because when I was a kid exactly what age,
[00:32:11] Josh
but I was diagnosed with ADHD and then I’ll probably get this wrong. But I think as
[00:32:17] Josh
that went on they’re like, Oh no, it’s ADHD
[00:32:19] Josh
or something. I don’t know what it was,
[00:32:22] Josh
but eventually kind of like the medication wasn’t really doing that much for me
[00:32:26] Josh
personally because I don’t feel like I had the hyperactive thing where I was like,
[00:32:31] Josh
you know, I was almost the what you you’re saying about the,
[00:32:33] Josh
the crash of energy and then all of a sudden I was like,
[00:32:36] Josh
Oh well just don’t go limit the medication and as I became
[00:32:40] Josh
a teenager for whatever reason that seemed to you know,
[00:32:43] Josh
not really be as much of an issue. So I think people go through that
[00:32:46] Josh
a lot where they’re like, thinking back to the old days of like, Oh yeah,
[00:32:49] Josh
he’s got ADHD or asperger’s. But yeah, as you were saying, that’s not even a diagnosis anymore.
[00:32:55] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah.
[00:32:55] Bianca-Jaye
And it’s, you know,
[00:32:57] Bianca-Jaye
also we learn within ourselves sometimes what our triggers are or can be. And as we age we go, well,
[00:33:03] Bianca-Jaye
I’m probably not going to do that because I know the effects that it can have on me
[00:33:08] Bianca-Jaye
mentally or have an effect on my behavior. And sometimes we can’t help it. You know,
[00:33:13] Bianca-Jaye
we live in a world where it’s constantly on the go, where you can’t just be like, you know what,
[00:33:17] Bianca-Jaye
I’m having an off day today. Hmm. I think
[00:33:19] Bianca-Jaye
now it’s starting to change as well. But,
[00:33:21] Bianca-Jaye
you know, I think I just need to stay at home in my own little bubble today,
[00:33:26] Bianca-Jaye
rather than go out and put myself in a social setting,
[00:33:29] Bianca-Jaye
which I know is going to cause me some anxiety or overwhelm witness to that change
[00:33:34] Bianca-Jaye
of diagnoses and all that and then learning how triggers as well, which I think everyone would know, you know,
[00:33:41] Bianca-Jaye
what triggers them when that makes them feel uncomfortable. So yeah, learning ourselves as we age in neurodiversity,
[00:33:50] Josh
which yeah, this is a bit anecdotal, but you know,
[00:33:54] Josh
I have heard from some people as well that it’s speaking of anxiety that actually
[00:33:57] Josh
the parents of a child being diagnosed can then get
[00:34:01] Josh
a lot of anxiety around it because it seems like, you know, Such
[00:34:05] Josh
a big deal and they kind of don’t want their kid to have that diagnosis. Have you
[00:34:09] Josh
encountered that at all?
[00:34:12] Bianca-Jaye
I haven’t as yet,
[00:34:14] Bianca-Jaye
but I do know I like so I’ve got friends in my age group where the kids are
[00:34:19] Bianca-Jaye
starting to turn that three or four where the energy is next level because there
[00:34:23] Bianca-Jaye
are three or four year old child and they, you know,
[00:34:26] Bianca-Jaye
they’ve asked I’m so scared that they’ve got ADHD or I’m so scared that they’re autistic because they you know,
[00:34:33] Bianca-Jaye
like having their alone time and it’s kind of having to say, well,
[00:34:36] Bianca-Jaye
you got to remember the kids are still kids as well. And there’s one thing having
[00:34:40] Bianca-Jaye
a diagnosis and there’s one thing of just doing normal child behaviour. Yeah. So
[00:34:45] Bianca-Jaye
that’s why we’ve got it separate them as well. And I think what’s happening is
[00:34:49] Bianca-Jaye
parents are so scared that there’s
[00:34:52] Bianca-Jaye
a diagnosis in their child that they’re trying to find it. Mhm rather than just
[00:34:58] Bianca-Jaye
kind of letting it watching and letting it play out and then going in and stepping
[00:35:04] Bianca-Jaye
in when needed. So I definitely think the anxiety is around there,
[00:35:07] Bianca-Jaye
but I also think the anxiety is not helping the cause of these children. So it’s a really, you know,
[00:35:14] Bianca-Jaye
kind of double edged sword that you’ve got going on at the moment. And of course,
[00:35:17] Bianca-Jaye
like again I go back to social media because it’s something that is so prevalent
[00:35:22] Bianca-Jaye
now in society where people will get on Tok,
[00:35:25] Bianca-Jaye
or they’ll get on Instagram and post their story and they’ll go, you know,
[00:35:29] Bianca-Jaye
this is my diagnosis and all the people go well I like two out of five of those
[00:35:33] Bianca-Jaye
things I’ve posted. So I must have
[00:35:35] Bianca-Jaye
a diagnosis as well. And then that passes on and then the next person watches it
[00:35:40] Bianca-Jaye
guys, you know, I like my, my socks coded a certain way. Oh,
[00:35:45] Bianca-Jaye
sounds like I’ve got OCD so it’s yeah, definitely trying to differentiate between
[00:35:52] Bianca-Jaye
a diagnosis which is very complex and there’s multiple different categories that you take off to be diagnosed with
[00:36:00] Bianca-Jaye
a neurological disorder rather than your social media diagnosis.
[00:36:06] Josh
Yep, that’s so true and yeah, kind of chuckling along that the know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s funny.
[00:36:13] Josh
So, you know, speaking of anxiety, this is a,
[00:36:15] Josh
this is probably my worst Segway of all time, but I’m going to give it
[00:36:19] Josh
a go. Speaking of anxiety, you said that you know, you love performing, you had
[00:36:24] Josh
a background of that that the public speaking element of your Venture Cup win
[00:36:29] Josh
wasn’t an issue. So I guess speaking of not having anxiety about those things,
[00:36:35] Josh
how did you find being at the, you know, the young, achieve rewards and even you know,
[00:36:41] Josh
comparing that to the Venture Cup not comparing but like in a similar way,
[00:36:43] Josh
being in an awards program and going up on stage in front of people. That was fine
[00:36:48] Josh
for you as well.
[00:36:50] Bianca-Jaye
Oh, that was the only thing I had was I was the first person called for the whole night.
[00:36:54] Bianca-Jaye
So start of the night everyone. There was Bianca. Your first up first category, first person on
[00:37:00] Josh
stage alphabetical order, the
[00:37:02] Bianca-Jaye
alphabetical order, and obviously this spirit, Super creating change award was the first word being presented. I was like,
[00:37:09] Bianca-Jaye
this is it, I’m up. I’m your best as on the stage,
[00:37:12] Bianca-Jaye
but I was very lucky to have an amazing support network come and support me that
[00:37:17] Bianca-Jaye
night. You know, I had my family there, my partner there, my best friends there,
[00:37:22] Bianca-Jaye
and people from Swinburne as well. You know,
[00:37:25] Bianca-Jaye
that were all there to support me. So having that there as well. Definitely gave me
[00:37:30] Bianca-Jaye
that extra boost of confidence,
[00:37:32] Bianca-Jaye
but I’m still not too sure what’s worse.
[00:37:34] Bianca-Jaye
A room of five hundred strangers or your
[00:37:36] Bianca-Jaye
five closest friends is a
[00:37:39] Josh
that’s a good point. That’s tough, actually,
[00:37:42] Bianca-Jaye
you know,
[00:37:42] Josh
prefer doing a public speaking gig to five hundred strangers. I reckon.
[00:37:46] Bianca-Jaye
I agree. You know, the strangers don’t know you from a bar. So, but yet, you know,
[00:37:50] Bianca-Jaye
you interact with your family and everything every day and you know,
[00:37:54] Bianca-Jaye
they know what you’re capable of. So it’s that little bit of,
[00:37:58] Bianca-Jaye
and I do get more nervous than my family come on watch as well. Naturally. You know,
[00:38:03] Bianca-Jaye
I want to make sure that doing them proud which, you know, I don’t think everyone has that feeling.
[00:38:09] Josh
Yeah, that’s awesome. So obviously you were a finalist in that category, which was pretty cool. It was
[00:38:15] Josh
a very diverse range of people in that category. Doing different things, you know,
[00:38:21] Josh
would you looking back and I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this,
[00:38:25] Josh
someone can edit it out if I’m not.
[00:38:27] Josh
But I think your mom nominated you in the awards. Right?
[00:38:30] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, she did.
[00:38:31] Josh
Yeah. Which is awesome. I love that. I’ve had some people say they don’t
[00:38:36] Josh
want to let their son or daughter know that nominated them because it’s
[00:38:40] Josh
embarrassing and I say no it’s. It’s amazing. It’s Such a compliment. What did what, how did that work?
[00:38:45] Josh
Did she tell you one day that nominating you or or how when she nominated you in
[00:38:50] Josh
the awards? What happened?
[00:38:51] Bianca-Jaye
I’m so it was more like we both saw it advertised on TV through channel seven and
[00:38:57] Bianca-Jaye
mum sent me the brief as well. Chloe is,
[00:39:00] Bianca-Jaye
is something and I spoke to Swinburne about it as well and everything like that. So all speaking together,
[00:39:06] Bianca-Jaye
mum was the one that put through the the nomination. Yeah. And,
[00:39:11] Bianca-Jaye
and then obviously got contacted to expand on what mum’s knowledge was of what I do
[00:39:17] Bianca-Jaye
to then expand to go more in depth and then Yes
[00:39:20] Bianca-Jaye
. And then is over there. So like, you know, we were putting through a nomination so it was. Yeah,
[00:39:27] Bianca-Jaye
absolutely amazing. And then you’re filling in the gaps because, you know,
[00:39:31] Bianca-Jaye
mum gave it a bit of pressure to fill in everything. You know,
[00:39:34] Bianca-Jaye
she had to work with me on that as well. Because, you know,
[00:39:37] Bianca-Jaye
I can’t remember everything you’ve done over the past twelve months because it’s been, you know, a massive journey.
[00:39:43] Josh
Yeah, it’s a good team effort. And you know, from our perspective running the awards,
[00:39:47] Josh
we have nothing to do with judging other than bringing the experts together and
[00:39:51] Josh
putting them in the right place and giving them access to the all the documents
[00:39:55] Josh
they need. But you know, we do try and help our nominees in putting forward
[00:39:59] Josh
a really good application.
[00:40:01] Josh
Because I always say that awards programs are like the
[00:40:04] Josh
perfect vehicle for storytelling. Because people nominate in and that’s, you know,
[00:40:09] Josh
our way of collecting some stories. It goes through to
[00:40:12] Josh
a judging process. That’s our way of filtering through which of the best stories
[00:40:15] Josh
and then awards night podcasts. These kind of things is how we share the stories.
[00:40:21] Josh
But obviously your mum’s nominated you Super lovely and she’s not an expert in your diversity in your studies,
[00:40:30] Josh
in your research. So that’s where our team go. Oh, look,
[00:40:33] Josh
we’ve got this great story in, but we can tell that there’s
[00:40:37] Josh
a bit of detail that might need to be filled in
[00:40:39] Josh
here. So that was kind of a bit of
[00:40:42] Josh
a precursor or a bit of context as to why that happens.
[00:40:45] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah, and as well, you know, my mum’s been diagnosed with ADHD and so for
[00:40:50] Bianca-Jaye
a long time my mum did her psych degree so I don’t want to say how many years
[00:40:57] Bianca-Jaye
ago now you know
[00:40:58] Josh
that same safe option
[00:41:00] Bianca-Jaye
had mum is a psychologist. You know, who is also neurodiverse, so a lot of the behaviours I know, and
[00:41:05] Bianca-Jaye
a lot of my expertise comes from, you know, watching her and especially the behavioural side. So, you know,
[00:41:13] Bianca-Jaye
when I do all of this as well,
[00:41:15] Bianca-Jaye
my focus is on autism spectrum disorder. But I do have that, you know,
[00:41:19] Bianca-Jaye
at least it’s come from come from mum so
[00:41:23] Josh
well there you go. I misspoke, she’s an expert.
[00:41:25] Bianca-Jaye
She is an expert. She is an expert on neurodiversity,
[00:41:28] Bianca-Jaye
but she’s an expert in terms I guess of living it and not researching it.
[00:41:33] Josh
So your mum sounds like a very interesting character. Obviously at the start we said that you’re proud
[00:41:40] Josh
a Gunditjmara woman and but you’ve, you know,
[00:41:45] Josh
kind of lived in Melbourne your whole life and can you just tell us
[00:41:48] Josh
a bit about where Gunditjmara country is and, and your mum and that kind of stuff.
[00:41:53] Bianca-Jaye
Yeah. No problems like in dejima, our country is pretty much between Portland and Warrnambool. So my
[00:42:02] Bianca-Jaye
biological grandfather was born on country and grew up in one of the missions down
[00:42:07] Bianca-Jaye
there. And due to the time and,
[00:42:12] Bianca-Jaye
and everything else that was going on. So my mum was put up for adoption in nineteen seventy one,
[00:42:18] Bianca-Jaye
which then led to us having this massive gap in family history,
[00:42:21] Bianca-Jaye
which is all too common with Aboriginal families and trying to find those
[00:42:25] Bianca-Jaye
connections. And again, it wasn’t till mom was really,
[00:42:30] Bianca-Jaye
I guess at University where we got to get these connections and then people knowing
[00:42:34] Bianca-Jaye
family that traces back to country. And you know,
[00:42:38] Bianca-Jaye
we’re still trying to fill in some gaps with all of this. But you know,
[00:42:43] Bianca-Jaye
we’re very proud of our culture and our heritage and yeah,
[00:42:48] Bianca-Jaye
that’s pretty much yes. So trying to find the gaps. But yeah, in terms of my mum’s psychology degree,
[00:42:54] Bianca-Jaye
she now works for the Australian Bureau of statistics for the status as
[00:42:56] Bianca-Jaye
a statistician. Yeah, and all well doing it with a diagnosis of ADHD.
[00:43:03] Josh
Hmm. So you, that must be, you know, hard for her and you of course,
[00:43:08] Josh
the family with trying to fill in gaps and you know,
[00:43:10] Josh
you can’t just ring up someone and say, hey, what happened to uncle so-and-so? You know,
[00:43:18] Josh
you don’t have that access. Is it been hard for the two of you and you know,
[00:43:22] Josh
anyone else for that matter to kind of connect with the culture or is that not been the hard part
[00:43:28] Bianca-Jaye
and all this is going well into it?
[00:43:30] Bianca-Jaye
So for me growing up, it was something that I was very much ashamed of. You know,
[00:43:36] Bianca-Jaye
I was in primary school in the late nineties, early two-thousands where, you know,
[00:43:40] Bianca-Jaye
there wasn’t this, there’s this stigma, we’re still Majorly attached to Aboriginal Australians and especially myself being
[00:43:48] Bianca-Jaye
a white Aboriginal Australian. All of that. Well, you don’t look Aboriginal. How do you know?
[00:43:53] Bianca-Jaye
So I often hid it and we tried to involve culture as much as we could,
[00:43:58] Bianca-Jaye
but it took me to coming to my own journey. And for me to be willing to accept my
[00:44:03] Bianca-Jaye
culture and then find my own path and own journey which her I fit as an Aboriginal
[00:44:08] Bianca-Jaye
Australian. And so again, my story is very similar to mums going into university. And through the MTC sent to
[00:44:16] Bianca-Jaye
there, which is the indigenous centre finding people that were like me in this setting.
[00:44:21] Bianca-Jaye
And I was like, you know,
[00:44:22] Bianca-Jaye
I’m not alone. So those feelings I had of is lost connection and we might not know blood family
[00:44:29] Bianca-Jaye
a lot. But what we do is we creating our own family and our own mob for the people
[00:44:33] Bianca-Jaye
we surround ourselves with. And through that I am finding more people, you know,
[00:44:38] Bianca-Jaye
that are Gunditjmara. And it’s just, you know, expanding and really,
[00:44:44] Bianca-Jaye
really nice to have that part of my culture now. And, you know,
[00:44:47] Bianca-Jaye
I now I get involved with, you know,
[00:44:49] Bianca-Jaye
Indigenous Uni Games and I play school and do all these on country development
[00:44:54] Bianca-Jaye
programs and leadership programs as being Aboriginal Australian. And it’s really
[00:44:58] Bianca-Jaye
awesome to come into my own culture. I just wish that I could have told myself back
[00:45:03] Bianca-Jaye
then that you know, that was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, but look at where we are now. So
[00:45:08] Josh
yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. To hear that you’ve been able to find those connections and
[00:45:15] Josh
overcome that because that is Such
[00:45:16] Josh
a hard thing. Once you’ve got something that’s been ingrained in you and that shame,
[00:45:20] Josh
as you said, it can be really hard to kind of fight against that. So that’s,
[00:45:24] Josh
that’s really amazing to hear.
[00:45:26] Bianca-Jaye
Awesome, thank you.
[00:45:29] Josh
I just want to before we wrap up,
[00:45:30] Josh
I do have two last quick questions for you if that’s okay. Yep. So the first one is
[00:45:35] Josh
from spirit soup out there. And have given me a question to ask you directly. And so you know,
[00:45:42] Josh
I feel like you’ve been well supported in your journey in terms of,
[00:45:49] Josh
with the Venture carpet and that kind of stuff. But you can answer this in, in
[00:45:54] Josh
a different way if you prefer.
[00:45:55] Josh
So the question is,
[00:45:57] Josh
do you feel that being young helps or hinders creating change?
[00:46:04] Bianca-Jaye
Oh, good question. I say, I don’t consider myself as young,
[00:46:07] Bianca-Jaye
even though I’ve just ten said yeah, it was like I’ve got, you know,
[00:46:13] Bianca-Jaye
I think it does. Although I was the way I was raised. I was always told that there
[00:46:18] Bianca-Jaye
is no age limit to education. Sorry,
[00:46:22] Bianca-Jaye
and I’ve always kept that in mind and doing everything like this that you know,
[00:46:26] Bianca-Jaye
being young young is great because I have time to work on it. But also I feel like
[00:46:31] Bianca-Jaye
if I was younger, then I wouldn’t have the life experience life skills that I’ve had. So it’s
[00:46:38] Bianca-Jaye
a really tough question where I sit on that, but I do think, you know,
[00:46:43] Bianca-Jaye
being young and coming through with the likes of new technologies being developed
[00:46:49] Bianca-Jaye
and everything like that obviously has a benefit.
[00:46:53] Josh
Yeah, good one. Well, onto my last question now. And you know,
[00:46:59] Josh
this is the inspirational australian’s podcast. And so we have inspirational,
[00:47:03] Josh
people that come on. And I’ve been inspired by your journey and your story,
[00:47:08] Josh
you know, the way that you’ve taken a personal experience and a person, you know the person,
[00:47:14] Josh
your friend’s brother that you know and your own family and using that experience
[00:47:19] Josh
of neurodiverse people to like propel you into this Incredible research and really
[00:47:26] Josh
this is why you were a finalist in a career change award because you’re making,
[00:47:29] Josh
you know, and I know it’s ongoing,
[00:47:30] Josh
but you’re making huge change. Such positive change for people. So I’m been really inspired by you, but Bianca,
[00:47:37] Josh
I want to know what or who is it that inspires you
[00:47:42] Bianca-Jaye
or I’m definitely going to have
[00:47:43] Bianca-Jaye
to say, my mom is definitely a big inspiration to me and watching you know,
[00:47:47] Bianca-Jaye
everything that she’s done and being there beside her, you know, awesome education starting Uni. I like my mom,
[00:47:55] Bianca-Jaye
my mom used to take me to university with her
[00:47:57] Bianca-Jaye
a my first psychology class. I was ten years old, you know,
[00:48:00] Bianca-Jaye
sitting taking notes because she couldn’t find anyone to look after me. And then as well, Yeah, going with Matthew,
[00:48:06] Bianca-Jaye
Matthew is an absolute inspiration to me cause the struggles that he faces every
[00:48:10] Bianca-Jaye
day is something that I could never,
[00:48:12] Bianca-Jaye
never imagine. And he’s someone that’s so happy pretty much all the time. Unless he
[00:48:18] Bianca-Jaye
gets overwhelmed, it becomes too much, but he just, he’s one of the most honest,
[00:48:23] Bianca-Jaye
happy, most loving people I’ve ever met. So he truly inspires me, you know,
[00:48:29] Bianca-Jaye
to keep going and to keep pushing in this field because there’s so much that we
[00:48:32] Bianca-Jaye
still need to know and understand. So he’s going to,
[00:48:35] Bianca-Jaye
as long as he’s there to help me along the way,
[00:48:37] Bianca-Jaye
which I’m sure he’ll whinge and complain that you know, you know, is that,
[00:48:41] Bianca-Jaye
you know, is it, you know, I do this and he does have that comprehension that,
[00:48:45] Bianca-Jaye
you know, I’ve done this because of you. So yeah, I mean with me the whole way.
[00:48:51] Josh
That’s brilliant. Well, Bianca, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. On the inspirational strains
[00:48:57] Josh
podcast and I can’t wait to follow your journey and see what’s happening with you
[00:49:02] Josh
know, your developments. And hopefully, you know, in
[00:49:06] Josh
a few short years we’ll be able to come back and check in with you and,
[00:49:10] Josh
and talk about how your product is available at chemist warehouse.
[00:49:14] Bianca-Jaye
That sounds absolutely amazing. Josh.
[00:49:17] Josh
Thank you, Bianca.
[00:49:23] Christine
The inspirational australian’s podcast is brought to you by awards, Australia we recognise,
[00:49:28] Christine
celebrate and share the stories of Inspirational Australians through our awards programs across the country. To find out more,
[00:49:37] Christine
to nominate an inspirational Australian in your life, or to partner with our awards, visit
[00:49:43] Christine
awards.australia.com. If you enjoyed today’s story,
[00:49:47] Christine
we’d love it if you could subscribe rate and review to make sure you don’t miss an
[00:49:51] Christine
episode. And to help our guests reach more people with their inspirational stories
[00:49:56] Christine
. episode. And to help our guests reach more people with their inspirational
[00:49:55] Christine
stories.
