Holly Grigg - Spall | How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control

#101 Holly is the author of the cult book ‘Sweetening the Pill: Or How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control.’ The book was released in 2013 and has since become an underground phenomenon.

She is a consulting producer on a feature documentary inspired by ‘Sweetening the Pill,’ which is currently in production. The film is directed by Abby Epstein and executive produced by Ricki Lake (the team behind the paradigm-shifting ‘The Business of Being Born’).

You may know Holly from her Guardian article on the pill and mental health side effects, which was ranked as the most-read comment piece of 2016. The story went viral, became a Twitter Moment, and as a result she was featured by the Washington Post and interviewed for NPR (to name just a couple).

Vice has named Holly “the poster girl for a movement of women abandoning the pill in favor of contraceptives that don’t wreak havoc on their body and mind.” 

In the recent past, Holly wrote blog content, newsletters, and managed social media for Alisa Vitti and the FLO Living company. Holly has also worked with My Moontime, Lara Briden/Period Repair Manual, and Maxim as a marketing consultant, copy writer, and brand stategist.

In the more distant past, Holly has worked with Film4 as a movie reviewer, as an interviewer for TV show MovieRush, and as a reporter for a feature news agency (her feature on a rescued pup with prosthetic paws was her first viral story).

In this episode we cover Why Holly created the book, Sweetening the Pill and what it is about How ditching the pill saved her marriage The side effects Holly experienced while being on various different birth control pills Why most Fertility Awareness Educators, discourage the use of fertility devices with prediction technology Holly discusses the documentary she helped produce Common myths about the pill and So much more Show notes Sweetening the pill website Sweetening the pill book