The supermodel and author opens up about how her relationship with money has changed through an intensely personal — and public — evolution.
Ilana GLAZER
on
finding
flow
by Aramide Tinubu | photographs by Bertram Knight
credits
Creative Direction
+ Design
Sheila Patel,
Jennifer Ciminillo
Photographs
Bertram Knight
Styling
Samantha Sutton
lana Glazer is done with shame. The comedian is
known for her work in no-holds-barred projects like
Broad City and Rough Night. Yet despite her boldness when discussing topics like gender equality, her journey with chronic pelvic pain, anxiety, and depression is something she’s just now feeling empowered to speak about.
"It's a long ongoing, lifelong process," she explains. "I am only now beginning to talk publicly about the chronic pain that I experienced in my pelvic floor. It is empowering me to understand my own story." Glazer began dealing with pelvic floor dysfunction at age four. However, it would be years before she told her mother about her pain.
"My household was open-minded and supportive, but we didn't have much body vocabulary," the Long Island-born actress reveals. When Glazer was growing up during the '90s, discussing sex and bodily functions was taboo. "I didn't talk about my vagina," says Glazer. "I didn't grow up being encouraged to look at and understand it, and I didn't know how to express it. The first time I told my mom about my pelvic pain was at age seven."
Glazer's journey toward wellness and a pain-free life came with gaining agency over her body. In addition to her psychiatrist, she saw a urologist named Dr. Gary Zito. "He didn't laugh at me; he was very gentle and sensitive," she explains. "He was such an educated and conscious medical practitioner."
Once Glazer was no longer in crisis, she began engaging in pelvic floor physical therapy under the direction of Dr. Kristi Plunk. "There were knots in my pelvic floor that I could feel in my labia, around my butt, around my butthole, just like I have in my neck or my back," says Glazer. "It was so obvious, it was kind of shocking and extremely effective. Paired with talk therapy and medication, that multimodal therapy got me to a truly pain-free life."
For Glazer, having knowledge about her body isn't enough. It’s been equally important for her to share what she's learned with others. This desire brought her to the doors of the pelvic floor physical therapy start-up, Origin. "I happen to have a good friend who is friends with the co-founder, Nona Farahnik Yadegar," explains Glazer. "Nona founded this practice because she was getting pregnant and finding pelvic floor physical therapy, but she was frustrated with the financial limitations that the pelvic floor physical therapy industry has, which is mostly out of pocket. Nona is an incredible doer with so much agency that she said, 'I have to figure out a way to make this care accessible through the system that we have.'"
Though her friend mentioned Farahnik Yadega years earlier, Glazer found Origin organically on her own. "Years later, I am shooting a show in LA for six months, the first six months of my pregnancy," she recalls. "I was like, OK, you know what? While I'm here in LA and close to an [Origin] office, I will try it out. I get to the office the first time; I'm hooked. The office is beautiful, relaxed, inviting, and my copay is $9."
Once Glazer returned to the East Coast, she continued her therapies with Origin virtually using their tele-appointments, even encouraging her mother to begin practicing. From there, becoming an ambassador for the brand and using her platform to share her learnings with other women. was a no-brainer.
"While there’s a lot to be said for the toxicity of social media, I still find people to rise above that and connect and share. It's absolutely helpful to me, and makes me feel inspired and excited to be alive and make stuff, to communicate and rise together for as long as we can," Glazer explains about her decision to be more vocal about her personal experience. "For whatever we can control in this world, it feels good for me just to connect with people over being human."
“
It was like things were starting to come together, understanding that I really struggled with anxiety and depression and that this pain was connected to that. I really came to understand later
how deeply true that was; how the mind-body oneness was
how I could hurt so much but also begin to heal.
ILANA GLAZER
Finding Relief
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VP, Video
Reshma Gopaldas
Video Editors
Allie O’Connell,
Jacqueline Soller
Article
Aramide Tinubu
Ilana GLAZER
The comedian, actress and producer is speaking out about the chronic pelvic pain she lived with for two decades.
won’t stay silent about her body
I
Painful urethra spams on her way to a gymnastics meet pushed
Glazer to tell her mother what she was dealing with. Though her parents immediately sprung into action, the False Positive actress dealt with misdiagnosis, misogyny, and other violating experiences with medical professionals for more than a decade. "I actually can't believe, looking back, how violent these doctors were toward me, telling me it was my fault, telling me I shouldn't have sex," she says. "I just will never forget that laughter of, 'There's really nothing I can do.'"
Glazer lived with debilitating pain for years. However, after fainting at 19, the producer decided that there had to be an alternative. "I saw a psychiatrist," she says. "And it was like things were starting to come together, understanding that I really struggled with anxiety and depression and that this pain was connected to that. I really came to understand later how deeply true that was; how the mind-body oneness was how I could hurt so much but also begin to heal." Learning that her pelvic floor pain was linked to her mental health was affirming. "I'm a person who really responds to talking things out, practicing feeling my feelings, practicing gentleness toward myself," she says. "So I was super relieved to tap into that kinder conversation."
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The comedian, actress and producer is speaking out about the chronic pelvic pain she lived with for two decades.
Won’t Stay Silent About Her Body
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