when I arrived at the venue, I was alone with only his family present.

Again, where's your family?

It's so sad.

What I didn't know until years later was that on the same day,

his dad had told him it wasn't too late to run and had desperately

tried to convince him to leave.

He told him that I had tricked him into marriage by getting pregnant

and lying about it, essentially forcing him into a shotgun wedding.

Oh no.

Hi, Shawna.

Hi Christa.

Hi.

How's it

going?

Good.

I'm so happy to talk to you.

I was just saying for recording, I feel like you are the number

one person that I feel like people request to come on the podcast.

People just love you.

Oh, that's so sweet.

I can't believe that people, I don't know, wanna hear my opinion on this kinda stuff.

Fun.

I feel like you've just started such An amazing art on social media, and of course

we'll get into, everything that you do.

But starting off, can you just tell everybody a little bit about you and

we'll kind of just go from there.

I know it's probably a funny question 'cause you're like, where do I start?

I know, right?

it's so funny because I am on social media, but I'm not really on social media.

I put characters on social media and so Yeah, I understand the question.

okay, so I'm a mom of two and an actress and a writer, and I never know

what else you wanna know about me.

I'm researching genealogy right now for my family's lineage.

Oh, I love that.

No, I,

oh my gosh.

I know I've gotten so into it.

I feel like it's interesting because for one of my skits, I just tried

drawing a family tree and I'm like, I'm totally butchering this.

I don't know how genealogy and all that is supposed to work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's the craziest thing I've found, ancestors going back, I think it's three

great, great greats now, but on both sides of my family and I'm like, oh, my family's

been all over the country, all over the US and, originally from not the US at all.

And so I'm like, oh my God, we're immigrants.

Yeah.

Very fun.

I love that.

It's so interesting to learn about your heritage and like where your

family lived and I love that stuff.

but it's interesting you say people know me, but not really me because

of all the characters you play.

And starting off, what do you think is kinda led you that direction?

I know you're an actress, you've kind of always.

Been in the area of content creation.

So for you, I think that's really interesting because I feel that

too and I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but sometimes I'm able

to hide behind characters in a way.

Oh, totally.

I don't like sharing personal things on social media.

So is that kind of where you are with it or how does that tie in you think?

it always started for me as a creative outlet because I'm an

actor and so I wanted to act.

I had a baby so I couldn't go to set.

and then also I had a baby and I looked down at this beautiful, perfect little

creature and I was like, well, this is nothing like I ever expected it to be.

why aren't we telling the real story of how this goes?

so world's combined.

And I was like, I can actually tell these kinds of stories.

And so that's how I got started doing skits on social media.

It kind of ticked a lot of boxes for me.

I got to act, I got to actually talk about what this is really like.

becoming a mom and, well, I guess those are the only two

boxes, but checked to both.

Yeah.

But I feel like the relationship dynamic too, in all your skits is so

interesting and I think people learn so much better and understand or relate

through storytelling so much better than just you coming on the screen and

being like, Hey, this is motherhood.

It's more like you're able to see like, oh, I went through this thing

I think that's true.

I think that if you listen to marginalized folks, they always

say, know, representation matters.

And I think that the story of motherhood, and really relationships kind of from.

The point of view of a woman who's going through this transition.

It's not really something that's been explored whole lot, or at least

not something that I've really seen.

And so that's has been my impetus.

and yes, I absolutely, get to hide, but that's kind of the nature of acting.

I mean, I got into it because of acting, not necessarily because

I wanted to be on social media,

Yeah.

But I think that's the beauty of social media too, is that you can

create your own universe, your own Oh my god, universe, and Yeah.

It's phenomenal.

Yeah, exactly.

And especially when you talk about with being a mom like what a beauty

to be able to like do it in your own flexibility, your own space.

Create these own characters.

And you're the producer, the actor, the writer.

So for anyone that doesn't know because I kind of jumping

the gun, 'cause geeking out.

I'm so excited.

But for anyone that hasn't fallen down the Shawna verse like rabbit

hole, how can you explain it to them?

Like how did it get started and what's this world that you've created online?

Oh man.

Well, it started out as standalone skits about becoming a mother, about mom life.

and it.

Included a couple of characters here and there, recurring

people, like a husband character.

eventually there was a mother-in-law character.

And then from the reaction to these characters, people started asking

for more types of characters.

So I ended up with a sister-in-law character who was kind of terrible.

that was by request.

And then when I had a terrible matriarch and a terrible sister-in-law,

I then needed a wonderful matriarch.

And so that's how the, the main mom, the Shawna character's mother was born.

and then once I had kind of several characters that would recur, it

became really interesting to me to think about what would these

characters do in a long form storyline and particularly the sister-in-law

character who was always really horrible to Shawna, the mom character.

What would happen to that terrible sister-in-law if she got pregnant

and endured the transformation required to become a mother.

that's how the storyline was born.

I love how you have the antagonist and protagonist kind of showing

different relationships of like how they work through different stages.

and especially tying in the motherhood aspect of being a new mom versus

maybe a mom from like the previous generation, how they parent.

Yeah.

So what do you think your biggest challenges have been

with like demonstrating something from thought to onscreen?

I saw your episode about the miscarriage and I was just so blown away with how

you represented that so beautifully.

I was like, what an amazing world we're living in where someone can

put this art on screen and just make us feel collectively together.

So I wanna applaud you for that, but had to be very challenging to think

of how are people reacting to this?

What's an emotion people might have?

Yeah.

I wanted to represent grief with that storyline.

it's just about the worst thing that could happen to anyone is to, the possibility

of a baby or want a baby, you know, have a child, and then to lose your child.

Worst thing that anyone could go through.

I went through breast cancer and, um, so going through treatment

and stuff, I faced mortality.

There's a lot of grief involved in that.

I've had grief in my own life.

I've I've been touched by grief.

and when you're going through something that huge, it, changes

you fundamentally, I feel like I'm changed on a cellular level because

of some things that I've gone through.

And I think it's no different losing a child like that.

and at the same time, it's something that's not talked about a whole

lot and, something that is really challenging in the US right now.

I wanted to represent.

All the women that have been through it.

And the entirety of everything that I've done on social media has always been,

because when I had my baby, I felt like I haven't seen anything that is representing

how I'm feeling, what I'm going right now.

and so want to make things that help people feel seen and feel validated.

Mm-hmm.

And so I about family dynamics, I talk about, just stuff I

haven't seen talked about enough.

Yeah.

I feel like it's the beauty with entertainment and creation is being able

to connect with people or see things that maybe you, had never seen before, but you

experienced it for yourself and you're like, how do I deal with these feelings?

So you talk about being diagnosed with breast cancer, I

think I read it was like 2021.

And so you started making content before.

Yeah.

And then content after.

So how do you think I'm sure this is a very loaded question, so feel free

to answer how you want, but how do you think that affected you before versus

after in motherhood IN your storytelling?

cause I know you also shared about your journey with breast

cancer on social media as well.

Yeah, it was, a beautiful thing to I guess experience.

But, it's sort of strange.

I'm sort of divorced in my mind from that time period in my life.

And so it seem like it's something that I witnessed rather than something

I went through, which I probably need to unpack, but one step at a time.

so I started with content making skits about being a mom.

and I had just had my second, I had been doing content for a while, but nothing

gained any traction until I got on TikTok.

Okay.

and when I got on TikTok, I saw.

Other people making skits, talking to themselves.

Mm-hmm.

Everything I had done up to that point, I put my real life

husband in the skits took forever.

And, it's way harder to coordinate two people's schedules.

especially 'cause he was the, breadwinner.

And so he was at work, I was at home, I had tons of free time, to think OF

all these stories and, write them down.

And he didn't have that time.

so I got on TikTok and I was like, what?

I could just do it all myself.

Okay.

And so that's how that began.

And I just started making a little skit a day.

just this personal challenge.

Can I do one every single day?

Just these one-off little stories.

And I found that I could.

and they were received well, people liked them.

And then one day I couldn't put a, skid up because I had to go get a

mammogram ' cause I had felt something.

So I came online and I was like, ah, sorry.

No skit today.

I have to go get a mammogram.

And so then naturally people were like, update us.

so then the diagnosis came, not too long after.

And I was like, oh, well, so it is cancer.

that sucks.

everyone was incredibly supportive.

They had liked what I had done skit wise, and they felt seen

and supported by that work.

And so people came out in droves to be like, we support you.

And it was like the most touching thing, that could have ever

happened at that, point in time.

Uh, because my personal life people, family and friends around

me didn't handle it quite as well and were not quite as supportive.

so it was like I had this.

worldwide community of people lifting me up.

And it was instrumental, it really got me through it.

fun fact about going through cancer treatment, coming out of the other

end of it, you have all this, drive and will to live when you're going

through treatment and then you get out of treatment and you're like, yes.

And then nothing happens and everything is dead air.

you get this, feeling of like, oh my God, what now?

And what did I fight so hard for?

Because it's just this place of sta stagnancy.

So I had a little identity crisis.

it was actually a very big one, but I threw myself back into posting, so I

reposted all my old skits and that gave me time because you're also really, really

tired and really recovering after going through five months of chemo, and surgery.

so that gave me, reposting.

All my old skids gave me time to sort of get my brain around how

do I write these stories again and how do I make these again?

And then, it was very shortly after that that I started the storyline.

Wow.

That was a long answer.

No, that was so beautifully said though, because I feel like people

want to hear the journey and I feel like the journey is what makes.

The process even better, I feel like so many times focus on the finish line, but

the journey is like, what makes it matter?

If that makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

It's been quite a journey.

I think my next move is to, like I said a minute ago, to unpack all of that.

So I probably will start unpacking it online.

Yeah.

Everything else is been online, so it might as well,

right?

Yeah, because I feel like you are probably just like, let's get to this next thing.

And it's almost like that.

if you're chasing the next thing, you don't necessarily process

what happened here, like the past.

Which I think for me is necessary.

or at least in that moment, I really couldn't process it.

I needed a focus, to be able to sort of let the emotionality of all

of it had, and I needed a focus.

So this has been incredibly helpful for me personally.

Yeah.

And I wrote a book.

Yes.

I was gonna ask you about that.

Like what's next for you?

What are you working on?

I know you are writing a book this is more of your personal story.

Yeah.

This is separate from Shawna verse, this is the real Shawna story.

Correct?

Yes.

Yeah.

that's another thing.

When I started skits, people were like, this lady's miserable.

She does, is complain.

but I never was talking about my personal life.

I was like, these are just the kinds of things moms go through.

And so this is, the story of what it was like for me to.

Decide I want a baby, then get pregnant, then go through pregnancy, this

is the story of me becoming a mom and therefore finding my artistic

voice and starting on social media.

I love that.

as you're like doing the writing process, how did you decide what

things you wanted to include?

What things you wanted to exclude?

I think just when I reflected back on the time period, it was just the big

things that happened, and so I just kind of wrote them in chronological order.

you know, when you have a baby, time isn't really linear.

And so once the baby comes in, the storyline, it kind of goes back and

forth, back and forth, back and forth because ugh, that's what it's like.

Yeah.

Memories are weird.

my daughter turned three this week and the night before her birthday, after she went

to bed, my husband and I were just like.

A mess.

like, oh

yeah,

oh my gosh.

what we're just talking about.

It was when you're kind of moving, like to get through this day, get

through this lesson, whatever, motherhood, all of a sudden you're

like, where'd the last year ago?

What did,

yeah.

as parents, I feel like getting through this task or this task, okay, nap time.

Okay, bedtime, you all these things.

And you're like, wait, did I soak it in enough?

Was I, you know, it's just like all those questions of motherhood,

torture yourself and then it's the end of the night you put the

baby down and then you're looking through the photos from the day.

Yes.

I feel like one of the most wild things I heard it obviously, when I was

pregnant or before I had my daughter.

Yeah.

People would talk about how like, oh yeah, you get them down

to bed and then you miss them.

And I was like, what?

Literally I'd be staring at her monitor.

I'm like, oh, she's so cute.

Oh, is

she?

Yeah.

And then I'm like,

we

just

please don't wake up.

I know.

It's like you focus so long on getting them to bed and then they go to bed

and you're like, oh, I miss them.

Oh, look how cute.

She's when she sleeps.

And then I'm like, it's an hour.

And I'm like, okay, I should probably go to bed myself.

But, I love that.

when do you plan on releasing your book or what's kind of that

process looking like for you?

Yeah, so I, don't know anything about writing a book and being out there.

So, the release date's October 20th and there's a marketing team

and, we're gonna like market it and maybe I'm gonna do a tour.

I don't really know.

you're in the process right now.

No, I love that.

I think that's amazing.

outside of writing the book, working on this series, which I'm sure that

takes up most of your time, what's kinda your process for the series?

do you always know what's gonna happen?

Do you have it all like written out?

Are you kind of like, Ooh, this would be good?

I'm gonna throw this in there.

Yeah, no, it's both.

I outline it so it's outlined through the year, wow.

Year and I did this in past year.

these are the big beats of what's gonna happen in the story.

Yeah.

So Shawna losing the baby last year, that was planned in January.

this year we've got the things that are planned, but there's always room for.

something that comes to me and it's the most fun in the writing process when I'm

sitting there writing the scene when something surprises me when a character

says something and I'm like, shut up.

So I get to live it in the writing process.

the answer's both.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that.

I feel like you compartmentalize everything a little bit better because

I'm like, I do the skit stuff, but I'm so all over the place and I'm in the first,

I'm like, let's see what happens today.

I like do some like, but I feel like you do a great job of writing it out

and you're like, okay, today's a filming day and I'm filming this character.

Oh, yeah.

And your outfit changes.

It's so well done.

So for anyone that hasn't watched, like you get in the Shawna verse, I

mean, I'm just always so mess rise.

I'm like, how am I watching?

One person on screen, but you do each person so well individually.

it's amazing.

Thank you.

You're, um, you're making me blush I love your stuff too.

So, where do you get inspiration?

Where do you get your storylines?

It's wild.

I so I went to school for writing and so I've always created story.

Oh.

but I kind of lost it in the mix because when I graduated from college, I went into

marketing and social media right away.

And so I kind of stopped creating for myself and I was

working with other brands.

I would create social media and it was my maternity leave where

ah, I literally that magical time,

I'm telling you like, have a baby, you become your most creative self.

It's insane.

It's wild.

I know.

I remember talking to a mom friend when I was pregnant and she owns a

business, like a design business and.

I was like, how do you get stuff done?

She's like, I'm telling you, something happens.

She's like,

yeah,

my son naps.

And I'm just like, I only have an hour.

Let me see what I can get done.

and I think I was so used to like not necessarily a workaholic, but before

my daughter was born, I was like the person, I would stay late in the office,

I'd be working at night on my phone, so.

During maternity leave.

when she's napping on me, I was like, what am I gonna do?

And then like started.

Yeah, because your brain is going, you move but your brain.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so like, it kind of started with I was in a ton of weddings in my like twenties

and early thirties that I was like, I would always hear wedding drama stories

and I would see things and I would see how crazy some family members could be.

so I kind of started with a crazy little skit with just two people.

Never did a long storyline, but then people just wanted more.

And so

people want it, people want the drama.

Yes.

Yeah.

you kind of said throwing yourself into this new verse and like

creating these characters that kind of brought back the spark of yes,

I love creating, I love writing.

So yeah.

Gotta thank the TikTok.

Cool.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Social media, that we're able to create, we have a place to put it.

I know I always think about when I see people on here creating these

stories or no matter what kind of content they create, it's like so

much opportunity out there that I feel like was not there before.

Because if you don't have a direct contact with Hollywood or this

like that never would've happened.

And that really was like the traditional route.

When I got started, I really thought, oh, I'll put some skits on the internet.

Maybe someone will see them and they'll be like, by the time I'm ready to get

back to set when the kid's a toddler or something, somebody will see my stuff

and they'll be like, you, obviously you.

Mm-hmm.

I really thought that's the way it would go.

I did not think the audience would come to me.

Yeah.

Because now you have full creative control and you can make Yeah.

It as unhinged or as serious.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's,

yeah.

No, no barriers.

because I have a wild character Kate in my storylines, and they're like, oh, I

would love to see Kate and Barb go at it.

'cause like is like the wild Did

do that, that would be so fun.

We could figure out a way to do that.

That'd be so fun.

I know.

'cause I always see like, Barb and I'm like, oh yeah, we've got that same idea of

like that, that mother-in-law character.

But um, yeah, it's funny.

What's the most

in the world?

I feel for her, she's having a hard time, but she does indeed exist in the

world and make things hard for others.

Yeah, I know.

And like you think all these stories, especially when I create stuff,

I'm like, oh, this is so wild.

No one would actually do this.

Yeah.

then I, people comment and they're like, my mother-in-law did this or

my cousin did this, it happened.

Yeah.

It's wild.

Yeah.

A hundred percent happened.

People are not What's the most, unhinged thing you think Barb

has done before in your story?

Oh lord.

it's pretty unhinged of her to try and beat up Deedee.

She tried to beat up Shawna's mom.

that was pretty unhinged.

She ruined Jen's proposal.

That was terrible on Christmas.

Oh, so she ruined Christmas and the proposal.

That was awful.

those two things.

Those are big

ones.

Those pretty good.

She showed up at the elementary school.

That was pretty bad too.

She's Oh,

that one.

Cool.

What about Katie,

oh gosh.

Is it

Kate?

Kate.

Kate.

Okay.

the series started off as, boyfriend's mom.

She tries to show up at proposal, so, oh, that way ended up turning into your,

that's such a barb.

What a barb thing to do.

What

a Kate.

So, yeah, so when he said, Hey, I wanna surprise Sloan, my girlfriend,

and Santa Monica to propose.

She goes, let's make it a family vacation.

And she like, wants to show up.

and she ends up, trying to plan a whole family vacation.

So he goes a week early so she can't show up.

Oh.

But then there's many things where she tries showing up at the bachelorette

party, but she's just constantly rude to slo his girlfriend or now fiance.

So any kind of wild thing you can think of, she's,

yeah.

See family dynamics fascinate me to no end because she's only wigging out like this.

No.

In her family she's trying to like insert herself so that she's not left out.

She's not forgotten.

You know what I mean?

Like, I get, I get what's going on in that brain, but that's crazy unhinged behavior.

Yes.

It's that controlling of you don't wanna be left behind like they don't want.

Exactly.

Son.

Yeah.

you can see where it comes from, but then yeah, I can

totally know where it comes from.

Cody.

Yeah.

I can see Cody where they can't actually see like, I'm damaging this relationship.

I'm not actually Exactly.

Making him want to be closer to me.

I'm pushing him.

Yeah.

Making,

yeah.

It's, they forget that, this isn't an autonomous person, they only identify with

them as like, how it pertains to them.

is my son, not, this is.

A person, and I may be overstepping a line here,

right?

It's the en mesh enmeshment, the, yeah.

A limb of theirs almost.

Yes.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

I love it.

Yeah.

Barb and Kate, keeping us on our toes.

get, before we get into this week story submission, I like to do a little like

red light, green light thing, where I'll read a sentence and you just tell

me if it's a red light or green light.

Let's do it

kind of related to like weddings or family dynamics.

Okay.

In-laws showing up unannounced at to your house.

Red light

parents commenting on how to raise your kids

red light.

Someone saying, I

guess it depends on your relationship, but Red light.

I know.

I feel like so many things depend on mutual respect.

Yeah.

Like if you have a good relationship and they're like helpful.

I think it's different.

someone's saying, I'm just being honest before criticizing you,

red light

is my all be red lights.

a partner saying just ignore them when there's family drama.

Red light, I'm like, hmm, I'm getting mad.

Wanting to explain.

Listen.

the number of stories I get too, where they're like, the fiances

no where to be seen in this story.

And it's like the woman or whoever the main person is having to

deal with the mother-in-law.

And there's I

love that.

Yeah.

And there's no one helping them.

It's just like, oh, just ignore her.

This is her.

Listen.

That is his family.

Oh my God.

If he's not standing up for you, walk away.

That's terrible.

having to deal with that the rest of your marriage.

If he

doesn't, he'll never stand up for you.

If it's in early stages and he's not standing up for you with his family, he

is not putting you first, my darling.

And then that's just gonna get worse.

Especially with children.

Yes.

Yeah.

Dynamics just get magnified with children.

Go on.

Mm-hmm.

Go on.

Yes.

posting about family drama online?

I do it not my own family.

I would say real family drama is a, red light, fake family drama is a green.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's funny 'cause when I first started doing skits, I dunno if you get these

comments from people that maybe like haven't seen your stuff before, but

when I first started it, a woman would comment and be like, how dare

you air your dirty laundry online?

This is so shameful to your family.

And I was like, this is not my trauma.

Yes.

I

feel like especially too, when you're used to sharing characters, but

people wanna see that side of you too because like I said, they love

you and they love your characters.

it's exciting to get a story that they haven't necessarily gotten the

full story of, you know, they've gotten maybe like sneak bit.

So yeah.

That's fun.

It was exciting for me 'cause it's like a new creative outlet.

Yeah.

A new way to be creative.

I know you write with Shawna verse, but

Yeah.

Do you enjoy the writing or the acting more?

Oh my gosh, I know.

so it was always acting, always, always, always my whole entire life.

And then, at some point I looked up in my twenties, I was writing.

All throughout my twenties, I wrote short films and I wrote feature length films.

Um, I wrote stories as a kid.

My very first short film ever I made, when I was like 13, I wrote it and

made my friend act in it with me.

We gave her leukemia.

So this is, I'm true to this.

I knew to this.

But I never knew I was a writer.

I no one else was writing it, so I wrote it.

Mm-hmm.

And then one day I looked up and I was like, these are kind of good.

Wait a minute.

I kind of like writing these stories.

So I think it's both.

Yeah.

I love that it works so well together.

Wait, sorry.

Going back.

You are a writer.

do you wanna do a book?

Do you wanna like challenge yourself in that way?

So,

yeah.

So I came out with my first book last year.

About Ferris and Sloan.

Oh my God, that's genius.

So yeah.

What's

called, what do I not know this?

It's called, here Comes The Drama.

so it came out last June and I'm currently writing book

number two based on season two.

Ban.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

what genre would you say?

It's like a romantic comedy?

Yeah,

or romantic dramedy is the more like, I guess official.

That is so fun.

I am going to go pick this up.

Yay.

Oh my gosh.

It's a fun, like, quick read and I kind of say it's like a

sitcom mixed with a soap opera.

Oh

my

God.

Because that's why I grew up watching.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um,

did

you do an audio book for it?

I did, but I, had a voice actor do it because

I Oh, you didn't wanna do it yourself?

Yeah.

I was kind of talked out of it.

but I didn't

Oh, terrible.

Not in a bad way.

I was like, what's the protocol for this?

Yeah.

And I'm also very insecure with my reading voice.

I don't know.

Oh my God.

Criticize me.

You are so cute, darling.

Girl.

my love.

No, no, no, no, no.

We wanna hear it in your do it over, do it in your voice.

The people will love it.

This is what the people want.

I don't know how to do like character voices.

I like, even when I act, I just do like throw 'em in there.

So I don't know.

I feel like for like an audio book or not an audio book, an audiobiography, it

makes more sense or like a biography, but

I'm sure it's good.

I'm sure it's good.

Yeah.

Thanks for asking me that.

oh

yeah, absolutely.

all right, let's get into this week's story submission.

So these are stories that followers sent.

I've not read it yet, so we're gonna react together.

Okay.

Exciting.

There you go.

Okay.

My husband and I got engaged in November.

We intentionally got pregnant, partly because we'd only been

dating a short time, and our families might not understand

our decision to marry so quickly.

Okay.

So like

they, they kinda like backwards.

They're like, let's get pregnant.

So the family accepts.

We're getting married?

we are still together now.

11 years later.

Okay.

That worked out.

Good job.

Good job.

We were very excited.

After calling my parents, we called his dad and stepmom to tell them the news.

We explained that we were planning to either get married at the courthouse

or elope in Vegas that same month because he was in the Marine Corps.

and we were about to be separated.

His stepmom, no joke, cried, screamed and threw a full meltdown.

She said his brother and sister-in-law had left them out of their wedding

that they would be deeply hurt if we did the same to them.

So to keep the peace, we agreed to wait a month and get married in the state where

they lived in December, around Christmas.

Oh my gosh.

I always feel like whenever.

someone's like, and we agreed.

That's like in the famous last words, because then you're on their boat now.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

When we arrived, things immediately felt tense.

His stepmom is extremely loud and woke us up early one morning

talking loudly in the house.

When she saw me awake, she said, wow, you're up.

I replied calmly.

Yeah, I heard you wake up in my family.

That kind of comment is playfully teasing and meant affectionately.

She immediately started screaming at me.

I apologized and tried to explain, but she wouldn't let up, and I ended up crying.

The wedding was the next day.

That afternoon we were getting our nails done, so I pushed my feelings

down and tried to move on the next day.

I got ready quietly with no drama, but I was completely alone.

None of my family was there, only his to make night.

I don't know.

That's why I'm like, why?

Why?

that's interesting.

To make matters worse, my husband had accidentally left my

wedding dress back in California.

Okay.

He had flown.

I know.

I'm like, what street are you in?

how can I get there?

He had flown later than me and had a free checked back because

he was in the Marines, so he had carefully packed my dress to

him.

Oh.

Oh, no.

Unfortunately it didn't make it.

Oh, no.

I ended up buying a discounted dress from David's Bridal which

thankfully turned out beautifully.

I got ready with his stepmom.

See, I'd already be like, she doesn't like me.

I'm not getting ready with,

I know.

Shout out David Bridal, by the way.

That's the

clutch.

Yes.

Coming in clutch.

Really?

But when I arrived at the venue, I was alone with only his family present.

Again, where's your family?

It's so sad.

What I didn't know until years later was that on the same day,

his dad had told him it wasn't too late to run and had desperately

tried to convince him to leave.

He told him that I had tricked him into marriage by getting pregnant

and lying about it, essentially forcing him into a shotgun wedding.

Oh no.

The truth is that getting married was entirely my husband's idea.

We had openly agreed that we wanted to try for a baby.

The pregnancy was simply the explanation we used because we knew our families

wouldn't understand otherwise.

My husband told his dad that he wanted to marry me, and we

went through with the wedding.

Later, after our baby was born, we moved to the same state

where his dad and stepmom lived.

Why?

Why

don't do that?

Well,

the opposite direction.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

At first they dot

the military.

It was probably 'cause of the military.

Yeah.

Maybe it just like worked out with the,

yeah.

Timing.

At first they dotted the baby, my husband and me.

But over time I started noticing that they equated money and gifts with love

and expected to control all of us.

Oh.

Once I started standing up for myself, things changed.

For example, when our daughter was four months old, they tried

to feed her chocolate cake.

I told them no.

Oh my gosh.

Here, just eat this chocolate cake.

Okay.

They went behind my back and did it anyway.

Ugh.

feeding a child something when the parents say no at any age, but especially

that age where it can be very harmful.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Wild.

Wild.

They're not realizing how dangerous it could be for the baby that

young, like they're not even eating.

They're starting to eat maybe some solid foods at that point.

Right, and like,

yeah, rice cereal.

Yeah.

Terrible.

They also shamed me for breastfeeding because it made them uncomfortable.

Yeah, that's just dumb.

that's just stupid.

That's just stupid.

Like, come

on.

I'm sorry.

Why don't you leave the room then if it makes you sound, oh

yeah.

That's kind of like consider the source, You can't even be offended at

by that, because that's just so stupid.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Yeah.

Literally insisted that for the formula was good enough after many more

incidents where I refused to just bend to their will, they escalated things.

They tried to convince my husband that I was cheating on him simply because

I had male friends Who does that?

Also they never think forward, like what happens after that?

if they actually convince the husband.

So you want him to be like divorced?

Yeah.

What is that?

divorce.

It's not like she goes away.

Like they have to still manage the child together.

Yeah.

they don't think about how that's gonna actually affect

them and their relationship.

Yeah.

It makes everything much more contentious.

What?

I can't fathom this

wild, even though those men had been our mutual friends for years, they also accuse

me of relapsing and using drugs again.

I'm about to celebrate 11 years clean next month, 2025.

I got sober in 2014 so I could build a life with my husband.

Good on you.

Yay.

These accusations were made in 2018, so she was four years sober already.

And they're saying she relapsed.

Like what a wild thing to say and like so incredibly hurtful.

Yeah, so hurtful.

They even told him they had driven by my workplace and that I wasn't there.

Why is that whole life mission to like, I

dunno, it's so weird.

They do not like her.

No.

That's where you have to cut those ties.

he has to be like, I'm choosing you and forget them because that's

just after one of those things alone, I'd be like, okay, I can't.

go back toward the beginning.

they went to their house for the wedding weekend and she woke

up early and was being loud.

Yeah.

So the stepmom.

Stepmom

was extremely loud.

Woke us up early one morning talking loud in the house.

She saw me awake.

She said, wow, you're up.

And I replied calmly and smiling.

Yep.

I heard you wake up kind of just being like, oh yeah, I heard you.

And the stepmom was

okay.

So that was like a sarcastic comment.

She

was like, yeah, I think that was her being like, oh, you're talking back to me or

You're not respecting me or something.

so they even told him they driven by my workplace and that I wasn't there despite

the fact that I was absolutely there and my job required fingerprint login.

So it was easy to prove

she's got an alibi.

Yes.

Then things became truly disturbing.

They tried convincing my husband to abduct our daughter.

Okay, this is wild.

They really don't like her.

they really don't like her.

I really hope after all this

you need to move away.

This is like getting into Snapped territory.

Yes.

Kind of scary.

Like how long do you keep someone like this around, at the end, if

they're still in contact with them.

that's a lot.

Do we give advice on this podcast?

Podcast?

Yes, please.

I feel like when people write in, they know like there's gonna be some kind

of advice or a lot of times they tell me it's therapeutic, typing it all out.

'cause they're like,

oh, that's good

through my emotion.

Um, you're fighting a service.

Yes.

Yes.

That's phenomenal.

it's funny 'cause again, some of the, the haters online, someone was like, all

you do is spread drama, blah, blah blah.

And then I was internalizing.

I was like, am I toxic?

drama?

And people were like, no.

It's helpful 'cause I'm able to relate to people and like help me find out something

that I went through or understand it.

'cause

I a hundred percent believe that it's in the sharing of our stories, that we learn.

Yeah.

That we grow.

Yeah,

exactly.

And find like a community to connect with.

Yeah.

they said they would buy him a car in their name and rent an

apartment under their name with cash so we could disappear.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

You would have

to cut someone off like this.

God, I hope they cut them out.

All of this was simply,

are they talking about m*rder or kidnapping the child?

well I mean at first it seemed like they wanted the husband to take the

daughter and they would go, but then when it says so we could disappear.

Yeah.

That's the part that I'm like, what do you mean disappear?

because that's scary.

That's a weird sentence there.

Yeah.

Scary enough

THESE parents seems kind of scary.

All of this was simply because I refused to let them control me.

Eventually we fled with our daughter and moved back to California

with the help of his mom, who he hadn't spoken to in 10 years.

Whoa.

Oh, so he's in contact with the dad.

The dad's unhinged And so he got into contact with his mom,

Uhhuh, and she's like, yeah, babe.

I know.

Come on.

Yeah.

Come along please.

I, I will protect you.

This is why.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

so no mention of like, her family around this time either, so I'm curious.

Yeah.

Maybe she doesn't really have much family.

Yeah.

That's what I'm kind of wondering.

Or maybe the drug use had her sort of isolated at the time.

Yeah.

That happens?

Well, it says we told our families.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

We knew our families,

Interesting.

Okay.

But yeah, they're just not mentioning

story.

Maybe that'll come back around.

Okay.

Yeah.

okay, so it says, we were offered his childhood home by his mom, when his

dad and stepmom found out, they called his brother and told him to burn any

paperwork that had my husband's name or security number on it, because

we were supposedly planning to steal his identity and ruin his credit.

Oh my God.

What?

This is so much worse than anything I've ever written.

This is awful.

These people literal to go outside and touch some grass and

stop watching crime tv, like,

this is really, really bad.

I feel like I would walk out of this movie like that's implausible.

This is crazier than anything I've ever heard.

No, this is like, I

can't believe people live these lives.

I'm so sorry.

That's terrible.

I would be so paranoid, honestly, people like this that are so unhinged,

like you would hope they never found your new address in California.

Like, oh

my god.

You know, I

hope she wasn't, I hope we're not putting fear into her,

but this poor woman who this

at least, oh my

God,

I think this was years ago now, because she said they're married 11.

So I don't know.

how soon after they got married that all this happened,

four years of sobriety by the time they were accusing her of, And she said.

11 years sober, 11 years married.

So she must have gotten,

she got clean, I think when they got married.

Oh, yeah.

She got sober in 2014 so they could rebuild a life together.

Okay, so it's been 12 years-ish.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Wow.

brother and sister-in-law called us immediately because they spoke

with us daily and knew better.

All after that.

My husband completely cut his dad and stepmom off.

Thank God I get so worried at these because as my sister, like, oh,

we're still in contact or limited.

I'm like, someone like that, you have to snip.

That's, that's crazy.

That's unhinged.

Oh my gosh.

We ultimately decided not to move into that house.

Since then, we've had two more beautiful children, bought a wonderful

home, and both of us are now in school studying to become teachers.

We both are maintaining 4.0 GPAs.

Woo hoo.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

It's worth noting that my husband didn't speak to his mom for 10 years

because of lies his dad told about her.

I was wondering.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That sucks when that happens.

It's like if you have your own issues sure.

But don't bring your kids involved.

'cause now he lost 10 years with his mom.

That's so sad.

Yeah.

That's really, really sad.

Yeah.

I'm glad they're like reconnected.

There's nothing you can do about it.

he's lying just as she said and

mm-hmm.

People who are willing to do that and lie about the other

party are so much better at it

than the person who's a victim of it.

And so it's just like a terrible manipulation of the child.

It's so sad.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

It absolutely eats at them now that she's a bigger part of our lives,

especially after his dad tried to tell him almost identical lies about me.

Recently we had a vow renewal.

His mom, my parents, and many of our friends and family attended at the church

where I'm part of the leadership team.

So they got their new

That's good.

Yeah.

I take it back.

I like this movie.

Yes.

It all has a happy ending.

I'm so happy.

Yay.

His dad no longer has my husband's phone number and has to go through me

if he wants to pass along a message, I personally have forgiven them.

Oh, that's big.

I don't know.

I because I don't like holding onto anger, but my husband hasn't.

Overall though all's well, it ends well.

We are happy, healthy, raising three wonderful children

and living a life we love.

Yay.

Good job.

Them.

I feel like they did a great job of tying it up with a bow at the end.

'cause sometimes we get these and it just ends and I'm like, that's all they want.

And I like, we'll reach out.

Sometimes we be like, can you give us a follow up?

wow, that was a rollercoaster.

Yeah, that was a lot.

Yeah.

We've been through some drama.

I'm glad they came out the other end of it, but Oof.

Yeah.

We need EMDR therapy after that.

Seriously, I feel like this is a good reminder that if you really want to move

forward in your marriage, if there's some kind of toxicity like that constantly

pulling out, you have to make a choice.

Yeah.

If you wanna stick with your in-laws or you know, whoever

that is, the toxic person.

Then your marriage probably won't work.

I mean, not to be like, but you know, I just feel like so many times in these

stories I see where it's like the push and pull and or they'll be fine and then

all of a sudden they like do something and you're like, do I forgive them?

But this is like all, this was unforgivable.

Am I?

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Like from the start.

That's incredible.

that is an example of a husband who does put you first.

Yes.

Who does stand up to his family?

Oh man.

He put all the pieces together.

He is like, wait, dad's not, wait a minute.

He, he said the same thing about Mom.

I've heard these lies before.

Wait a minute.

Yes.

He's going down that same, files of lies.

Okay.

Let's pull this one out.

That's incredible.

People just send you stories like this.

Mm-hmm.

That's what started the podcast is 'cause when I would post a skit, people would

message me or DM me or comment and they'd be like, can I send you my whole story?

And I was like, sure.

Then I use it for a skit and then I was like, I'll create a Google form so you

guys can send me, you know, a bunch.

Oh.

And then I

had

like hundreds upon hundreds of stories and I was like, I

guess we're making a podcast.

Let's share this story.

Because I was like, I can't act 'em all out, so let's just do it.

Oh, that's incredible.

Yeah.

People used to send me mother-in-law stories whenever I would do barber

skits before the big storyline began.

Oh wow.

What you can do with something like that.

It's amazing.

Right.

And we were talking about too, it's like it gives people a safe place to share.

a story I read the other day.

Was saying like she wanted to like share it, but she was like, I have family

and friends on social media and I don't know how they'll retaliate or something.

I'm like, you can send it to me.

I will anonymously share it.

I'll change details.

You know?

so that makes it a safe place to connect or see people's opinions without you

putting yourself out there necessarily.

Yeah,

absolutely.

I feel like I need a drink after that.

That was crazy.

At least a cup of coffee.

It's like, that was a lot.

Oh

my gosh.

It was a lot.

All right.

I always like to end these with reading a couple of confessions.

People also send me confessions on Instagram.

Okay.

this week we asked, did you invite someone you lowkey didn't

want to invite to the wedding?

No names, just the tea.

Okay, here we go.

This person said, not even invited.

Just invited.

He was a groomsman.

Oh.

And I have so much more drama that won't even fit here.

That should have been a dm. We need the whole story there.

We

need

more.

Yeah.

These little convers confession spots are so small.

My cousin's ex-boyfriend, they fought then broke up the next day.

Oh no.

Oh my gosh.

let's see.

my alcoholic sister-in-law, she wore a hot pink dress, stopped hubs while

he walked down the aisle to hug him.

Oh my God.

No, that's not,

did I?

I'm like, no, please don't.

No, no.

Oh my gosh.

let's see.

This says, oh gosh, this is a two part one.

The significant other to a groomsman who was so upset.

We didn't invite her toddler.

So then she did coke in the reception hall bathroom and nearly

flashed my 93-year-old great aunt.

That is a mouthful.

Whoa.

Oh my.

All right.

Well

I'm mad at you, so I'm going to do coke.

Yeah.

Great.

Okay, last one.

people really had some good answers here.

friends, girlfriend didn't like any of us have a pick of her and a

bridesmaid glaring at each other.

Okay.

Great.

Lesson of the day.

Just invite people that you wanted to write.

Ah, say no, say no to that person.

Nevermind.

don't come.

Yes.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

Well, thank you so much for coming on, Shawna.

I feel so grateful that you came on.

It was so great talking with you.

And I feel like I said this before coming up.

I feel like I know you through all seeing your skits and just,

you're just such a great person and, I love chatting with you.

Thank you.

This was so much fun.

I'm so glad and I'm so glad that it worked out because this has

been like months in the making.

Yes, I know.

I'm so glad.

Like I said, people have always like, get shot of the mom.

Um,

I'm thrilled.

This is so much fun.

I'm glad to have been on.

So can you just remind everyone where they can find all your skits and

then anything fun you're working on?

I mean, I know we got the Shawna Burst, but.

Yeah, it's Shawna, the mom.

Shawna is spelled SHA with WUNA, Shawna, the mom, and it's on all the platforms.

So TikTok, Instagram, I'm on YouTube, I'm on Facebook.

And I have a book coming out October 20th.

And

do you have a title for the book yet, or is that to be revealed?

I'm

not allowed to say it yet.

Yeah,

to, I love it.

I love the mystery.

And then, that's kind of it for now.

There's more stuff Awesome.

Coming.

I'm sure there's always tons of stuff you're working on.

Plus you're a mama too.

You're a wife.

That's, you.

I was gonna ask you about this earlier, like the pressures of get it out faster.

I need to know what I need to know.

Like

how

do you deal with that?

you're like, I do also have a life too.

And

Yeah, I have, just realized that I think I have to change up the way that

I'm releasing the content, because.

People are very eager for the next part to come out.

On the back end here, I'm suddenly like, oh, hold on, I need to make some

adjustments because how do I make this happen faster or give myself more time

in between something, something has to change because people yell at me a lot.

Yes.

And you gotta give yourself grace like

that.

I understand.

It's very exciting, fun, but oh my god.

Exciting.

But you're a human too.

It's the constant reminder of we also deserve to Send out a little bit.

Awesome.

Well, thank you again.

This was so fun hanging out with you.

It was so fun.

Thank you.