Ilana Glazer and Jameela Jamil Are Using Humor to Change the World

Ilana Glazer and Jameela Jamil have each had quite the year. Glazer's hit TV series Broad City came to a hilarious, sentimental conclusion this past spring. Meanwhile, Jamil is only a few episodes away from saying goodbye to NBC's The Good Place for, well, good. These two women are unique and talented in their own right, but they do share a commonality: They've used their authentic voices to effect real change, both in Hollywood and beyond. Whether it's the in body-positivity movement or politics, Ilana Glazer and Jameela Jamil frequently use humor and genuine communication to move the needle. At Glamour's 2019 Women of the Year Summit on November 10, they taught us how we can do the same.

Jamil, who created the I Weigh movement and hashtag after long being frustrated with women getting reduced to a number on the scale, began the conversation by opening up about her own journey to self-acceptance. The actor pinpointed a time when she was first bullied in school, which she says led to her developing an eating disorder. "My teacher made the stupidest fucking decision of all time…in order to teach us about charts, [she] weighed everyone," she says. "I was the fattest, and my name was at the top of the chart. That's when the bullying began about my weight, which led very quickly to my anorexia. That was the first time I realized I was a bit chubby."

“There’s something about turning 30 that makes you feel at peace with the fact that other people not liking you doesn't have to negatively impact you.”

Glazer has also created a platform for social change, with hers connecting people to political policy. The actor and activist is the founder of Generator Collective, which was born out of her desire to learn more about our governmental systems. "I didn't know what was coming up in the local elections. I didn't realize that the primaries are different for states, you know, things like that," she says. "It's just saying, 'I don't know. I just want to learn the basic minimum.' And it's about finding minimal civic engagement and embodying that, which is voting whenever there's an election and, God forbid, canvasing once every four years."

Jamil is just as fired up about American politics, particularly when it comes to women's rights. "I'm really upset about abortion not being considered a woman's right. I've had an abortion before. It was brilliant. I mean, it was also painful, but it was an excellent decision. And it wasn't because of an emergency. It was just something that I needed to do because my life is as important as someone who was not yet born," she told the audience.

Aside from their activism, the two share a similar philosophy on life. Jamil considers herself a work in progress, and neither is obsessed with perfectionism, or portraying a persona online or in the press that's anything other than their authentic selves. "In the '90s, when it was actually just TV and film and standard forms of media, [there was] a movie star image and this mystery behind it," Glazer says. "The mystery is gone. I like it. I prefer it. Women are able to narrate their own stories."

Because the two are unafraid to be themselves—flaws and all—failure is something that neither of them shies away from, but rather something they embrace. On failure, Jamil says "I take it as a compliment that people think that I can evolve, and that they offer me that critique. I think that's great. It's okay if [people] don't like me. I'm okay with being disliked. There's something about turning 30 that makes you feel at peace with the fact that other people not liking you doesn't have to negatively impact you. You don't have to please everyone, even if you're a woman."

“Being funny is really the only way I can see myself at this point.”

But not everybody feels the way that Jamil and Glazer do. Many women feel the societal pressure to maintain a perfect image and go to great lengths to do so. Jamil has become somewhat of a whistleblower in Hollywood, calling out women who utilize or promote unhealthy diet practices. It's something she's received backlash for, but she knows the work is important. She recently created a video with her partner, James Blake, artistically calling out diet supplements; it helped get ads for them taken off Instagram and Facebook. "I screamed while sitting on a toilet [for the video]. It went viral around the world. And I genuinely credit that video with how I managed to get Facebook and Instagram to stop [these ads]," she says.

Yet it's both of these women's sense of humor—and impeccable comedic timing—that fuels them and pushes them forward, in activism and beyond. "Being funny is really the only way I can see myself at this point. [Even with] Generator. It's funny to be like, 'I don't know shit. I don't know anything,'" Glazer says.

Find out more about Glamour's 2019 Women of the Year here.

Originally Appeared on Glamour