Introducing TAKE ACTION! with Hillary Carter

I am so happy to begin 2021 with the launch of the new Living Teal Channel series, TAKE ACTION! with Hillary Carter. If you follow my Instagram, you know I’ve been teasing this for a while. Working with FARE on this series was an absolute dream come true, and I am excited to finally share it with you all now.

Here’s the backstory…

While 2020 was difficult in many ways, the year offered some true silver linings. One of them was FARE’s focus on bringing enriching, educational, and entertaining content to the food allergy community (and beyond!) with a new digital platform – the Living Teal Channel. FARE recruited an incredible production team to create a wide range of new content, including cooking shows with famous chefs, a fun holiday series with a hilarious actress and podcast star, and an uplifting “coffee talk” show with the best food allergy mom friend you could ever have. In addition, I was honored to share our journey for the channel’s My Food Allergy Story series as part of the launch earlier last year. If you haven’t checked out all the amazing content on the Living Teal Channel yet, click here to catch up!

This new platform inspired me and got my brain spinning with ideas. My undergraduate degree is in Broadcast News, and I interned at Entertainment Tonight and Turner Broadcasting. During my PR years, I media trained clients for press interviews and produced “sizzle reels” of media coverage. I LOVE all things TV production.

I also love our food allergy community. For me personally, a silver lining of my boys’ food allergies is the amazing variety of smart, passionate people I have met along the way. Everyone is working towards the same goal: to make this world a safer place for those who have food allergies. There are so many advocates doing incredible work – focusing on raising funds for research, working towards legislative change, finding food-allergy-safe foods for food banks, creating educational resources, facilitating ways for families to have safe vacations, and so much more. We advocates range in age and background, but we all have one thing in common: we use our skills to create change.

I’m also fascinated by the journey of the food allergy parent. The arc of life where you find a career path you love and work hard on your craft … and then the direction you take once you have children … and then, ultimately, they are diagnosed with food allergies. The fundamental “pivot” that I’ve seen time and time again is amazing to watch. Parents who were doctors, lawyers, media executives, whatever...using their own professional toolbox to either add advocacy to their resume or turn their entire career into advocacy itself. This happened in my own life, and I love seeing it happen in others. It is a decision to look adversity in the face and say, “I’ve got this,” and then help others feel the same way. And it is a story that I want to help tell again and again.

Just as all of this was swirling in my head, the most amazing thing happened. I received an email from Jonathan Cane, Creative Director at FARE, asking if I’d like to discuss working together to create more content for Living Teal Channel. Well… YES, I WOULD!

Soon after, I pitched “Meet the Advocate” to Jonathan – a show based on the intersection of all these thoughts running through my head, where we could highlight the remarkable work of food allergy advocates across the country. I wanted to accomplish four goals:

1. Showcase the advocates who have been in the game long before I came on the scene – the ones who paved the way for all of us here now.

2. Highlight the up-and-comers – the younger advocates (some with food allergies themselves, versus their parents) who are taking this diagnosis by the reins and thriving.

3. Shine a light on ALL the different ways people advocate – using their own professional background to make a difference.

4. Share tangible tips with the audience for how THEY could get involved at home in their own special way.

Jonathan not only loved this concept, but, in true form (he’s quick-witted, fun, and brilliant!), he immediately came up with the name: TAKE ACTION! with Hillary Carter. And we were off!

We worked together to find the advocates we wanted to interview (it’s a LONG list, by the way, so I have all my fingers and toes crossed that Season 1 is just the beginning!), and we quickly booked show recordings. This was 2020, after all, so we did everything from home and virtually to keep us all safe. I had the opportunity to interview five truly inspiring advocates, all of whom are sharing their gifts with our community in different and exciting ways.

The series launches this week with my interview with Thomas Silvera, co-founder of the Elijah-Alavi Foundation. Thomas and his wife, Dina, turned the most unspeakable tragedy into action, creating Elijah’s Echo. They just celebrated Elijah’s birthday with the launch of a new PSA in honor of Elijah Silvera Day. I felt honored to speak with him, and I hope you will enjoy learning more about him and his work in this episode.

We feature four more powerhouse advocates in the series, coming up soon. And as I said before, I sincerely hope this is just the beginning. Creating this series to shine a light on these advocates is by far the biggest professional highlight of my own advocacy career thus far, and I would love to keep doing it! Please check out TAKE ACTION! with Hillary Carter today. I’d be so grateful if you’d like it, comment, and share it on social media and with your friends and family!

When it comes to all things food allergy, FARE took what 2020 offered and found silver linings. I am honored and enormously grateful to have had the opportunity to create this series with FARE. I truly hope you enjoy learning about these awesome advocates. And I hope they inspire you to TAKE ACTION! in your own special way!