EXCLUSIVE: Toni Cowan-Brown Discusses Co-Hosting The Red Bulletin Podcast, The Power Of Women In F1, And Shifting Archaic Mindsets
Toni Cowan-Brown is a name that resonates with a distinct echo of change and inspiration. Known mainly for her vibrant presence on TikTok (F1Toni), Instagram and most recently co-hosting the Red Bulletin's podcast 'Ready for the Big Time: F1', Cowan-Brown is much more than a social media influencer.
Cowan-Brown takes us to the heart of her mission in motorsport. As the brain behind 'Sunday Fangirls', she's not just crafting a cultural platform within F1; she's redefining it. Her approach is a fascinating blend of education and engagement, aimed at sparking conversations and challenging the status quo.
As a co-host of the 'Ready for the Big Time: F1' podcast, she brings a fresh perspective to the discourse around motorsport, especially concerning women's roles in this traditionally male-dominated field.
In this interview, Cowan-Brown delves into the nuances of the term 'Fangirl', a label she's passionately working to de-stigmatise and redefine. She shares insights on her personal journey that led to the inception of 'Sunday Fangirls', a venture that's as much about breaking stereotypes as it is about fostering a community of enthusiasts and professionals.
We explore the broader landscape of Formula 1 and its evolving dynamics. Cowan-Brown reflects on the hurdles she's faced in a sport inching away from male dominance, providing a candid look at her experiences across various professional realms. Her story is not just about overcoming obstacles but also about the resilience and determination needed to make a mark in a world as competitive and dynamic as Formula 1.
Toni Cowan-Brown
Lydia Mee: You talk in the podcast about the term ‘Fangirl’ and how it’s important to move it away from the negative connotations. I noticed you mentioned that it was partly a personal journey for you as well, so what made you want to advocate for this and start up your business Sunday Fangirls?
Toni Cowan-Brown: “It's fascinating because with the podcast I interviewed Mikaela [SheLovesF1] and Lily [Herman] and those are two very bright women amongst many others who will put in their bio ‘proud fan girl’ or who've advocated for that. I am not that, and I don't think I've ever associated myself with that word for a variety of reasons. I don’t want to just blame the parents, but I was brought up by more or less a single dad for a long time. He brought me up the way that only he knew how to with all of the beliefs that he had and the ways that he approached the world, which let's be very honest, was the way a middle aged white man would approach the world. He gave me that gift of navigating the world like a middle aged white man would, which obviously, is surprising to people when I show up and I'm absolutely not a middle aged white man, and they're like, ‘Oh, your confidence doesn't match what we expect from you, tone it down, pipe down, take a seat, know where you're at.’
“Neither of us had actually ever thought about that. I would come back from my first jobs or university and be like, ‘that didn't go down so well’. And he was like, ‘what I'm confused, why not? Did you not assert dominance?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I tried and I was told to F off.’
“So the reason I bring that up is obviously fandoms is such a uniquely, I think, feminine thing in the most beautiful way possible and it was not something that he was used to. He was also not a big fan of sports in general, Formula One was the one thing we connected on for a long time, so I was oblivious to the whole thing.
“It's funny because he jokes about it going ‘God when did I bring up such a stark feminist?’ I don't know, but it definitely just happened. I think it happened mostly because I tried to navigate the world the way I knew how to based on what my dad taught me and realising I was getting something very different back.
“I read two books at the same time that I was starting my F1 content journey. The first book was called Wordsl*t, which is by this incredible woman, Amanda Montell, who was analysing terminologies and words and how they've been used against women for so long. It was very much a feminist book about how words matter and are meaningful and I went down a deep rabbit hole and I came out of that going, ‘Holy c**p, I had never thought about all of these things.’
“At the same time, I read a book by Hannah Ewens, called Fangirls. It was a deep dive into the fandoms of the music space and I had never thought about it in my life. The two of them together just made perfect sense. I often wonder if I hadn’t read both books at the same time, would I have gone on this journey? But her whole book was about ‘isn't it wild that The Beatles were told you're gonna have to find another fan base because this isn't going to be it? Screaming young women are just not going to make you popular.’ They kind of did.
“Simultaneously, I had this other journey which was creating my F1 content and I very much took the approach that my dad had taught me 20 years ago which was to be confident, know what I'm talking about, do all the research, it's all factually accurate. No one can complain with what you're bringing to the table because it is factually, historically accurate stuff. What I realised was, in doing that, I didn't put a lot of myself out there on the internet. Here are the facts and that's it, you can not like my delivery, you can not like the person who's giving you the information but the information is correct and I got a lot less pushback than some of the young women who are coming into the sport and embracing what truly makes them them, which was the fangirl approach. The creativity they have is unique and the funnest thing but I noticed the backlash that they're getting, and I wasn’t experiencing that.
“I went on my own journey of ‘why am I not experiencing that?’ and I realised I just never leaned into that part of me which was a young woman having fun. Because my whole life I was told to dress for the job you want, don't only act your age, act 10 years older. So I just became really fascinated about it.
“But more importantly, I started to realise these young women are completely re-shifting and re-shaping the sport and this industry and we are not giving them the time of day and we are not taking them seriously and even right now the sport will tap themselves on the back and go ‘our audience is more young, more female than ever before.’ But, you still don't care about them. I'll go to an F1 race and there's still nothing in terms of sanitary products, there's still nothing on the doors that say ‘if you feel unsafe, this is the number you call.’ You're still not actually protecting them or caring for them or giving them products that they need.”
LM: Sunday Fangirls is overcoming the age-old stereotypes as well as creating a community to bring forward the difficult conversations, is that something you set out to achieve with the business and how does that make you feel?
TCB: “My husband has been my biggest advocate for Sunday Fangirls. When I created Fangirls I didn't think it would become the thing that it has become. It's been an incredible journey.
“I created a sub brand beneath it called Sunday Motley Crew and my husband was like, ‘Cop out’. My husband wears them at least three times a week. He loves them. He loves the quality of them, but he just thinks it's so cool. If people look at this and like, look at him strangely, he’s like ‘Oh, you're not one of my people, that's great, good to know, move on.’
“But what I say to him is you are going to be celebrated for wearing this, I'm going to be ridiculed. It’s the same with parents. Dads are celebrated for the bare minimum in looking after their kids and then the mums are gonna be looked at going well, that wasn't enough, you should be there more often for your kids. You should be doing this or you're doing that. And I feel like it's the same and I wish that we could shake these very archaic views of male/female, but we're not quite there yet.
“And in the meantime, what I said to my husband is you can proudly wear this and you're going to be celebrated as the man who supports the young female women. I'm going to be looked at as the crazy groupie. And I'm not going to be taken seriously in the paddock. He asked me, ‘why do you care?’ He’s right. This is the journey that I'm on to try and reshape that.
“There is maybe 1-3% of Fangirls who I think are going too far, who you look at and go you really need to reel it in, this is actually dangerous behaviour. But this is only 1-3% and yet that behaviour has somehow spilled over into every other young female who calls herself a proud fangirl. I'm an expert in the sport and that's just the way young women refer themselves to it except that they come at it with humility and love and care. This is not okay that just 1-3% of these fans, whether they're male or female, just give it a bad rap and a bad name. And everyone else is actually doing wonders for the sport.
“It's definitely been a journey of being kind to myself. It's on us to make the changes. Do you want to take the easy route or not? And some days I want to take the easy route. I don't want any association with fangirls I just want to do the work I want to do. I don't want people to recognise or even acknowledge that I'm a young woman. I want to go back to the content that I did when I first started, when it wasn't opinionated. But that's not gonna change anything. That's not going to bring out really interesting complicated conversations.”
LM: As the sport strives to move away from being so male-dominated, what are some obstacles you have encountered along your journey to where you are today including the other areas you work in?
TCB: “I always have a knee jerk reaction when people talk about a male dominated space because it’s not. It disregards the hundreds and thousands of women who work in this industry, they're just not the 20 drivers or the 20 team principles right now. It really p***es me off for some reason, even though it's kind of factually accurate that it is still a very male dominated space. But at the same time, I get on calls all day about F1 and it's mostly with women. It's because they choose to focus on the men and disregard the women.
“I started in politics and yes, from the outset, I think a lot of people would consider this as being a very male dominated job, but it's not. My CEO was a woman when I was in tech and most of my clients were women.
“This is why I got angry with Drive to Survive. If you had more women behind the camera, I can almost guarantee you we'd see more women. But, because it's men behind the camera, and it's men producing the edits from the footage that we get to the final cut, if everyone viewing this is a man then guess what we're gonna get, we're gonna get all of them. And we get written out of history.
“I was looking at the history of Formula One and in every picture, there are women. Are you telling me there were more women in Formula One in the ‘70s and ‘80s than there are now that are visually present. That's the biggest struggle, watching people rewrite the day, or the history of something without the women's impact.
“You look at Bertha Benz who's one of the inventors of the car and many aspects of the car and she couldn't actually be celebrated because she was a woman. So her husband from Mercedes Benz got all the celebration and there's another woman who's been rewritten out of history. I think that's the same in tech and when working with politicians.
“You think it's in one profession specifically, but it's actually in every industry. It fuels me in a good way that this has to change. I'm seeing change and if you keep putting it in front of people's faces and the right people come on the journey with you, I think that's the most incredible thing.”