‘The Girls Got Guts’: Your Well-Connected Big Sister Therapist, now on Spotify

The first year of university is quite daunting, isn’t it? It’s just something about that “first” that seems to drive a blade of dread into the pit of your stomach each time you think about it. But if your anxiety is getting to your head and you fear that you are alone in it, I have some news to deliver: you aren’t. You’re not unique in being scared of this next step. We’ve all been there; I was too, just a year ago.

I remember being both extremely excited to take this next step in my educational journey, but also absolutely terrified that I would somehow mess it up, or worse yet, that there was some kind of mistake, and this wasn’t the place for me. It’s imperative that you know now that there was no mistake and whatever happened for you to come here, whether it was straight out of college, or you took a gap year, or even a few years before joining us; you’re here now, and there was no mistake. 

One thing in particular that nagged me in first year, and even a bit now, is the fear that I won’t be able to reach my goals because I don’t know how to yet. This has bothered me for years. After starting university – a place where I should be cultivating my skills to reach a point where I can use those skills to achieve my goals – I suddenly felt so lost, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

Everywhere I looked people seemed to have it together and I just needed someone to relate to; someone to tell me that I wasn’t going crazy. Finally, I got the chance to meet that someone, and she has created something very special for anyone who just needs a little boost for their day. 

Her name is Amba Tilney – now a second-year English Literature and Creative Writing student – and she started The Girls Got Guts, a Leeds Student Radio (LSR) show, back in February of 2024. Described to be passionate, heartfelt, and wholesome, The Girls Got Guts aims to be, as she puts it, “a place where people can navigate moments in their life and to use as a form of validation”.

The inspiration for the show came from her journey in coming to terms with her own hardships before she came to the University of Leeds. She initially studied English Literature at Kings College in London after taking a gap year, but there, she received quite a blow to her self-esteem, leading to another partial gap year. When she eventually came to Leeds, she struggled to feel like she belonged, because she thought her experience was unique and no one else could relate. Then, someone reached out to tell her that they also shared her experience, and wished people were more outspoken about their complicated circumstances so that they could build a community. Thus, The Girls Got Guts was born.

Amba’s show exudes the energies of a safe space, with it being structured around her life and passions. She shares her own experiences in hopes of allowing her listeners to be able to relate and not feel quite so alone, and talk about things she’s passionate about, in hopes of inspiring others to follow their dreams. As a self-proclaimed naive optimist, she’s a fantastic example of someone who put their mind to something, worked hard, and made her own dreams come true, and she just wants to share that same energy with the rest of the world.

She also invites guests onto her show – predominantly other like-minded people who are passionate about what they do – to talk about how feasible it really is to reach your goals. She demonstrates that you don’t need to blow up overnight to be successful. She hopes to reassure her listeners by showcasing people in their different fields who admit it is a long process. 

Recently, Amba announced to the The Girls Got Guts Instagram page that there will now be a podcast available on Spotify, where episodes come out every Monday (and sometimes Wednesdays too, for special episodes, so keep a look out on @thegirlsgotguts on Instagram). Her goal is to make the support she wants to give more accessible to everyone; to be more available than she was on LSR last semester, true to the big sister therapist brand she has built for the show.

She highlights her desire to be as authentic as possible for her listeners, choosing to not cut things out of her episodes when she’s recording to be truly unfiltered and share an authenticity that social media now often hides. 

The Girls Got Guts has an innate charm imbued within it that draws you into its supportive orbit, and Amba’s gentle nature only enhances these qualities. There’s a calmness in the space she has built that is reassuring, and she’s not afraid to tackle the hard topics to help all the people she can. She’s the first person to admit that life isn’t always easy, but she will also be the first to tell you that it’ll be okay and you’re most definitely not alone.

To the freshers of this year, she says: fake it ‘till you make it! Sounds silly, but use that mindset to enhance the qualities that you already have, not to take it too far and make yourself uncomfortable, but simply to give you a taste of the life that you might want, and you can start to work towards it. Don’t worry if you don’t have an immediate friend group either, it’s all part of the process. If you’re really worried, join a society to help connect you to like-minded people! She also says to watch out for those shot glass volumes (spoiler for episode 1 of The Girls Got Guts podcast: she realised she’d been taking doubles of doubles because she never realised her shot glass was a double). 

And to the freshers of this year, I say: You’ve got this, and you’re most definitely not alone. Even if you don’t feel like you have anyone around you to talk to or relate to, I can assure you that there is because no one has been unique in this. The anxiety for the first year is natural, and we all understand it, so just take a chance on the next person you get to meet. When you need it, The Girls Got Guts is there too – she’s got your back. If she’s got guts, so do you. You’re here to step into the next chapter of your life; you need guts for that.