This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hi everybody, it's me, Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo, your host of Odd Woman Out, a show where we talk to women, artists, and just women in general, about what it is like to be a woman in the entertainment industry and a woman in the world.

[0:13] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: We're talking some crazy stories, some experiences, overcoming insecurities, but we're having a great time while we're doing it.

[0:21] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So thank you guys so much for tuning in and continuing to show love and support.

[0:26] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love you, my odd squad. Stay odd and send a woman in your life a text today and tell her how fierce she is.

[0:36] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That was great.

[0:39] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh my goodness. Hello, welcome to the odd people segment.

[0:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Can you please introduce yourself?

[0:45] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Let us know a little bit about who you are before we jump into feeling odd.

[0:48] Lisa Boccuzzi: Okay, perfection. My name is Lisa Boccuzzi. I am a master SoulCycle instructor.

[0:56] Lisa Boccuzzi: I've been living in New York for oh my gosh, actually, I don't know. Long time. Cumulatively a decade.

[1:07] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um, but my wife, who is also a former SoulCycle instructor, um, she and I like traveled around the country opening brand new studios.

[1:17] Lisa Boccuzzi: Uh, for that was a lot of years, but we were in the Bay Area, we were in Washington, DC, we were in Boston.

[1:24] Lisa Boccuzzi: But yeah, currently a New Yorker. I think you probably moved to New York about 15 years ago to start.

[1:30] Lisa Boccuzzi: Initially, yes.

[1:31] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yes, crazy. Crazy.

[1:33] Lisa Boccuzzi: But then I think we've been back since like 2018.

[1:36] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So we've been waiting for you.

[1:38] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So I'm so happy that you joined me on my new segment, Odd Woman Out.

[1:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Obviously, you're a woman, and my like the main platform is Odd Woman Out, but then I got to thinking, well, what about all the people?

[1:49] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: What ever what is a time in your life where you've ever felt like the odd person out, the odd woman out.

[1:54] Lisa Boccuzzi: So can you tell us a time in your life, whether it's in work, personal life, whatever it means to you where you have felt like the odd person out?

[2:03] Lisa Boccuzzi: Of course I can. So I think uh basically I the thing that comes to mind mostly when I think about being an odd woman out is just the fact that um I happen to be the only queer person in my family, and not even just immediate family.

[2:19] Lisa Boccuzzi: This goes like extended family, this goes like cousins, um, this goes like I never had any queer aunts or uncles, grandparents.

[2:27] Lisa Boccuzzi: I don't know. If you if anybody has a queer grandparent, that's like uh that's yeah, that's a flex.

[2:33] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah. Um, but no, so I feel like sort of when I realized that I was queer, I identify it depends.

[2:40] Lisa Boccuzzi: I actually change what I say depending on like the mood I'm in. Sometimes I'm bisexual, sometimes I'm pansexual, but regardless, I just sort of use queer.

[2:49] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah. And um, yeah, ever since I realized I was queer, I've just always kind of grappled with the fact that oh, I'm the only one um, you know, in my in my immediate world, like family world, experiencing this.

[3:02] Lisa Boccuzzi: And my wife and I have been together for my god, this year it's gonna be 13 years.

[3:07] Lisa Boccuzzi: That is wild.

[3:08] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah, but she also is the only queer woman in her family and extended family cousins, of which she has like so she think she has like 24 cousins, something crazy.

[3:22] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah.

[3:22] Lisa Boccuzzi: And um, yeah, I mean, we're the only like out queer people, you know, so I don't want to presume to know anybody's identity, but you know, the only people who are like living this way.

[3:34] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um, and yeah, I just think it's something to be said about uh being sort of the token queer person in any uh any context like that.

[3:44] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah, and sort of deciding, figuring out, okay, what does this look like for me?

[3:49] Lisa Boccuzzi: You know, what does it look like to be to create our own family because we got married four years ago, now we have a daughter.

[3:55] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um she's the cutest, you guys. She's so cute.

[3:57] Lisa Boccuzzi: But you know, we had to go through IVF in order to have her.

[4:01] Lisa Boccuzzi: We had to find um, you know, we used an own donor for to have her, so it's all these sort of like breaking barriers down in our own family in a way that is um I mean it's been a journey.

[4:13] Lisa Boccuzzi: Right. Like you wouldn't think you'd feel like the odd person out within your family, but such is life.

[4:19] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Exactly.

[4:20] Lisa Boccuzzi: You know, it's it's when you grow up like seeing uh like a straight marriage, right?

[4:27] Lisa Boccuzzi: Both myself and my wife, and like that's your uh experience, like to sort of forge your own path and uh be a a woman married to another woman is just sort of like, well, what's this supposed to look like?

[4:40] Lisa Boccuzzi: And I actually think for a long time I was really hesitant about um getting married, getting engaged.

[4:46] Lisa Boccuzzi: I really almost didn't want to.

[4:48] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah.

[4:49] Lisa Boccuzzi: I've it felt like I don't want to say it felt wrong, but I was just like, I don't know if this is my journey, right?

[4:55] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um, because it felt almost like we were maybe trying to fit in like a a hetero box.

[5:01] Lisa Boccuzzi: World, yeah.

[5:02] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um, yeah.

[5:03] Lisa Boccuzzi: But then uh I think it was like actually, and I I struggled with that a lot leading up to the wedding.

[5:08] Lisa Boccuzzi: I was like, this seems I don't know, it just doesn't seem like I needed this, blah blah blah.

[5:13] Lisa Boccuzzi: And um the day after the wedding, I just remember breaking down and being like, this was absolutely the the thing to do.

[5:19] Lisa Boccuzzi: This was so like this was absolutely like the path we were meant to to take.

[5:23] Lisa Boccuzzi: And I got so many texts um from friends, family, um, other queer people being like your wedding is so meaningful to see.

[5:33] Lisa Boccuzzi: You know.

[5:34] Lisa Boccuzzi: Also, best wedding ever.

[5:36] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um I mean, yeah, you know.

[5:38] Lisa Boccuzzi: Literally, best wedding ever, guys.

[5:39] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Do you have any advice to anybody who might be feeling, you know, like the odd person out, whether it's because they're queer or they're not feeling like they belong in a certain space?

[5:50] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah.

[5:50] Lisa Boccuzzi: I try to, I love that you have this podcast because I try to talk about this on my own social media as well.

[5:55] Lisa Boccuzzi: And I I think that my best advice is always just to find people who who you kind of can emulate, you know, people that are making these choices that are interesting to you or that you, if you're a queer queer person yourself, like you're like, oh, I can see myself in Lisa.

[5:55] Lisa Boccuzzi: I can see myself in X, you know, just find someone who sort of like you can identify with whom you can identify because it's so important to to have that, especially as you know, a millennial woman.

[6:27] Lisa Boccuzzi: I look, I always myself look to other millennials.

[6:31] Lisa Boccuzzi: Yeah.

[6:31] Lisa Boccuzzi: To say, okay, what does it look like for someone in our generation to to go through this, to, to be this?

[6:37] Lisa Boccuzzi: Um, because I think it just looks it looks different for millennials, it looks different for any generation before us or after us.

[6:44] Lisa Boccuzzi: And uh I think it's so important to to find those and whether you want you connect with them, like uh in by through messages, through social media, or whether it's just somebody like a list, like I actually keep a list of sort of like people that I not even if they're who inspire me, but just who I can sort of like, I'm like, okay, they're a person in this world that um makes me feel like I'm not alone.

[7:08] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that so much.

[7:10] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your personal story.

[7:14] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love you.

[7:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that you're now an official odd woman.

[7:18] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You have a hat.

[7:20] Lisa Boccuzzi: I do have the hat.

[7:21] Lisa Boccuzzi: I have the hat.

[7:21] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I should have worn the hat.

[7:22] Lisa Boccuzzi: It's okay.

[7:23] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You can do it again.

[7:24] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You can do another time.

[7:25] Lisa Boccuzzi: Thank you, I love that.

[7:28] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hello, my odd squad. It's me again, Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo.

[7:32] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode, this literal iconic episode.

[7:38] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow to the show.

[7:41] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Tell somebody else to take a listen.

[7:43] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Uh we are odd woman show on Instagram and TikTok.

[7:49] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And you can follow me also if you want at Sammy Tutz.

[7:53] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love you, my odd squad.