The women of “Glitter & Gossip” plan to take their hit podcast and radio show to TV this month, but not before they take a look back on how it all started.
The “Glitter & Gossip Show” was created by Kelli Hutchinson, owner of The Hair Show and host of the podcast. Hutchinson was the 2017-2018 Mrs. Louisiana State, which got her into public speaking. A friend of hers started a radio station and asked her if she wanted her own show — the rest is history.
After she accepted, she then asked Kristi Langlois to co-host the show, and Kelly Mentel to do a gossip column as a segment.
Langlois shared that she felt podcasts are much easier to listen to when the hosts are cool with each other. The women of “Glitter & Gossip” have fun talks that listeners enjoy due to their close friendships and strong bond, which shows throughout each podcast.
Mentel does the popular “Guilty Until Proven Fabulous” segment each week on the show.
The segment itself was created when Hutchinson and Mentel wanted a prime time, current events part of the show that fit the theme. 
“It was really just kind of us putting our heads together and coming up with something really fast and it just worked,” Mentel said.
LSU alumna and owner of the online and in-store boutique Article & Thread, Jennifer Myers, also has a segment on the show called “The Haute Minute.”
Myers shared how the hosts having their businesses helps them find fun topics to discuss each week and new people to interview. The women often ask people who are doing interesting things and that have a cool story to come on the show.
“It’s funny how a lot of these interviews have kind of fallen in our lap,” Myers said. “We’re always on the lookout for cool people doing cool stuff.”
Belinda Davids, a Whitney Houston impersonator known for being on the show “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” was interviewed on the podcast last year. After going to one of her shows, Myers coincidentally ran into her PR manager and planned an interview.
The podcast and the radio show are heard internationally in multiple countries with more than 18,000 listeners on the internet, which allows their businesses to get great promotion. The women work together on and off the air, with Langlois managing The Hair Show owned by Hutchinson and Mentel as the assistant manager, lead makeup artist and barber.
Hutchinson has taken many steps in order to make her business ventures a success. One of them was going on TLC’s hit show “Say Yes To The Dress,” where she was able to share her story.
After losing 100 pounds to compete for Mrs. Louisiana State and starting motivational speaking, Hutchinson knew she wanted to find a way to spread a positive message to her younger audience.
The main focus is to spread body positivity and encourage people to love themselves, with their slogan “A little glitter to get you feeling good, and a little gossip we can’t live without.”
“The glitter is us trying to sprinkle a little bit of happiness and share a little bit of motivation to young people because they are our future. And if they’re not getting the attention and the love they need at home, then they’re going to need someone else to look up to and we just want to be that avenue for young girls,” Hutchinson said.
With the success of their podcast, the women are now able to spread this positive message on TV. Hutchinson and Langlois both expressed the importance of having the podcast, and now the TV show, in Baton Rouge.
“There’s really nothing like this in Baton Rouge,” Langlois said. “Louisiana, in general, is kind of known as one of the backwoods states of the U.S. and anytime there is anything done in Louisiana, I feel like it’s always misrepresented as like a ‘Swamp People’ kind of thing and that’s not what are really who we are because Louisiana, especially Baton Rouge’, is more than just that.”
Myers feels the show will allow their brands to grow, as well. With two successful businesses, a podcast and now a TV show, the women are becoming successful quickly.
“Basically, I’m on my way to the top and I wanted to bring all my friends with me,” Hutchinson said. “And so I have, and it has been such a blessing,” Hutchinson said.
The TV talk show that is set to air this month will feature the four girls and will be titled “Glitter & Gossip”, just like their radio show and podcast, and will be broken down into segments like the show.
The group has already recorded their commercials and started filming.
“We’re going to have a lot of cool new things. We’re going to do all things glam with Kelly and try to get in a bunch of local businesses that we can promote,” Hutchinson said. “It’s really exciting the be the voice of Louisiana, because we have such loud voices.”
Hutchinson praised the group of women and the different inputs they give. She said the show’s content is both honest and tasteful, which makes it appeal to all different kinds of people. 
“They couldn’t have picked a better group of people to give opinions and have four people with such different perspectives and different goals,” Hutchinson said. “That’s what I think is so awesome about our show. Everyone is so different, so kind and so real. They’re going to tell you how they feel for real, but in a way that is kind.”

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Courtesy of Glitter & Gossip

Kelly Mentel, Kristi Langlois, Kelli Hutchinson and Jennifer Myers are the hosts of the podcast "Glitter & Gossip." New episodes air every Thursday at 7 p.m. CST