Ita - Believe in yourself

She's a national treasure with a thrilling zest for life that, at 80, is as irrepressible as ever. Here, Ita Buttrose reflects on the childhood that shaped her, the meaning of love and shares what she really thought when she was picked for Chair of the ABC.

- JULIET RIEDEN

It is with great pride that The Weekly can lay some small claim to one of Australia’s most successful female icons. She was, of course, this magazine’s youngest ever editor at the age of 33, having started as a copy girl at 15. And en route she challenged the status quo as the founding editor of Cleo magazine bringing feminism, fun, sex advice and male centrefolds to the youth of Australia in 1972.

She became the first woman to edit a major metropolitan Australian newspaper and ultimately launched her own magazine, ITA: “For the woman who wasn’t born yesterday”.

She was, in fact, born in 1942 and such is her fame, like Oprah and Madonna, is one of very few to be recognised by her Christian name alone. At the age of 77 Ita was appointed Chair of the ABC, chosen by Scott Morrison in a Prime Ministerial captain’s pick over a short-list of three men for the top spot. It was a position, she says, she was “stunned” to be offered, but once she had got over the shock was certain she could do.

But while shattering glass ceilings has been all in a steely day’s work for Ita, her secret weapon, I soon realise, is her willingness to sit back and listen. That, and her passion to support and nurture, where others have perhaps trampled their way to the summit.