Pressure and perfectionism were the perfect storm for journalist Georgie Dent, who recalls her own breakdown and reveals how the same characteristics that make some young women susceptible to burnout can be the source of self-care
It was just after 10pm on a Sunday in September 2013 and I had just stepped off the set at Sky News, oblivious to the storm I’d just been caught in. As the acting editor of Women’s Agenda, I had been invited to be part of a panel to discuss the weekend’s stories. That day, I had anxiously waited to receive the topics we’d be discussing during the hour long live-to-air program. I read all the weekend papers back to front, I scoured the web, and then, when the topics came through, I knuckled down and read the 12 or so stories that were listed.
The issues we’d be discussing ranged from Tony Abbott’s sleeping quarters in Canberra to an essay former prime minister Julia Gillard had written for The Guardian, to Syria, to gun control, to the Labor leadership, to lowering the legal age for teenagers to serve alcohol. That Sunday, while wrangling the girls and going about our day, I thought at length about the issues. I wanted to be prepared.
The [program’s] conversation was heated, as I had expected, but I thought I had kept my cool and held my own. I was almost always in disagreement with the three men I sat with, but neither the host, Paul [Murray], nor my two fellow panellists were nasty, and they were very friendly as we left the set and I bid them goodbye. As I walked away, Paul called out, “Ignore anything ugly on Twitter!”
I knew my boss, Marina [Go], had been watching, along with Mum, Dad and my husband, Nick, and I was eager to get their read on how it went. But as I reached into my handbag, I noticed my phone was off, which struck me as strange: it had been fully charged an hour earlier when I had turned it onto silent. Once I was in the car, I plugged it in and waited for it to come back to life. The text messages that popped up alerted me to a problem.
Well done G. Ignore the haters. Love Dad
Denne historien er fra August 2019-utgaven av Harper's Bazaar Australia.
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Denne historien er fra August 2019-utgaven av Harper's Bazaar Australia.
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Grounded In Gotham
As she acclimatises to life under lockdown in her adopted city, model Victoria Lee reflects on fear, family and the fortitude of New Yorkers
Woman Of Influence Ingrid Weir
With a knack for elevating creative yet quotidian spaces and a love of bringing people together, the interior designer is crafting a sense of community among young artists.
CODE of HONOUR
At Chanel’s latest Métiers d’art showing, house alums Vanessa Paradis and daughter Lily-Rose Depp reflect on the red-carpet alchemy of Coco’s beloved bow, chain, camellia and ear of wheat.
Stillness in time
Acclaimed Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan’s new life in Italy has been a slowing down of sorts — but now, with coronavirus containment measures in play, life inside the walls of her 500-year-old farmhouse in Puglia has taken on a different cast, she writes
In the BAG
Aussie expat Vanissa Antonious from cult footwear brand Neous on going solo and stepping up her accessory offering.
uncut GEMMA
Forging her own path while paying it forward to the next generation, actor Gemma Chan is the (very worthy) recipient of the 2020 Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award. She reflects on fashion, the Crazy Rich Asians phenomenon and red-carpet alter egos with Eugenie Kelly
THE TIME IS NOW
Esse Studios founder Charlotte Hicks’s slow-fashion model may just blaze a trail for the industry’s new normal. She talks less is more with Katrina Israel
COUPLES' THERAPY
Brooke Le Poer Trench ruminates on the trials and tribulations of too much time together
CALM IN A CRISIS
Caroline Welch was a busy woman who wrote a book on mindfulness for other busy women. Now, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, she has started to take her own advice
ACCIDENTALLY RETIRED
As we settle into the new normal of lockdown, Kirstie Clements finds a silver lining in the excuse to slow down and sample the low-adrenaline lifestyle of chocolate digestives, board games and dressing down for dinner
