In this week’s episode of HELLO!'s Second Act podcast, host Ateh Jewel meets comedienne and social media sensation Deborah Frances-White.
Known to her 420,000 Instagram followers as The Guilty Feminist, Deborah lived a remarkable life even before she started her critically acclaimed podcast in 2015 – but it wasn't until she hit midlife that she felt she truly had anything that was hers.
Early years
Born in Australia, she was adopted at ten days old, and in her teens, her family joined what she calls a "religious cult", one that believed "Armageddon would come and we would live on a paradise earth", she tells Ateh.
“I know it sounds absurd to say that I thought I was going to live forever on earth, but I was brainwashed when I was 14, so I really did think that," says Deborah.
A revelation
As a teenager, Deborah had her own revelation. "I just suddenly went: 'You've got one life, you've got to live it now. This is absolute nonsense.'"
That decision, she says, "kicked me into gear. I know I have a finite life and I'd already lost some time. As soon as I got out, I was on it – everything I wanted to do."
© Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty ImaIn her late teens, Deborah bought a one-way ticket to the UK and studied at the University of Oxford. "I started an improv company doing comedy. But you don't need to have a cult, or a health scare [to make a change] – all you have to do is meditate on it," she says.
Midlife relaunch
When Deborah reached midlife, she launched The Guilty Feminist podcast, with the aim of tackling urgent questions for the modern woman. It's a moment she acknowledges as the start of her own Second Act. "That was my big thing," she says. "I had success before that, but nothing that was really, fully mine."
Not only has the pod brought her success, it has also taught her life lessons, she says. "I feel as though my podcast has kept me young, because my young audience keeps telling me: 'Hey, that's not how we think about things now.'"
© Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty ImaGetting older has also bred confidence, says Deborah, who will appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 21 August, promoting her book Six Conversations We’re Scared to Have; "You become better at knowing who you are, how you best express yourself, where your talents are and what it takes to stretch yourself."
Listen to the Second Act podcast now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and Youtube.
