1. First thing in the morning when you wake up, do you look at your phone? If so, what do you search?
I don’t look at my phone, (it is often off, actually) but after a coffee I do often open my laptop and see what emails have come in from family, friends and work, and what is happening in the broader world by checking some major news sites. When I am on holiday I skip that step, or at least put it off until later.
2. Are you a coffee or tea drinker and what kind?
I drink two lattes a day usually, and I drink copious amounts of herbal tea when I am not looking for a caffeine boost for writing my next book. I might have two or three cups of herbal, non-caffeinated tea a day.
3. You always imagined growing up you’d be?
Stephen King.
4: Your love of red lipstick came about from….
History, mid-century vintage and WWII factory workers, and how my ‘red steel’ makes me feel.
5. When women are negative it makes you…
Listen. We have to hear the good and the bad.
6. When women support one another you…
Know almost anything can be achieved.
7. One thing you keep close to your chest (until now is)…
I have taken up sewing, mending and cosplay, and I’ve just become the honorary Patron of the Australian Sewing Guild. Last year I couldn’t even sew a button on.
8. To all those women who are negative on social media you’d say…
As an activist, my advocacy often involves shining a light on injustice or harm. But if you are talking about negative comments on superficial issues, like people’s clothing or appearance, I really don’t have time for that and I don’t know how others do either. Live and let live.
9. If you could express one piece of QueenHood advice to working women you would say…
Make time for the things that give you energy – creatively, in terms of health, and in terms of wellness – is one of the best investments you can make.
10. The never ending quest for balance between work life and family life you take on by…
Valuing downtime, family time, hobbies and self-care to balance my often challenging public advocacy on issues like sexual violence, inequality, child mortality and domestic violence.
11. Your popular books and humanitarian WORK means so much to you because…
You have to put your time where your heart is.
12: When you’re in work mode you are best described as…
Determined.
13. The legacy you hope to leave is…
I need to try to make the world safer and more equitable for my daughter, her generation and the generation that follows. It is naive to imagine making such an impact, but I have to try, and if we work together we can do it. Every social change of the past – winning the right to vote, to enroll in higher education, to own property, to have the legal right to equal pay, to get a loan without a man’s permission and more – we’re won by the collective action of many individuals. This is a collective legacy we should all continue.
