Former MasterChef host Sarah Wilson: ‘I don’t get held back by convention’
Author and activist Sarah Wilson is not hesitant to take on controversial topics. Here, the I Quit Sugar founder explains why she refuses to be ‘held back by convention’.
Stellar
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Paris may seem like an unlikely place to call home for Canberra-born naturephile, best-selling author and podcast host Sarah Wilson.
But two years into living there, she considers herself a local. It’s the curiosity of Parisians that she’s drawn to – or, as Wilson explains to Stellar, “the way they look out into the world, learning, absorbing, connecting and ‘human-ing’.
They say in Paris, if you get invited to a dinner party, bring a good bottle of wine and a good argument. That’s my kind of place.”
There’s also ready access to her beloved hikes; she can hop on a train and “let nature do its job. An hour-and-a-half out of Paris and I’m in amazing forests. It’s the best salve for my anxiety. It’s how I write my books, it’s how I come up with my ideas, it’s how I find my bravery. It’s everything.”
Ever since she became the self-described “accidental editor” of Cosmopolitan Australia at 29, Wilson has amassed a legion of female fans.
She’s happy to take on the responsibilities of being a role model, now more than ever at the age of 51.
“There’s a real future for us menopausal women because we’re used to having to question and fight. I don’t think anybody ever chooses to be a leader.
“You just be of service where you can. This is a time when we’re going to need the wisdom of older women.
“I happen to have a platform and I’m happy to do the work. I feel it’s right.”
Wilson was diagnosed with anxiety at age 13 and bipolar disorder at 21. Her best-selling 2017 book, First, We Make The Beast Beautiful, posits that these conditions present as a collection of “character traits”, rather than flaws.
“I see it as an evolutionary quirk that ensures there’s a certain number of humans that don’t play it safe,” she explains.
“I don’t get held back by convention. I just get curious and go down rabbit holes, and I can’t emerge until I have a path or an answer.”
Wilson no longer medicates her bipolar and sees it as her “obligation” to share her experience. “I think I’m meant to feel these emotions,” she says.
“The more I can do that and communicate how I do it, the less lonely other people will feel.”
Communicating is natural for Wilson. She famously started the I Quit Sugar movement from a 2011 blog post, turned it into a health and wellness empire, then closed and eventually sold it, donating the profits to charity.
Her followers can now find her on her Susbtack, This Is Precious, which has almost 60K subscribers.
She serialised her new book on the online platform before it was picked up by a publisher. “It’s quite a different process because you can’t go back and rewrite it,” she says.
“It creates a bit of a journey vibe. I’d seen a couple of people do it on Substack and thought I’d give it a go. I’m one of the early adopters.”
Wilson will be discussing serialisation – how she went about it and how it can be “leveraged” by publishers and authors – at the Melbourne Writers Festival this week.
“I’m encouraged that the festival is happy to have me discuss two controversial topics in the same breath,” she says, nodding also to a topic she’s been researching for years: how civilisations collapse, and why she believes it’s an inevitable fate for our own.
“Coming from my climate activist background, I was observing that none of this stuff is stacking up any longer,” she adds.
“It happens to all complex civilisations throughout history. The cost of living crisis is just the beginning. There’s nothing that can survive this, and AI is going to burn through these resources even faster.”
While she had assumed the material would be too intense for mainstream publication, it has since become highly relevant.
“As Trump came into power, as the fires in LA were happening, [my publisher] Penguin were like, ‘Things have shifted. We need a book on this,’” Wilson says, adding that her upcoming book remains hopeful, and aims to equip us for the aftermath of decline.
“I’m trying to calm the farm, get people in a position where they know what’s happening and can fortify themselves. We have to become the adults in the room.”
Wilson says there are silver linings in collapse, including having the opportunity to ask ourselves what really matters.
“We could thrive from this because it’s going to demand that we return to our full humanity,” she explains.
“We’re sick of the rat race and competing. We’re craving a return to our best selves.” The other antidote is to become, as she puts it, “congruent with nature”.
And ultimately loving fully, which she admits she has neglected in certain parts of her life … aside from French boyfriends she credits with helping her learn the language by default.
“I had a Corsican boyfriend who speaks limited English, so I had to speak French,” she says with a laugh. “But that deep intimacy is a missing point. I’m still working on it.”
Sarah Wilson will be a speaker at TedxSydney on May 9 and Melbourne Writers Festival, which runs May 8-11. For details, visit tedxsydney.com and mwf.com.au
Read the full interview and see the shoot with Sarah Wilson in the new issue of Stellar out tomorrow inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.
Originally published as Former MasterChef host Sarah Wilson: ‘I don’t get held back by convention’
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