Edgy Anne T. Donahue Cultural chronicler goes for the jugular
One in a series of casual conversations with movers and shakers in our cultural community
She’s a hipster who dislikes the term — or at least isn’t thrilled about it — a cultural chronicler who goes for the jugular, a rebel with a cause.
And if she were to read that last paragraph, she would probably disagree with most of it.
She’s Anne T. Donahue, and when we meet in Hespeler Public Library — The Ideas Exchange, as it’s known — she’s anxiously awaiting the publication of her first book, “Nobody Cares,” a collection of pithy, brutally honest essays about failure, feminism and the limits of personal ambition.
“I’m in purgatory here,” notes the impatient 33-year-old magazine/newspaper/radio pundit, podcaster and Twitter giant cited by The Toronto Star as “one of Canada’s most popular online personalities.”
“I don’t know how to turn off my brain. All I can do is wait.”
A committed workaholic who loathes downtime, Donahue wants her book (released shortly after this interview) out there now. POW. BAM. Make it happen.
She’s a doer, not a whiner. A leader, not a follower.
Like the town she grew up in, she’s also a mass of contradictions: opinionated but empathetic, conflicted but defiant, welcoming but — what’s the word? — complicated.
And make no mistake: she doesn’t stand for B.S.
“I feel like I’ve gone through things that have given me insight,” she notes with characteristic candour. “I’m always honest and authentic.”
It wasn’t always the case. If you read her book, you discover a proud Hespelerite plagued with anxiety, who dropped out of university, headed to Toronto to make her mark as a music journalist, then — as a “self-medicating alcoholic” with mental health issues — found herself scurrying back, destitute and depleted, to lick her wounds in Cambridge.
It was there, like a
phoenix rising from the ashes, that she reinvented herself, tethered to the city that spawned her, marching steadily toward world domination.
After years of preparation, that moment is finally at hand.
Your book is more than the irreverent musings of a 30-something hipster. There’s wisdom, insight, humility. What did it take to bring these things into focus?
I think age and experience. You go through things, you learn from them, you hopefully apply what you’ve learned along the way. It’s a boring answer, but it’s the only answer, I think. That said, you never stop learning and growing.
You came of age just as the internet was becoming a “thing.” How did this shape your perspective?
On the one hand, I can remember what it was like before the internet documented and housed our memories and experiences.
I remember Napster, “The Thong Song” and Y2K fears. There’s an element of romanticization.
But on the other, I know what it’s like to live now, and to grow up with instant access to music, information, friends — all of it. I think being able to see both sides lends itself to an understanding. There’s a before and after quality to my perspective.
How did you come by your facility with language?
I was always a reader. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but I always had books. And I started reading really young.
I have this image of you at 15 with plucked out eyebrows in a pleather outfit, smoking du Maurier cigarettes. If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you tell her?
I would tell her to leave her eyebrows alone! Everything else is life experience.
Why pleather?
I was seething with insecurity and just wanted to be an adult. Here I am! I have arrived!
Most culture pundits with 50,000 Twitter followers and book excerpts in the Globe and Mail would be living in hip urban centres like New York or Toronto. What keeps you rooted to sleepy, docile Cambridge?
Well, I wouldn’t describe Cambridge as sleepy. It’s growing, it’s interesting, it’s got character. I think it’s easy to categorize cities that aren’t Toronto as “small” even though they aren’t. But I mean, my past is here, my family is here, close friends are here. I always want to have roots here, even if my work takes me elsewhere.
You told me living here is like “being on vacation — almost like living in Prince Edward County.”
I think I have to replace “vacation” with another word. Hmm. But it is like a break. Maybe because I’m more comfortable being the self I was growing up or the self I am around people who’ve known me a long time. And that’s always a mental reprieve. It’s comfortable to be somewhere that helped define you.
In one witty online missive, you wrote “You will never experience Cambridge until you experience it in a parking lot.” Was this a compliment?
If you didn’t spend your formative years standing around in parking lots with people you went to school with on way-toohumid summer nights then truly, you have not lived.
How did growing up here inform your view of the world?
I grew up in a predominantly white, blue collar neighbourhood. So I was very privileged. And for a long time I believed that my experience was a universal one. But obviously that isn’t and wasn’t the case. And the older I got, the more I began to recognize the complexities of the world and our society and the infinite imbalances. So I had to check myself in a big way, and learn to listen instead of assume or interrupt or try to speak for. And that came with growing up, with realizing that the bubble I existed in was just that — a bubble.
I have trouble picturing you working mundane service jobs at McDonalds or Rona Home & Garden. How did those experiences shape your personality?
As if I’d give an essay of my book away for free!
You have 50,000 followers on Twitter. I have 941 (which I thought was a lot). To what do you attribute this difference?
From what I see of your Twitter account, you’re not tweeting nearly enough photos of sloths.
When the #MeToo movement kicked off a year ago, you tweeted “When did you meet YOUR Harvey Weinstein? I’ll go first: I was a 17-yr-old co-op student and he insisted on massaging my shoulders as I typed,” and it went viral. What’s the secret to standing out?
There’s no secret! Or if there is, I’d like to know it because I have no idea why some tweets and jokes catch on and others don’t. I’ve learned to stop analyzing, though, since at the end of the day, it’s only Twitter. It’s fun sometimes and terrible others. I’m too lazy to properly understand its algorithm.
As a young female columnist, you have avoided the cliché of writing exclusively about dating and relationships. Why was this important?
Ohh — I have to red flag you here. Men write about relationships too. But we tend to equate doing this with “female writers” as if emotions are reserved strictly for them. That isn’t the case. And it’s a huge pet peeve of mine. I don’t concentrate on the topic because I don’t think I have very much to share. I’m a cis, white, hetero woman whose perspective is exactly as privileged as it seems.
You told me being a celebrated writer isn’t enough — you want to “do it all:” podcasts, movies, TV. Why is this important?
I think I said one of my fears is that “nothing” is enough. I wish I had the selfconfidence to say “being a celebrated writer” isn’t enough. But doing it all — or being a multi-hyphenate — allows me to be creative in different ways. So why not?
As a commentator/essayist/pundit, when did you realize you have “it”, whatever “it” is?
I have no idea what “It” is! Unless we’re talking about a Stephen King novel.
What is “imposter Syndrome” and what makes you think you have it?
I think many of us have, to be honest: that worry that everyone will figure out we’re faking it or not good enough, etc. etc. I don’t know many people who don’t have it. I think we all tend to second-guess ourselves regularly. Or worry that how we see ourselves isn’t how other people see us — or vice versa. Or maybe I’m just projecting even more, answering this way. See? Impostor Syndrome.
“Clueless.” “The Parent Trap.” Spice Girls. NSYNC. Most of your pop culture references are from the ’90s and, specifically, 1998 — why was that year so pivotal?
I maintain the things we loved when we were 13 or so will always mean something special as we grow up. You begin to cultivate your tastes, decide who you’re going to be, use pop culture to articulate how you feel — so everything you embrace becomes very important and very pivotal. Even if it’s not critically acclaimed, it means something to you.
I lived through 1998, but as an overthe-hill Gen X/Boomer, most of that pop culture slid right by me. My question: is pop culture geared perpetually toward the young, and if so, as someone who documents it, how can you age gracefully?
Age is a construct! “Aging gracefully” is nonsense! Age however you want!
I notice you strategically moved the chairs into position when I arrived at the library and back again when we left. Those were heavy chairs. Why go to all that trouble?
Because the library isn’t my house, Joel! It’s a public space. Therefore, you must clean up your own mess.
You said you’re like a 95-year-old woman trapped in the body of a 33year-old. Please explain.
I relate a lot to Old Rose from “Titanic” and Sophia from “The Golden Girls.” And yes, I will be having a nap today.
Why does a 33-year-old need a nap?
Don’t trust anybody who doesn’t take naps or believes they don’t need them.
After your career as a Toronto music writer tanked in your 20s, you moved back to Cambridge and achieved success as an online culture pundit/podcaster/empowerment beacon, grasping victory from the jaws of defeat. What’s the lesson here?
Again, I’m not giving an essay away for free. I also don’t want to assume I’m free from defeat. Life is peaks and valleys and highs and lows. Right now, I’ve been very lucky and found success in writing — the kind I never thought I’d actually get. But life is unpredictable.
How important is being cool at 33? Cool is a myth, just like age. Where would you like to be 10 years from now?
I have learned never to think that far ahead. Ten years is a million. Let’s just get through today, shall we?
If a movie version of your book is made, who would play you? I’m going to suggest Krysten Ritter, the cynical superhero badass on TV’s “Jessica Jones.”
Well I’m a huge fan of Krysten Ritter, so I certainly won’t be sad about that casting choice. Let’s go with that.
You call yourself “ambitious, but completely delusional.” How do these things connect?
You have to be a little delusional to be ambitious — “I’m just going to go out there and make this career.” Which is fine! As long as you’re not betting the house or hurting anybody.
You described yourself as a control freak, but didn’t specify this as a good or bad thing.
I’m still trying to figure that out. I imagine I never will.
The title of your book is “Nobody Cares.” About what?
It sounds defeatist, I know. But! It comes from the idea that nobody is watching or looking at you the way you think they are. Nobody actually cares. Your friends do, your family does, but that awkward exchange you had at a party? Nobody cares.
What’s the current status of your history degree at Wilfrid Laurier University?
I have one year down, and two credits on top of that.
Where can we buy your book, read your articles, hear your podcast, read your tweets?
You can buy my book anywhere you buy books! You can also download it on Audible, where I narrate it (which is exciting). And, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at @annetdonahue where I post new podcast episodes and the pieces I’ve written for any outlets who’ll have me!