Angela Scanlon on learning to ask for help, and the art of self-love
The presenter and mum-oftwo talks to Abi Jackson about her new book Joyrider
Angela Scanlon is used to listening to other people open up, on her Thanks A Million podcast. But writing her new book, Joyrider was the first time she really laid bare all her own emotional challenges. So, how did she find it?
“Quite terrifying, to be honest,” says the Irish presenter, whose recent TV credits includes BBC Two’s Your Garden Made Perfect.
Part memoir, part self-help, Joyrider sees Scanlon chart her own journey into the world of self-development – dipping into the anxiety and imposter syndrome she grappled with throughout her teens and 20s, the bulimia she lived with for 15 years and recounting how a particularly low chapter pushed her to finally take steps to help herself, including seeking therapy after the birth of her first daughter, Ruby, in 2018.
She weaves in key lessons she’s learned along the way, with prompts and exercises so readers can give them a go too. At the heart of it all are joy and gratitude – hence the title – although Scanlon peppers it all with her trademark humour, and plenty of refreshing reality-checks. If you think therapy and selfhelp is going to ‘fix’ you and stop you ever having a ‘negative’ thought ever again, think again.
“I am certainly not in a position to fix anybody, never mind myself. I think it’s about understanding that and going, ‘Oh, this is a forever thing, we’re learning’ – the focus is growth, rather than the end result.
“And none of us are broken. Yes, you want to be better at doing certain things, handling certain situations, but we’re fundamentally not broken. So being fixed is not the end goal.”
Although she wasn’t aware at the time, Scanlon has since realised she had postpartum depression after having Ruby. It was a tough time, but the broadcaster – who is married to Irish eco-entrepreneur Roy Horgan and recently welcomed their second daughter, Marnie, in February – reflects that it was a catalyst for seeking vital help.
And there are some passages in Joyrider, where Scanlon describes how observing her little girl’s s elf-acceptance and joy unlocked a desire to reconnect with these things herself.
“Her un-self-conscious love of herself, and of her body, that was a really big one for me,” says Scanlon, who writes about a penny-drop moment one day, while watching Ruby delight at her own reflection in a mirror.
“It was almost jarring to see that, you know, but it was one of those things that kicked me into action. Because that idea of self-love – you see it on posters and shared all over Instagram – but what does it really mean? That feels so foreign to me. Again, it’s something you have to work on, most of us don’t feel that – there’s a very critical inner voice yapping away that we’re not even conscious of, it’s so close to us.
“So just to see her loving life made me want to get in touch with my inner child, who I had slightly abandoned because I was so serious, and it was all about work. I suddenly thought, maybe I should be dancing naked in the living room.”
● Joyrider: How Gratitude Can Help You Get The Life You Really Want by Angela Scanlon is published by Vermilion, priced £16.99