say hello to CLAIRE CHRISTIAN.
She is undoubtedly the pearliest pearl of them all. Writer, theatre maker, blogger, director, teacher, facilitator, youth arts and self-love advocate. She is an inspirer.
What was the soul inspiration for your self-love advocating webstie Claire and Pearl?
It was two-fold, I wanted an avenue to create content to fuel the writer in me and I also felt like there was a massive gap in conversations surrounding self-love.
What is your definition of self-love?
I think when it comes down to it; it’s learning how to cut ourselves some slack. We’re so hard on ourselves all of the gosh darn time. And we’re not taught self-love. It’s not a concept that many people understand. People misconstrue self-love as an act of spirituality or that there must be candles or angels or weekend retreats about masturbation involved. When really, in it’s simplest form, to me, is just liking yourself. And not being a dick to yourself.
Can everyone find/ learn to self-love?
Abso-freaking-lutley. The shit thing about all of this is that there’s no proven formula – this is actually a very personal, individual process, that requires each of us to step up and acknowledge our damage, acknowledge our level of self loathing, and our bad habits and then doing something pro-active to change and shift. And we all know that change is hard.
What is one piece of advice you would give to your past self?
STOP WEARING BOARD SHORTS AND GO AND TELL THAT BOY YOU LIKE HIM.
Which is basically just a message to adolescent Claire to stop being so gosh darn scared. I was scared of my body, I was scared of fancying someone, I was scared that people wouldn’t like me. It would be about starting on this self-love quest then. I think that would’ve profoundly impacted my twenties.
Is there one subject that you would never write about?
Oooh, I don’t think so. I’m a firm believer that we don’t know, what we don’t know…so I think sometimes we’ve got to dive in to better understand things. Actually, I’d never write about peoples fascination with space and space travel, which is something I don’t really understand, my social justice brain flails a little bit when I think about it, but I’ve realised this opinion enrages people. But, I’ve just written about it, so….
FUN CLAIRE FACTS!
Stupidest word in your brain?
Douche-canoe
Most fantastic word in your brain?
Winnebago – it’s my favourite word ever
Favourite book?
Come Together by Emlyn Rees and Josie Lloyd
Favourite film?
Die Hard
Are there times when have you fail to follow your own advice?
All of the time. I feel like there’s something in my DNA that makes me a natural advice giver. Maybe it’s an extra gene or something. I end up giving a lot of advice. And I mostly fail to listen to all of it. I listened to this great podcast between Brene Brown and Liz Gilbert talking about the number one requirement of creative people, and we’ve developed this culture that believes in self-flagellation and commitment and discipline – but these two brilliant woman think it’s empathy. We need to be more empathetic with ourselves. We need to treat ourselves and say the things that we’d say to ourselves if we were talking to someone we love.
What will Claire Christian look like in ten years?
Future Claire will have published a heap of things, she’ll probably be stupidly busy being a mum, she’ll be kicking ass at whatever it is she chooses to do. She’ll be embracing life. She’ll have really truly worked out this self-love thing. She’ll be in serious training for the zombie apocalypse.
If there wasn’t a brain in your head, what would be there instead?
Oooh, glitter.
What do you want to be remembered for?
Making people feel good, feel better about themselves, being a champion for them. Because I work predominately with young people it’s really important that they know they have a person in their life who’s waving their flag and who believes in them. I want to be that guy. Yes. I want them to achieve magical, amazing, brilliant things with this unbounding self-belief and I want to feel just like, one percent, responsible for some of their brilliance. Yeah, that makes me happy.
Story by Evi Ruz
IMAGE BY SIMON/THERESA HALL PHOTOGRAPHY
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