Bright Life Project

The books is Untamed by Glennon Doyle, it’s a must read for every woman. I think perimenopause starts that suspicion that something is not right and if we do the work we do break free.

Thanks brok bresser🧸 for this word, i’m not sure if you were the OG but that’s where I heard it first. I think it works for almost every perimenopausal woman

Just a quick disclaimer before the comments arrive…This isn’t an attack on South Africa, South Africans or South African wine. There are plenty of people who love these wines. This video is simply about my personal taste. I like ridiculously heavy, full-bodied reds, and I struggled to find one that suited me.
The real story isn’t the wine anyway. It’s my dad. The man who believes every purchase enters into a lifelong contract the moment money changes hands. Throwing away five bottles of wine, despite the fact that he doesn’t even drink red wine, was simply never an option. Some people collect stamps. My dad collects regrettable purchases and then commits to finishing every single one…and I love him for it.

This is my spoof on the “tradwife” trend and a challenge to how we’ve come to define the word “provider.” Providing isn’t just earning an income. It’s cooking, cleaning, planning, remembering, organising, carrying the mental load, emotional labour, maintaining a home, raising a family and contributing financially. In a healthy marriage and equal partnership, both people provide in different ways, and both deserve the respect that comes with that.

This video isn’t about criticising traditional wives. It’s about questioning why we’ve historically valued paid work more highly than the invisible work that keeps families and households running. I love my career, but I also know our home isn’t going to run itself. That’s why we share the load equally. We both provide financially, emotionally and practically. My gender doesn’t determine my role in our household, and neither does his. Housework isn’t “women’s work.” It’s the work of the people who live in the house..

Also, if your husband has ever called looking after his own children “babysitting” or announced he’d “helped” by unloading one dishwasher… this one’s for you.

Maybe it’s not “Prov Wife”, maybe it’s just “partner”

I saw this outfit on a mannequin at Gateway and thought, “That looks amazing" so I tried it on. It turns out the mannequin and I have very different lifestyles. Has anyone else ever copied an outfit exactly, only to discover it comes with a completely different personality when you wear it?
I still think mannequins should come with a disclaimer:
Professionally proportioned fibreglass model. Your experience may differ.
Tell me your biggest fashion fail. I refuse to believe I’m alone.

Footage recently emerged of members of the white nationalist organisation Patriot Front marching through Washington, D.C. Wearing matching masks and uniforms, they demonstrated in support of an ideology that has caused immeasurable harm throughout history.

Watching it left me with one overwhelming thought: how can anyone look at the extraordinary diversity of humanity and decide that skin colour is the most important thing about a person?

We’re living in an age where people are curing diseases, exploring space, developing artificial intelligence and solving problems that previous generations could only dream about. Yet some people are still trying to convince themselves that the amount of melanin in someone’s skin determines their worth.

It doesn’t.

Race is a social construct, not a measure of intelligence, character, morality or human value. History has repeatedly shown where racism, white supremacy and ethnic hatred lead, and it has never led anywhere good.

This video isn’t about giving extremists attention. It’s about reminding the rest of us that prejudice isn’t strength, ignorance isn’t tradition, and hate isn’t something to admire or excuse.

We can disagree about politics, economics and public policy. We should. That’s part of a healthy democracy. But another person’s race is not an achievement, a qualification or a reason to believe you’re superior.

Humanity can do better than this. We have to.

I spent decades believing I was a naughty child. The older I get, the more I realise I was simply a spirited, highly verbal girl who refused to comply with systems that didn’t make sense to her. The problem was that once adults labelled me “naughty”, no amount of evidence to the contrary (when there was any) could change their minds.

Looking back, I can see that years of being both punished and denied rewards accidentally taught me something profound: when you no longer fear the punishment and no longer crave the reward, you become extraordinarily free.

I think many women experience something similar in perimenopause. After decades of being rewarded for being agreeable, accommodating, self-sacrificing and endlessly available, we suddenly wake up and ask, “What the hell have I been doing?” We begin setting boundaries, disappointing people, changing relationships, questioning old roles and listening to the beat of our own drum.

This can be deeply uncomfortable. Many women in midlife find themselves feeling lost, guilty or frightened. They worry that they are becoming selfish, difficult, cold or unlikeable. They worry about the consequences of saying no, taking up space or choosing themselves. If this is happening to you, please know that you are not failing at womanhood. You are renegotiating it.

Of course it feels strange. You have spent decades learning how to be acceptable. Learning how to be authentic is unfamiliar terrain. There may be consequences. Some relationships will change. Some people will be disappointed. Not everybody will like the new choreography.

But there are also extraordinary rewards. The exhaustion of constant people pleasing begins to lift. Your relationships become more honest. Your boundaries become clearer. You stop performing and start participating. You discover what you actually like, want and value. Most importantly, you begin to trust yourself.

My advice? Start small. Say no to something insignificant. Allow someone else to be disappointed without rushing in to rescue them. Pay attention to what energises you and what depletes you. Notice where resentment shows up because resentment is often a sign that a boundary is needed.

By midlife we’ve filled out the same form thousands of times. Our name. Our address. Our date of birth. Our emergency contact. Over and over and over again. We know what computers can do. We watched the internet arrive. We’ve landed rockets on moving barges, built artificial intelligence and carry supercomputers around in our pockets… yet somehow I still have to write my address on the same pharmacy form for the thirteenth time. And it's not just pharmacies, it's schools, organisations and everywhere else! Forms belong in 2000 BC. I’m not buying state secrets, I just want some aspirin.
At this point I think it's all the paperwork causing the headache. Who else thinks it time to move into the modern world.

Imagine rejecting a song only for Apple to put it on their New Pop playlist.

That has to sting just a little.

If you’d like to help make it even more awkward, go and stream Burn by Georga Raath, save it and add it to one of your playlists. Yes she is my daughter but this is objectively a GREAT song ❤️

Nothing says “respectfully, we disagree” quite like a few thousand streams.