How to Be a Woman

"People feel very strongly about Caitlin Moran. There are some essays in her book I disagree with politically. But it’s an exercise in being unapologetic. She writes with such fire and conviction. I want every woman in the world to express that with her own beliefs. It was the first time I read a book and thought, ‘We’re allowed to say that? I’m allowed to say these sorts of things?’ That’s what people should take away from that book: how much fire is in her prose. Trying not to be ashamed. There’s still a cultural stigma against women having sex with multiple partners. I’d shamed myself for it, thinking that every man I’d slept with was supposed to fall in love with me, was supposed to be a prince that would sweep me off my feet and bring me to the castle. Coming to terms with the fact that you can get what you need in a night and learn from it, even if it’s painful, was really important in writing this memoir and sending it off into the world. Absolutely. That’s why I built my book around the idea of a personality quiz, because this is an age where we love categorising and putting a label on ourselves, and finding a clique or a group. I’m a Gryffindor, I’m a whatever. We love these quizzes that tell you who you are, because this is a time in your life where you don’t know who you really are. Plenty of these decisions were based on me pretending to be a certain type of girl. Definitely. Because you don’t know who you are, and you don’t think you’re given permission to be yourself. No one knows what that even means! So you try different versions to see what works. To see what sticks."

"How to Be a Woman, by Caitlin Moran, put me into embarrassing fits of laughter in very public places."