2fm DJ Louise McSharry has spoken about feeling "in a vulnerable place" since speaking openly about body image and fat shaming, subjects which are at the fore of her new book, Fat Chance, My Life in Ups and Downs and Crisp Sandwiches.
In an interview with TEN, the straight-talking radio presenter and writer said that although she "doesn't love" being commented on in the media and online, she thinks that it's important to speak out on these issues.
"I don't particularly relish the idea that people are using me to start their columns about obesity and how maybe people need to be shamed because maybe that's good for them. That's not fun for me, I don't particularly like that," she explained.
"However one of the main reasons that I have gotten to a much more positive place and I'm living a happier life is because other women have spoken about their experiences. So I really just view it as trying to pay it forward, for want of a better term."
Louise said that "I just don't think that fat people deserve to live unhappy lives until they suddenly become a thin person... I think we deserve better than that, and we need to give ourselves permission to enjoy our lives no matter what size you are."
McSharry covers a huge range of topics in her compelling memoir, from her troubled childhood living in Chicago with her alcoholic mother, her diagnosis and battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and her wedding to husband Gordon Spierin. Her life-long struggle with self-confidence and experiences of fat shaming make for particularly emotional reading, and were important for her to tease out.
The presenter said she wanted to "write something that would have helped me when I was younger, because like everybody my teenage years were not easy, I wasn't at ease with myself at all and I think that 90% of people go through that.
"I spent 30 years of my life hating my body and blaming it for everything that was going wrong and I've come to a place now where that's not the way I feel anymore and I want to tell everybody about it because I want people to know that they don't have to live every day down on themselves."
She admitted that while she was "consciously trying to write something that would be helpful to younger women, she doesn't think she's perfect. "I'm not the finished product by any stretch of the imagination, I'm not completely at ease with myself, I don't wake up every morning and look in the mirror and think 'Oh my god I'm so fabulous!' that's not realistic.
"But I have learned a lot from some of the mistakes that I've made and I think that some of those lessons are useful and maybe helpful to someone else" and added that, "I just want women to be happy! And not live trapped by the ideals of a multi-million euro industry who want you to feel like you're not enough just as you are. People are different shapes and sizes, different things happen in life which mean you gain weight and you lose weight, sometimes it's because you went through something difficult sometimes it's because you were through a brilliant phase in your life where you're celebrating all the time and you put on a few pounds, and I don't think you should punish yourself for that."
The 33-year-old is now pregnant with her first child with Spierin and is feeling "really good". "Technically I shouldn't have been able to get pregnant so easily, my fertility results were not great, but I did", she said.
"I haven't had any real side effects, my body has been amazing again, which is really nice and bolstering for me in the context of this conversation because why would I be down on myself when I keep putting my body through the ringer and it keeps surprising me with how amazing it is. So I really can't complain, things are really good at the moment."
Fat Chance, My Life in Ups and Downs and Crisp Sandwiches by Louise McSharry is published by Penguin Ireland and is available now.
