I shamelessly love Michelle Bridges. And then I met her.

Meeting your heroes, famous people you see on the tele, or your fangirly crush is always a very dangerous thing to do.

I don’t have a great track record at it.  As a teenager, the Channel Seven TV weathergirl – the fricking PEAK of celebrity in Adelaide – came to my deli for a sandwich and I was so starstruck that I muffed up her ham and cheese focaccia.

Since then, I’ve gotten red-faced and weird around anyone that I like or that has possibly been on TV before. I just try too hard. Usually it’s in the privacy of the office here where no one sees, but then there’s’ those times you interview your hero Amy Schumer and over-prepare and over-think and get overly nervous and overly wrought and overly f**k it right up for everyone to see.

So when I had the chance to interview/meet Michelle Bridges last week, I thought; uh oh. Here we go again.

History repeating? Monz’s no good horrible very bad Amy Schumer day:

I am a massive, embarrassing, shamelessly enormous Michelle Bridges fan. I love the way she writes. I think what she says makes a lot of sense. She tells me things like, “Monique, you CAN get your shit together!” “Just freaking do it!” and I say “YES MICHELLE I CAN!” and then I remember it for about a day and a half but it’s the thought that counts.

I have bought into her special brand of #toughlovespiration with all my #cashmoney. I have her books and her activewear and her miniature dumb bells so I CAN do it. One day. I swear.

Anyway, everyone here thinks I’m an idiot. Because we reviewed her latest book, Make It Happen, for the book club podcast.

This is my dog eared, highlighted, underlined and post-it-noted copy. I keep it on my bedside table and then eventually it will go into my glory box:

And this is where my fellow book club readers Jacqui Lunn and Lucy Rivers keep their copy:

via GIPHY

They absolutely ripped it apart. They shredded it harder than your legs after a superset of Mich Bridges -endorsed squats™. They said it was more tasteless than a Mish-Bridges endorsed egg-white omelette™. They shitcanned this book while I sat there, feeling like The Biggest Loser.

AND THEN I MET HER.

Face to face, at a very serious event for serious people to get seriously motivated.  And I was panting a tiny bit from the excitement and then the FIRST THING SHE SAID  TO ME WAS "Oh, you're the girl who did that review."

"I listened to that on the couch the other night."

GULP

GULLPPPP

Here's how it went down:

WOWZERS.

She's much taller in real life. She's much cooler in real life. Her torso is infinitely more impressive in real life. But she has an aura around her where no one can bring her down. Not even when people talk shit about her philosophies. She has a thick skin and a shiny bright outlook and she made me feel fine.

So thanks, everyone, I maintain my love for Mishy mish mishyyy.

Not everyone agrees with me. That's cool. You should listen to this episode of book club and work out where you stand.  You don't need to have read the book, we explain a lot of it.

Also, listening to people fighting over self-help books probably increases your heart rate.*

And ALSO, I think I can probably say: this podcast is Michelle Bridges endorsed™**

Listen to the full episode of Book Club below, and subscribe in iTunes.

//

*not an expert medical opinion, if you feel faint while listening see your doctor.

**no, I can't. But she DID listen to it which is good enough for me.

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