SHE'S A GIRLOSOPHER
by Yasmin Boland

Anthea Paul is the author of the best selling book Girlosophy ... Gorgeous women have been used by writers, painters and sculptors as muses for centuries. And, clearly, the tradition continues. For blue-eyed, northern beaches-based author Anthea Paul, it was a US supermodel Amber Valetta who acted as a conduit for the thoughts which eventually materialised as the words and pictures of Pauls' first book, Girlosophy. However, it wasn't Valetta's perfect form, natural beauty or innate style which inspired Paul to write Girlosophy, rather the model's apparent lack of artifice and guile. "I was working at the fashion awards at (the cable music station) VH1 in New York in 1996 and was backstage with Kate Moss, Amber Valetta, Stella Tennant, Jodi Kidd, Helena Christensen, basically every major model of the moment," Paul, 36, recalls. "I was talking to Amber, who was about 23 at the time, and very natural and very nice, and I said 'is this world still surreal for you, after all this time?' and she said 'yes, this is still really surreal for me. It's not real and I've never gotten used to it'. The fact that even the Amber Valetta's of this world found the endlessly superficial, well, exactly that, seemed worth writing about to Paul. After four years drafting, tweaking, rewriting, shooting and designing, Paul transformed her ideas into finished layout with words and pictures and offered the fait accompli to Allen & Unwin. They snapped it up within 48 hours, and published it exactly as she'd delivered it. Girlosophy was launched last month by prominent Sydney mental health specialist Professor Marie Bashir, at a gala soiree in the CBD. To try and sum her public face up in a paragraph; Anthea Paul is a cosmic crusader who meditates daily, rarely drinks and never smokes; a single girl who insists she's not a role model but still very much on her own learning curve; a gentle, feminine spirit who wears little to no make up, talks nineteen to the dozen and who successfully survived six years in tough-as-nails New York. She says she feels strongly there is still far too much emphasis placed on outer rather than inner beauty, and that women are being sidelined from the important issues by being told to worry more about their mascara and foundation than about their life's foundations. As a result, Girlosophy - a 322-page, five colour extravaganza with a sarong-draped bronzed midriff on its cover - dispenses olde worlde and new age wisdom about being 'real' and 'natural', about moving on after heart break and not living with your lover until you're sure of what you're doing. Paul, daughter of a husband and wife team of Sydney family lawyers, personally funded the labour-of-love book and accompanying website www.girlsosophy.com, and admits she has yet to find to courage to "do the additions" to figure out how much the project still owes her. She was almost obsessive in 'giving birth' to her baby, even flying to Hong Kong at her own expense to hand-deliver the project to the printer. But, she says, if even just one girl benefits from reading it, any costs will have been worth it. Before her recent incarnation as an author, Paul worked as, among other things, a stylist, trend forecaster, market consultant, art director and photo editor, including for six years in Manhattan. She says the idea of Girlosophy came to her almost as a direct reaction to living and working within the looks-obsessed New York media. She agrees that much of what life's taught her thus far has been channelled into her tome. "Girlosophy is a new philosophy for younger women, aged between 14 and 25, which helps them take charge of their practical, emotional and spiritual lives, to better understand themselves and find their true essence and spirit," she says. "Girlosophy is saying 'find who you are, do a lot of work on yourself, and figure it out early, because you're going to need it, don't wait until you reach your 30s and you rush to the self-help aisle.'." The book is illustrated with pictures of 'real women' aged between 3 and 35 but - true to Paul's credo if hard to believe when you see the pictures - no professional models were used in compiling it. "We didn't do any body contouring or shaping, either, just one bit of computer retouching on one model who was pregnant and had a rash, which she asked me to remove. In fact, one of the printers went and retouched all the moles off the body of another of my models, and we had to ask him to put them back on. This is a moles and all book." Shot in Nepal, Indonesia, India and Avalon, Girlosophy looks like a glossy magazine, but isn't really even a close cousin to the Dollys and Cleos of this world. "It's been a while since I really analysed (a teen magazine) but … I do think there's still a lot of emphasis on being cute, and consuming, and keeping up with your next door neighbour or best friend. I think (teen magazines) still endorse a fair amount of peer pressure, but I'm very reluctant to be critical because they're such a primary source of information and I think they do a good job in many areas. "I think older women's magazines also quite often don't deal with issues which are really relevant either, in terms of depression, being single, marriage and all the responsibilities. Mostly, they still promote the air-brushed lifestyle. But perfection is impossible to maintain and reality is far more interesting anyway. "I'm not trying to criticise what everyone's doing though, I'm just presenting an alternative. There are a lot of girls out there with eating disorders, there's a lot of depression, and it's growing. Girls, young women, are having a tough time of it. When I was growing up a lot things were different and there wasn't quite as much pressure." Clearly, with its vibrant photography and easy lines like "whatever happened to natural?", "Don't eat junk food. Don't think junk thoughts" and "Laugh long. Live longer" Girlosophy aims to address some of life's unsexier issues in a very sexy way. Girlosophy is published by Allen & Unwin ... click here for the website C Yasmin Boland 2000