The One Where I Talk To My Sister, Annabel Meggeson

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In this week's episode of Spinsterhood Reimagined, I talk to my sister, Annabel.

Annie has recently changed careers and is now an English teacher at a secondary school in London; but before that, she enjoyed a glamorous career as a journalist and the Beauty Director at Red Magazine. She has written for multiple publications, including The Guardian, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. She is also the mother to four teenagers (three of whom are triplets) and my beloved nephews and niece.    

In this conversation, Annie and I cover an array of topics including: the world’s biggest launch party to celebrate my new podcast, which consisted of Annie, me, and one of my nephews; why it’s been helpful to have a sister who hasn’t travelled the ‘conventional’ path of marriage and kids because it’s given her a front row seat to what being a ‘spinster’ actually looks like; and how she has never felt that my journey of not having children has required any pity.

We chat about: how her career started off at Goldman Sachs but she quickly realised that a career in banking was not for her; how she went onto work as a journalist for many years, but decided to pack it in a few years ago to become an English teacher; and how both of us think that, actually, I’m the older sister because I’m the boring, practical and bossy one so we reckon our parents got us confused when we were little.   

We also discuss how she has never judged me or thought there was anything missing from my life just because I don’t have my own family; the things that she has seen to be advantages and benefits of being single and childfree; and how she strongly feels that the lives of those women who don’t have children are equally as valid as anyone else’s.  

Annie also talks about: how much it annoys her when people say that those who don’t have kids are selfish, and what she thinks they mean by that; how she has learnt alot about herself through being a mother; how, with hindsight, she can see that bringing up four young children was all-consuming in the early days of motherhood; and how she completely disagrees with those people who suggest that if you don’t have children, then you’re not ‘complete’.

And finally, we talk about the time she met Jennifer Aniston at a party, and the time she interviewed her (I know!); AND we get real about the elephant in the room - whether or not she thinks my cleaning is as good as her previous cleaner. ;)   

I sincerely hope that you all enjoy listening to this conversation!

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