"There's a dead guy!  A dead guy!"  This sighting at Smurf Village got all the children running to see.  Rosie and her sister knew who it was straight away.. and it scared them.  Rosie's dad would appear at random moments...

Chapter 4: your friends will find a dead body in the bush, and it will be your dad

In 2015, Rosie Waterland published her first book, a memoir called "The Anti-Cool Girl".  The book is about her childhood, her growing up, and her becoming an adult;  all with mentally ill, drug and alcohol addicted parents, child protection, foster care, caravans and couches.  There were crazy and very difficult times but also some funny times too.  Rosie is 30 now, her mum Lisa is now 53.  Since the book came out, the one question Rosie is always asked is more than any other is, "Has your Mum read the book?"

Lisa hadn't read it for a while, because her drinking was so bad that she physically or emotionally couldn't.  But in 2016, Lisa got sober.  She has maintained that sobriety for the longest period Rosie has ever seen and.. she has finally read the book.  She has many thoughts.

The first of which is that most of Rosie's memoir is a lie. 

 Now is their time to talk all about it.  In each episode Rosie reads a chapter from the book, and then Rosie and Lisa talk through it - is it all true or false?  What really happened?  Each chapter becomes a real conversation about the past, present and future for Rosie and Lisa.

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Kids & Family

The final episode! Rosie spent a lifetime struggling to understand why she wasn't a cool kid, constantly wondering just what she was missing. From her early days trying to hide her poo pants from her sister's friends, to later days...

Chapter 22: you will become an anti-cool girl

When you're twenty-seven years old and realise that you have no clue how to post a letter, it's obvious something has gone very wrong somewhere along the line.
 
Now that Rosie was out there living...

Chapter 21: you will learn how to be a functioning adult, and realise you don't care about being a functioning adult

If Lisa thought there was ever going to be an episode from Rosie's book 'The Anti-Cool Girl' that was going to make her squirm, this is it. This one is about Rosie's more adult escapades: the time she scared a penis back...

Chapter 20: someone will play Jenga with your face and their penis, and you will consider it a sexual revolution

After her time in the mental institution, Rosie had never had a healthier sense of self-worth in her entire life. She was learning how to be her own saviour, how to feel comfortable being single and how to be mentally healthy. And then...

Chapter 19: you will gain ninety kilos, and it will be the best thing that has ever happened to you

Just like when Rosie was little, something about Mum calling her 'darling' calmed her down. After spending almost a month in a mental home, that's exactly what Rosie needed. And Lisa understood that. She was the only person...

Chapter 4: your friends will find a dead body in the bush, and it will be your dad

Download our free app to listen on your phone