Hi Scarlett, it must have been a busy year for you with your studies, work and activism – we’ve all been loving your Sunday Times column here at Daisy. Where will you spend Christmas this year?
Christmas this year will be spent (as every year) on the British seaside with my whole family. My dad once suggested we go visit his side of the family for Christmas in Australia one year and I’m pretty sure me and my brothers started a riot in protest! It’s freezing and it’s rainy but I would never ever go anywhere else.
What does a typical Christmas day look like for your family?
My family and our entire village begins Christmas day with a nice festive swim in the North Sea. It’s so cold you honestly think you’re going to die and wet-suits are not allowed. In fact I think you’d be banished from Suffolk if you wore a wet-suit! After that we run back to the house, get in a massive fight over who gets the first bath and then eat and open presents for the rest of the day!
Do you find it hard to switch off from work over the festive period?
Yes! I’m a nightmare and prefer work to anything else but I like to channel my energy into ‘working’ on Christmas! I get very very into my wrapping and Christmas baking and set my whole family a schedule of Christmas activities to follow all week.
You’re written about different types of anxiety in your ST column, is there one piece of advice you could give to girls who are feeling anxious at this time of year?
I’ve spent a lot of Christmases in a bad place either physically or mentally and it’s definitely hard to be the one person feeling like crap while everyone around you is having a great time! I used to try and reframe it as the one time a year when everyone embraced doing the things I liked to do (craft and watching TV) which made things a little easier to accept. I think the most important thing is not to make yourself feel even worse about feeling bad. It’s not your job to be happy and if you can’t muster the Christmas cheer this year that’s not something you have to be ashamed of!
Your activism is really inspiring, how can our readers get more involved with causes in the new year?
You can follow my activist collective @pinkprotest on all fun social platforms and stay tuned because there will be a lot more to get involved in next year! I’d also really recommend following my amazing friend Elyse’s @sadgirlsclub on Instagram. She’s doing amazing things for mental health activism and she’s generally a wonderful human being in this world.
