3/29/2016 No Gloss Magazine – Politics, Fashion, Music, Art & more.

No Gloss Magazine – Politics, Fashion, Music, Art & more.

TV presenter and journalist Anita Rani talks to Kate Ryrie about life, lipstick, and being a woman Anita Rani has forged a fantastically diverse career in the media. From chatting about intimate details of people’s lives on , driving across India in a 4×4 for the series India on Four Wheels, and winning the Great Bake Off in 2012, it’s fair to say she’s an excellent role model for anyone with the remotest aspirational inclination. Having started off at The University of Leeds – like our very own Lippy team, Anita has plenty of advice and experience, and a great sense of humour to share. I was very excited to have the chance to pick her brains last week about her career, her dreams, and how she’s found being a successful woman in the media industry today. She was an inspiring person to talk to, and her stance on the state of feminism today epitomised the bold, breath of fresh air we all need to hear. Here’s how things went down:

How did you first get into a career in the media? I used to work for a local radio station in , and then I volunteered for Bradford festival TV, and went off and studied broadcasting at The University Leeds. The course at Leeds was fantastic because I did a six month placement in London for the BBC in the music department. That got me my first job, because I made a load of contacts and made sure people remembered who I was. Whatever I’m doing has got me to this stage, and I still feel that I’m working just as hard as I ever was.

Is there any advice you’d give to undergraduate or young women with similar aspirations? Got for it! Make it happen! It’s a brilliant industry to work in, and now the term media is so broad that whatever it is you want to do, there a so many jobs. There is a fantastic army of people who go into making the programmes that I present, there is SO much opportunity, go for it. If you offer yourself out enough, someone will give you an opportunity, and before you know it, you’ll have a job

So networking is the most important thing? It’s not even networking, it’s being yourself, if you’re keen and you’re good, and you’re a hard worker, that’s what people want. If you’re keen, it will happen – just accept that you might have to make a few teas!

http://www.lippymag.co.uk/anita-rani-to-my-core-i-am-a-feminist 1/4 3/29/2016 No Gloss Magazine – Politics, Fashion, Music, Art & more. Thinking now particularly about gender, the representation of women in the media is something that is always subject to controversy, and the media industry is still a very male dominated world. Are there any particular obstacles you have come against as a result of your gender, and how have you overcome them? If it has affected me, I’ve not noticed it, or not allowed it to. If things have happened, then I wouldn’t know. I think if you want to do something, you just go for it, and I’ve never allowed my gender, my Yorkshire-ness or my ethnicity to hinder me. I went to an all girls’ school and we performed Shakespeare, but we didn’t even give a second thought to the fact that we were playing male characters – it was just normal. I don’t allow the fact that I’m a woman to be a negative factor, all I do is I keep my head down and keep working hard. And yes, maybe working in the factual programming that I work in, doing the big travel documentaries is unusual, but I’m doing it! So that means there is a woman doing it: maybe it’s not the norm, but at least it’s changing, and I think it will only continue to change if women just get on with it.

So you feel you’ve made a conscious decision not to let your gender affect you? I think that the more you focus on it, the more it can become a hindrance. In the way I personally am forging my career, I don’t allow it to be something that I think about. There are plenty of brilliant people having a brilliant debate about the role of women in the workplace, and I’m absolutely involved in that, but in terms of how I work, it’s not something I think about.

Do you find the focus on image difficult to deal with in the industry you work in, and do you think the representation of women in the media is changing? I think it depends what type of broadcasting you do. It’s a twofold thing: it’s really annoying that sometimes you pick up the paper and the first thing people will talk about it what a woman’s wearing – that’s dreadful, but let’s move beyond that. If you’re a TV presenter and you’re working on , then absolutely you want to look amazing! And I’m the same, I love to see what Claudia and Tess are wearing, and in terms of me, I do pay attention to what I wear because clothes are quite important to me. But equally, when I’m travelling across Russia and they go ‘right Anita come on, something’s happened let’s film this!’, and I’ve not got any make up on, I just do it.

So it’s all about finding the right balance between looking glamourous and being realistic? That is what being a woman is all about: learning to be a multitude of things. I was an absolute tomboy growing up, I honestly did not own a lipstick until I got my first presenting job. Then I had to wear make-up because I was on TV… And now I love putting makeup on, (and I’m really bloody good at putting it on!) and I really enjoy it. But as a teenager, my god, you would never see me wearing lipstick. Black eyeliner, definitely, but never a lipstick!

One of the things that strikes me about your career is how amazingly varied it is and how many different things you’ve done. What is your biggest achievement or the thing you’ve enjoyed the most so far? That’s a really hard question: the reason I do the programmes I do is because I want to do them and they’re the ones I enjoy. The big travel documentaries are fantastic, not just because it’s great to see another country, but because it’s great to be able to highlight other cultures and to put that on telly. My http://www.lippymag.co.uk/anita-rani-to-my-core-i-am-a-feminist 2/4 3/29/2016 No Gloss Magazine – Politics, Fashion, Music, Art & more. inner anthropologist really loves that! Equally, being able to explore the countryside as part of the Countryfile team is great because it opens my eyes to things as well, to be able to explore Britain.

To be able to talk to people for the One Show about their personal lives is a real privilege: to literally be invited into someone’s living room and be really intimate with them, I love that too. But everything I do is quite similar, it just happens to be in different parts of the world!

Do you think that not pigeon-holing yourself has helped your career, and how have you achieved this? The amount of times I’ve been offered a news job – and I just say no! News is key, but I wanted to work in factual, and alongside that I didn’t think that there were many women, particularly Asian women, doing the sorts of programmes that I do now.

I thought it was time that we changed people’s perceptions: for me, it was about representation of Asian women. There are plenty [of Asian women] who do the news, and I find that people just look at your face and think ‘she’s obviously clever’. Well, we’ve got personality and we can stick a rucksack on our back and rough it with the boys as well! So I’ve consciously tried to channel that.

So do you feel that it’s about turning around ‘minority’ thinking, and using those thoughts as motivation to be the first, or the best at what you do? That’s generally good life advice: find the positive in it, because you’re only going to get weighed down if you start thinking about ‘I’m not getting this because of this’. I’m going to be honest with you: it’s a really tough industry, you’ve got to be resilient, you will get knocked back.

I was with Wendy Darke, head of Natural History at the BBC the other day, she’s a fantastic woman, and her story is incredible. She had knockback after knockback, but basically she turned up at the BBC’s front door and now she’s running department – AND she’s a woman

You’ve just got to keep going, and resilience is key!

I was fascinated to watch some of the India on Four Wheels series that you did: do you have any plans to do more of this kind of thing in the future? That was a really nice series, but the thing about TV is that you just have to wait and see who wants to petition what next. I’m off back to India doing something about the Indian railway station in Mumbai – that’ll be coming out later in the year, but in terms of the travel documentaries, I’ll keep you posted!

We touched earlier on the representation of women in the media, and alongside this, the term feminism has had a lot of media attention recently, especially in light of issues such as Page Three: How important do you think ‘feminism’ is for young women today? There’s a lot of debate about what it means to be a feminist: are you a feminist? Aren’t you a feminist? Some women feeling offended by the term, others embracing it, but I think if you’re a woman, and you have a vagina, then you’re a feminist! I think being a feminist to me is pretty simple: if you want equal rights politically, culturally economically for women across the world, then you’re feminist, so there are plenty of men out there who are feminists! For me, that’s what the term means, so absolutely I am, to my core, I am a feminist!

http://www.lippymag.co.uk/anita-rani-to-my-core-i-am-a-feminist 3/4 3/29/2016 No Gloss Magazine – Politics, Fashion, Music, Art & more. What are your dreams and aspirations for the future? There’s so much I still want to do, and I still feel like I’m forging a career. And that’s the thing with this industry: the brilliant thing about it, and also the downside of it, is that there is no set path. It also means you can do loads of stuff… Maybe I’ll write a book, maybe I’ll have a cookbook coming out, who knows?!

If you could give your younger self any advice, what would you tell her? I would say that my younger self would give me more advice than I can give her. When you’re young, you’ve got energy, you’re passionate, and the world is at your feet. You’re a student, yet to enter the workforce, you’re in education and you’ve got the privilege of being able to study and soak up information – what an amazing point in your life!

You’re fearless, and so go for it. My 16 year old self, my 18 year old self would probably go: ‘Anita, don’t worry about it! Keep doing it, and things will happen!’

Follow Anita on Twitter @itsanitarani

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