Fearne Cotton

Today, I'm chatting to Carol Vorderman.

Right.

I've wanted this chat to happen for a long time.

I've just been on a book tour for my book, Likeable, which, you know, it's always an interesting thing going on a book tour.

You actually get to talk to people and see what they think about that subject matter and the context.

notion of trying to be likeable to everybody is something that still greatly interests me and something that I want to personally challenge.

And whilst I was writing this book, I was thinking about women who I think have broken the mould and don't care so much whether they're liked or disliked and don't play by the rules.

And I say the word rules with inverted commas because they're not real, they're bullshit.

But the ones that we all so dutifully

follow to be a woman who doesn't cause a scene or make a fast, et cetera.

And one of the people I wrote about in the book was Carol Vorderman, because to me, she is the epitome of someone that just does life her way and also breaks the mold.

She has the biggest IQ.

She's done so much for education in the UK and continues to get people curious about maths, but also politics.

more recently, and she also happens to wear tight leather trousers, big belts, and have an amazing body, and people don't seem to like that.

People love to give her shit about the fact that she looks a certain way, but is really clever, like the two things can't be true.

Which is so mad.

So I wrote quite a bit about Carol Vordman in the book and basically ended that section by saying, we should all be more Carol.

And I have to remind myself of it constantly because I do still worry too much about what people think about me or what I'm wearing or what I look like or whatever.

And I don't think Carol cares at all.

I think she's a bit of a guiding light for many of us.