Justin Heazlewood

Somehow, mum and I were so invisible.

in my childhood, but then I announced that through my book Get Up Mum and I sort of came out of the closet of being a child carer and lifted the rug of schizophrenia where everything gets swept under.

It's like I presented myself and my mum to the town and said, hey, by the way, this is what two people living with the disability of mental illness looks like.

In the same way you would do it for MS or for cancer or for any of other life's ailments.

Well, schizophrenia is just another medical condition and it's normal for some people and this is exactly what it looks like.

And I want to be able to walk around the streets feeling with my head held high and like I belong there and that I'm not some weird hipster blow-in from Melbourne who thinks he's good or whatever baggage I might have going on in my head.

I just wanted there to be a positive narrative with my hometown that I could manifest and create this positive sort of gold card for networking.

And I thought, if I do this book, everyone who's remotely awesome or cool or smart or into the arts will gravitate towards me and I need more people to go out for hot chocolates with.

So it's a pretty selfish exercise and there you have it.

I've given you the secrets of showbiz.