How Turia finally put herself first

Turia Pitt is many things to many people. She's a mum, a partner, a hero, an author, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. But there's one thing you wouldn't ever describe her as, and that's selfish. Yet that is the title of her defiant new book.

- WORDS by ORLAITH COSTELLO

"I feel like there's still a bit of a stigma around mental health, maybe because it's invisible."

It's a beautiful spring day, the kind that feels like summer. The Weekly is in Byron Bay to meet with and profile its new resident, Turia Pitt. The setting for our photo shoot is a local beach with nothing except sand, dunes, and stellar views. The sun is scorching but the surf is dangerously rough thanks to strong winds. Only a few brave souls splash in the shallows while others, rugged up against the fierce gusts, linger to watch Turia pose for the camera.

When we wrap, she drives us to a nearby cafe, where we settle in to talk about her latest book, Selfish: How to Unlearn the Rules That Are Breaking You.

This book is different from her others. She's written many since she was caught in a bushfire while competing in a 100km ultramarathon in 2011. Turia survived full-thickness burns to 65 per cent of her body. This horrific event set her on a new path; now she motivates millions to embrace confidence and face their fears. In Selfish, she delves into varying topics from parenting to Polynesian geography to Goop, all while pointing back to a central question: What is it to be selfish? And is it uncaring to put yourself first? Or is it the ultimate act of self-care?

"This book was really hard for me to write," Turia admits, tucking into a steaming bowl of congee. "It is the hardest book I've written, which is weird because there's no catastrophe, there's no burn."

Instead, the challenge she was dealing with was burnout. A topic that gets its own chapter in the book, a chapter that took Turia an entire year to write.

"I kept sitting down [pushing myself to] finish this chapter," she says. "Then, when I wasn't able to write anything, I got angry at myself. Thinking I have to finish it. I have to do it now."