Thursday, November 14, 2013

Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half on NPR's Fresh Air!


If you've ever read Allie Brosh's blog, Hyperbole and a Half, you wouldn't be surprised to learn she wrote a book.  It's called Hyperbole and a Half.  Allie (pictured above), likes to write about and illustrate her life.  She talks about her childhood adventures (to use a tame word), her hopes, dreams, and aspirations, and her struggles with depression.  The drawings and the humor are phenomenal. 

So yesterday, I'm sitting with a patient and my phone lights up.  I ignore it.  Between patients, I read.  An excited text from Jesse.  Jesse if often excited; he'll be excited that he's in this post, in fact.  "Allie Brosh of the Hyperbole and a Half blog is on NPR.  On Fresh Air."  Jesse never texts-- usually he emails, rarely he calls.  This was a text.  That's was just one clue that he was excited.  After the next patient, I checked my email.  There was an email from Jesse.  Allie Brosh was on Fresh Air, here is the link to the show.  He reminded me that when she'd stopped blogging for a while, her readers had gotten very concerned (thousands of them) and then she returned with an account of how severely depressed she'd been.  I remembered that. 

I listened to the NPR interview.    I learned some things.
~The yellow triangle is a pony tail.
~Allie tried to be a runner for her first career out of college and she was initially successful, sometimes winning pumpkins, until she hurt her Achilles tendon.
~Hearing her read her blog posts, they are interesting, but if you hear it on the radio without her pictures, it loses something.
~Allie talks very poignantly about her struggles with depression.  Her descriptions of her emotional state are well worth listening to. Go for it. 
~Psychiatry helped her (always nice to hear).  
~She first saw a psychiatrist at the age of 3 after biting her sister then setting her on fire.  
~Allie likes dogs.  A lot. 


2 comments:

jesse said...

I had posted before on this but it got eaten by the Blogger it seems, so here it goes again. for quite a while I had followed Allie's Blog and realy liked it. Witty and at times profound. Suddenly however, without any warning, she posted Adventures in Depression, then again. Posts in which she talked about feeling nothing. Suicidal. It was very sad. I wondered if she was getting any help. Then she went off the air for over a year, and many friends were very worried, including me. So it was good to know that she was back.

What a surprise it was to turn on the radio and hear her being interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. A truly excellent interview and quite a surprise to friends who knew nothing about her personal life except her name.

So go to Hyperbole and a Half and seek out those older posts. Well worth it, as would be buying her book (I did).

Jane said...

She didn't set the sister on fire. She attempted to set her on fire. That's why you don't leave your lighters and matches around for little ones to play with. Though I have to say, I have never heard of a child attempting to light another child on fire.