(^186) | marieclaire.com.au
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIE ADAMS; INSTAGRAM/@MEGANKGALE; GETTY IMAGES. EDITED BY KATHRYN MADDEN.
LAST WORD
MAY GALE
My mum is an extremely resilient
woman. She has an amazing ability
to remain calm and centred even in
situations that are totally beyond that.
Basically, she’s got her shit together
and I observed that from a very young
age – I wish I was like that! Three
months after my baby was born,
we lost my dad. My son [River] was a
wonderful comfort and healing energy
for my mum, and I’ve learnt a lot from
watching her with my children, and
from Shaun’s [Gale’s partner] mum as
well. The best advice Mum’s ever given
me is to let go of things and not hang
on to anything negative, and to try to
appreciate life and be present. She’s
always reminding me how fast time
goes by and how important it is to
stop and connect with your kids when
they are young. Her philosophy of
mindfulness actually inspired my new
children’s [skincare] brand Mindful Life.
Mum recently moved from Perth to
Melbourne. For so much of my 20s and
30s I was living interstate or overseas
and I missed sharing my life with her,
so to have her nearby now is special.
“MUM’S ALWAYS
REMINDING ME
HOW IMPORTANT
IT IS TO STOP AND
CONNECT WITH
YOUR KIDS”
ELLE MACPHERSON
I remember seeing Elle on a Sports
Illustrated TV special when I was 15 and
thinking, “Oh my God, she’s amazing,
and she’s Australian!” and, “Oh my God,
that’s her job!” She was getting photo-
graphed on a beach in The Bahamas. The
next year I started deportment classes
because it was a thing at the time – a lot
of girls at school were doing it – though
I didn’t have any aspirations to become
a model. But then I was approached
after the graduation and thought, “Well,
maybe I can be like Elle Macpherson on
a beach on the other side of the world
one day!” I looked to Elle for inspiration,
as she was one of the first models to
transition from a one-dimensional clothes
horse to a businesswoman. She was
smart about developing her own brand
and creating that as a business, as
opposed to being booked to promote
other people’s brands. I kept watching
her as I was developing my own career,
hoping that one day I could make
that transition as well. You’re always
told modelling has a shelf life and that
you’ll expire one day, and I think she
managed the evolution brilliantly.
MEGAN
GALE
THE WOMEN WHO MADE ME
The top-model-turned-mogul mum pays
tribute to the inspirational ladies in her life
CHARLIZE THERON
I had the insane pleasure of acting
opposite Charlize [in Mad Max: Fury
Road], which is exactly as intimidating
an experience as you can imagine
- she’s an Oscar winner for crying out
loud! You hear actors call other actors
generous, and now I know what that
means: it means she gave me so much
to work with. It made what I did as an
actor very easy because I could bounce
off her and react. She just delved into
that character and took me along for
the ride. But beyond her acting, I find
Charlize particularly inspiring because
she started out as a model. Typically,
people rate models as horrific actors,
but she took herself off to Hollywood
where she acted her butt off and
smashed stereotypes. She’s also very
open about what happened to her as
a child [her mother killed her abusive
father in self-defence] and it takes a
lot of courage and balls to stand up
and speak out about that. She is quite
fearless and I love women like that.
Mindful Life skincare is available now;
themindfullife.com