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In the same studio, on the same day, and taking part in the same shoot, Jennifer Hawkins was having make-up applied while Penny Wong was joking about her preference for pants over a frock. Turia, 26, stood to one side, talking animatedly about how humbled she was to be among this calibre of women.
The thick black body-stocking protecting Turia’s damaged skin was obvious beneath her clothes and I (like everyone else) was worried she was still in pain. If she was, she didn’t show it, particularly as she hugged everyone she met with the force of genuine enthusiasm.
Women of the Future judges, Turia Pitt, Jennifer Hawkins, Penny Wong and Lisa Wilkinson.
As I write today, Turia is in recovery from her 19th operation. Yet, true to form, she is emailing and tweeting because she is thrilled she is on the cover of the July issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly and loves the attention.
So, the first thing I learned was that Turia is a hugger. The second thing I learned is that she is an extrovert. As she said to me at the shoot: “I am like a cheeky monkey.” She is also funny, clever and, dare I invoke those overused words, truly inspirational.
Yet there is something more than that. And many people who have seen this cover have identified it and become quite emotional about it. It is hard to put into words. It gives you goose bumps. It is in her eyes.
Those eyes also say something about the cliché, “Beauty comes from within”, that no words can adequately express. The superficiality of magazines, the superficiality of many of our lives, is challenged by Turia, but she seems, to me at least, to be oblivious to that.
I have been repeatedly asked whether I think the cover is commercially brave. While I acknowledge that the premise of the question is fair on one level, the answer is no. Turia ticks every box in terms of what sort of woman the readers of The Weekly want on the cover. They want funny, clever, real and, perhaps most of all, they want surprising.
The July cover and (right) Turia and her partner, Michael.
If this cover is to be the game-changer for the industry that some have predicted, then readers will have to vote with their wallets. Magazines are criticised for Photoshopping, for using the same old celebrities and not taking risks. So this will be seen as a test. And it will only be considered a success by the industry if people get behind it and buy it. For the next time an editor dares to do something “brave”, they need to be able to point to the runaway sales figures of our Turia cover.
I am confident that I know my readers and that they will embrace this remarkable young woman just as she has embraced life.
Because the only person who is truly brave is Turia.
This op-ed first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
