S8 Ep25: Bookshelfie: Self Esteem

S8 Ep25: Bookshelfie: Self Esteem

From Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast by Women’s Prize Podcast/ Bird Lime Media

December 30, 2025 · 58 min · Season 8 · Episode 25

About this episode

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, also known as Self Esteem, discusses her experiences as a female music artist and her literary influences with host Vick Hope.

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem talks to Vick about pushing back against the male gaze, the healing power of her art and how to carry on as a female music artist in your 40s. Rebecca is one of the UK’s most exciting breakout musical stars of the past decade. Performing as Self Esteem, she rose from cult favourite to mainstream hero following the huge success of her empowering, truth-telling 2021 single, I Do This All The Time . Her trademark lyricism and razor-sharp wit led to a Mercury Prize nomination for her second solo album, Prioritise Pleasure , and was crowned the Guardian and Sunday Times Culture’s Album of the Year. Her latest album, A Complicated Woman , received the Visionary Award at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards, praised for its ‘fearless, genre-defying songwriting that is reshaping the sound and substance of modern pop’. Her first book, also titled A Complicated Woman , is a Sunday Times bestseller, taking readers on a poignant, witty journey using notes, lyrics, and observational prose that gets to the heart of being a woman in the world today. Rebecca’s book choices are: ** The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood ** Women Who Run with The Wolves by Clarissa…

People in this episode

Host: Vick Hope

Guest: Rebecca Lucy Taylor

Topics covered

  • female empowerment
  • music industry
  • artistic expression
  • ageism
  • literature
  • women's issues

Keywords

  • Self Esteem
  • female artist
  • music
  • books
  • empowerment
  • Mercury Prize
  • Ivor Novello Awards

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Handmaid’s Tale, Women Who Run with The Wolves, All Fours, Hunchback, Milk Fed, A Complicated Woman

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