Lisa Portolan

PRETTY GIRLS

A gripping story of the struggle for self-worth and empowerment.

Pretty Girls is a hard hitting story with a big-heart, a story that reaches beyond the violence against women, the darkness and defeat, the soul defying feeling of self-worth, to reclaim women everywhere.

Inspired by the real-life events of co-author Samantha McDonald, this no holds barred story is told through the eyes of Evie, a ‘pretty girl’, as she returns to her hometown to face her unrepentant and belligerent dying father.

HAPPY AS

Everyone wants to be happy, but what does it mean and are we looking in all the wrong places?

In a world where data is the new currency, social media is turning us all into walking, talking billboards and brands and we're meant to be mindful, manifesting and present, isn't it a bit rich to be expected to be happy too?

Why do we want to be happy? Why is happiness the king of all emotions? What does happiness actually mean? Lisa Portolan shares valuable insights into how we have made happiness a science and an industry, created products around it and supported it with a whole heap of advertising to ensure that works, but is 'brand me' just a recipe for unhappiness? 

Happy As examines how the concept of happiness is constructed. Starting off with the Greeks and Aristotle, who first generated the notion, to today’s shiny #happy presence on social media. What is it exactly, and do we have any chance of actually experiencing real fulfillment within our lifetime? 

As we unpick the happiness riddle, we discover that the emotion is intrinsically linked to a sense of identity. We believe that by defining the self and being someone, Pandora’s box of happiness will finally show us it’s key. But are we seeking identity in all the wrong places? In a time when we can be anyone, have the parameters become too lax? In seeking identity through our consumer culture and social media, we’re ultimately led further from the source and identity and fulfillment continue to allude us.

Happy As espouses a radical way of conceiving the self, happiness and identity – that is through the notion that we are all essentially someone to begin with, and the rest of it, they’re all just decorations, embellishments, which we could do without.

Lisa Portolan is a writer and artist from Sydney. Her debut novel Seesaw (Barringer) was released in Australia in December 2015. Her second book, Happy As (Echo) was released in July 2018, and Pretty Girls (Big Sky Publishing), co-authored with Samantha McDonald, in 2020. Her new book, The Overthinkers (Big Sky Publishing) co-authored with Ben Cheong is set to be released in August 2021.

She is the host of the podcast Slow Love, a podcast on dating, intimacy, relationships and Covid-19, and the founder of communications agency, No Franks.

She is also a freelance journalist, having had articles published in Feast Magazine, the Australian Financial Review, Huffington Post, the Guardian, Ten Daily, Mamamia, 9 Honey, Elephant Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, The Conversation, Canberra Times, The Age and HerCanberra. 

She has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism), Bachelor of International Studies and a Masters of International Studies and studied at the University of Technology Sydney, and L'Universita degli Studii, Bologna, Italy. She is currently completing her PhD at Western Sydney University on intimacy and dating apps.

She is a qualified yoga and meditation instructor, and her interest in happiness began as a result of a personal quest for purpose.