On being an aunt and the ethos of WWLD
WWLD: What Would Leela Do? Unexpected wisdom from my niece around my tragic dating life
Much has been written about women who are child-free in the last few weeks, off the back of a Newsweek article about Taylor Swift and JD Vance’s comments about Kamala Harris. I don’t have anything new to add given that I’ve written about it extensively in The Sunday Times Style and Red magazine, not to mention it’s a key theme in my latest novel This Is Fine, but I would like to offer something in the way of what it has been like becoming an aunt as someone who doesn’t have children by choice, what I consider my role to be, and what it is like witnessing the germination and unfurling of someone who may well be one of the best human beings I have ever met.
I didn’t know the kind of aunt I would be until I became one to my niece Leela. And when I did in 2014, I knew two things. The first was that I loved that bald little worm more than life itself, and that love felt vast and furious and endless and terrifying. That there was no door strong enough to keep me from her if she ever was in trouble.
The second was that I didn’t know exactly how, but I was going to be a different aunt to what I, and many others like myself, had experienced before. I wasn’t going to be a caustic commentator on her body and her choices, rather, I was going to teach her about the world and share my life with her, so that she was informed enough to make her own choices.
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