Empowered Gal of the Month

It’s almost time to introduce you to our October “EG”, but before I do I just want to say how cool it was to interview this particular young woman. Why? Because I grew up listening to and LOVING Canadian singer/songwriters. To this day, you will still find me listening to Canadian icons like Gordon Lightfoot, Jann Arden, The Rankin Family, KD Lang, Leonard Cohen, and of course Anne Murray, who just happens to be this EG’s mama!



Dawn Langstroth is a 30 year singer songwriter from Toronto Canada who just debuted her brand new CD, Highwire. I had the pleasure to Skype with Dawn and ask her all of my favorite questions – and yes, she was patient with my non-Oprah-esque interviewing ability :) And yes - she is just as lovely in person as I hoped!

What were your teen years like?

Absolutely miserable! [laughing] I had a rough go of it. It was hard, it’s just the hardest time ever. It’s confusing, it’s bewildering, it’s just awful. [laughing] It’s so hard for teens – what they have to put up with.

Is there any reason in particular you found it so difficult?

Well I mean I was sick, I had anorexia since I was 15 so that was miserable. So I somewhat feel like I’ve missed a lot because of that. I really couldn’t enjoy...being a teen. I would say that I missed something.

Was there a certain "breaking point" when you realized you needed to get help with your eating disorder?

The first time I went to treatment I asked my mother for help. I just said, something is really wrong and I need help, I don’t know what to do. So I went to her and she very quickly got me into treatment. I’m of the theory that you don’t necessarily have to hit a bottom to get help. For instance, for a bulimic, in the diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders, it says, (and I think they may be changing this) that in order to be classified as bulimic, you have to be purging 3 times a week. And it’s like, if I ever have a child, I wouldn’t want them purging EVER, in their whole lives, on purpose. Ideally you want people eating healthily and normally and well and taking good care of themselves.

Do you have any advice for girls experiencing any kind of disordered eating?

Just to ask for help as quickly as possible. And if you don’t get help somewhere, ask again and again and again and again until you find what you need. It’s a really difficult disease to gain treatment – and I’m sorry – it’s frustrating to me how difficult it is to find good treatment, especially in Canada. It’s been really not that good, but there is one place that I would highly recommend, Beau Cote on Bowen Island. I know the doctor there and she is phenomenol. She was trained at a few places in the US, and the US, I feel, has a really good handle on eating disorders. There is something different for everybody. But if you are not finding the help that you need, you have to keep looking. Whatever it’s going to take, you do it. Like, if you need voodoo, then that’s gonna be okay!

If you could tell the teen you one thing, what would you tell her?

That’s a good question – oh boy! It gets better, so much better! You feel like you can’t escape and you are trapped – what would I say? So many things – that’s the problem! The thing about it is, if I didn’t have all the struggles that I did, I wouldn’t be the person that I am and I wouldn’t know all the things that I know. And it would be very difficult to explain to teen Dawn what happens between 15 and 30. It’s a lot of years and a lot of experiences. So much learning, assessing and reassessing happens. The more you suffer in your life, the more compassion you are going to have for others. It actually makes me feel better because when things are really hard, it makes you realize, this isn’t for nothing. I strive to have compassion, as much as possible, for every person that I come in contact with.

Who has been your biggest influence?

Oh man – these are hard! There have been so many people who have been influential in my life, I can’t possibly bring it down to just one. You get something from everybody you meet. I had teachers that were amazing. I had a music teacher that really took me under her wing. She went over and above. She was really kind to me, and because I was a singer and because she had been a singer, we could relate on a lot of levels. She was great to me. Her name was Marilyn Short.

You just mentioned you were singing back when you were a kid – have you been singing your whole life?

I have, pretty much out of the womb! I think I can’t really help it. I think it’s like a nervous tick. It’s like bees making honey.

Did you always know you wanted to persue music as a career?

No, I actually didn’t want to for a very long time. I love to sing so much, it comes so naturally, but I always wanted to do theater, to be an actor. So, I trained and went to classes and to theater camp and did as much theatre as possible. And, I was just talking to a friend who I went to theater camp with 15 years ago, and she said “I can’t believe you are doing music – you said you would never do music!” And I was like, “really”? So, it just sort of happened.

I guess it kind of snuck up on you.

It did! It really did. And I love to do it. Again, I can’t help it. One time in grade 5 my teacher was giving a lecture at the front of the class and I was sitting at the back of the class like I usually did, and suddenly out of nowhere in the middle of his lecture he said “Dawn!” And I said “What?” and he said “Stop Singing!” I had no idea I was! No matter what, no matter what I’m doing, I always have a song in my head.

Most kids were daydreaming and you were singing!

Yeah, that’s just what I did.

Do you have any advice for teens in general who want to live their dreams?

I wrote something this morning –I think everyone has doubts, but it’s important to have doubts. But feeling doubtful, then doing the next positive step toward what you want is even more important that the doubt itself. Having personal battles against the negative is really good practice because sometimes a person can feel like they haven’t won the battle, but if they are still alive, they have a chance to win the battle. Just keep swimming is essentially what I mean by that! Just keep swimming, as Dory says.


For more info on Dawn or her amazing new CD, find/friend her here:
www.dawnlangstroth.com
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Check out our past EG's HERE.