On a sunlit afternoon in Sydney, marie claire welcomed some of Australia’s most inspiring women for an intimate Mother’s Day lunch presented by L’Oréal Paris — an event designed to celebrate motherhood in all its complexity, contradiction, beauty and grit.
Held under the powerful banner Every Mother Is Worth It, the event brought together readers, tastemakers, industry leaders and friends of the brand for an honest conversation about the invisible labour of motherhood, the pressure women place on themselves, and the confidence that often comes with age.
Leading the conversation was marie claire editor Georgie McCourt, who opened the afternoon with a message that immediately set the tone.
“Motherhood is joyful and exhausting, expansive and, at times, completely overwhelming,” McCourt told guests. “It’s the most important role many of us will ever hold — and yet, it’s the one we are most likely to question ourselves in.”
“Today is about changing that narrative.”
Joining McCourt on stage were three women who know something about balancing ambition, identity and family in the public eye: bestselling author and broadcaster Jessica Rowe, actor and producer Asher Keddie, and actor and writer Miranda Tapsell.
“We Don’t Have To Have It All”: Why The Village Still Matters
Throughout the discussion, the conversation moved between laughter, vulnerability and moments of striking honesty. The panel tackled everything from mum guilt and teenage daughters to identity, ambition, ageing and the pressure women still feel to present a version of motherhood that appears effortless.
For Tapsell, motherhood has made her more direct — and far less willing to waste time.
“Now that I’ve become a mum, I’m a little less polite, especially when my time and my energy is being taken advantage of,” she said. “It’s like, no, no, I’m wrapping on set. I’m going. I’m packing up.”
She also spoke about the importance of leaning on community.
“I definitely need the village,” Tapsell said. “My parents live with my family, and I couldn’t have it any other way.”
“I’m really grateful that I’ve managed to find other mums along the way,” she added. “I go over to my friend’s house, and we have dinner and a glass of wine, and we put our kids in the bath. I don’t know why they don’t promote that kind of communal living anymore. We don’t have to have it all; we can lean on each other.”
Keddie echoed that sentiment, reflecting on the years she tried to do everything perfectly — often at her own expense.
“I used to get so fraught about dropping the ball with my kids, yet having an enormously demanding workflow, that I used to make arrangements that drove everybody mad,” she said. “I had to have everything in place so that they could travel with me, and I had no time away from them, no matter whether I had to catch three planes to get there and then come back on a Sunday.”
“I did this for years, until one day I thought, this is actually compromising them as well as me,” she continued. “Why can’t you just let go a little bit of the control and trust the people who are at home? It took a long time to let go of that.”
“I Felt Like A Failure”: The Truth About Becoming A Mother
For Rowe, the conversation turned deeply personal as she opened up about experiencing postnatal depression after becoming a mother.
“When I became a mum, I felt like a failure,” Rowe said. “I had postnatal depression, so it was a time that was meant to be the most joyful time in my life, and it was actually the hardest time.”
“That time taught me to be gentler on myself, to embrace my imperfections and my vulnerabilities, and it gave me permission to drop my shoulders,” she continued. “But that took time. It didn’t happen straight away. I felt like I had to keep up appearances for so long.”
Rowe said one of the most damaging myths around motherhood is the idea that women should instinctively know what to do.
“There’s this myth around motherhood that is such crap — that we are meant to just know what to do,” she said. “I honestly felt like a failure because I thought, if I don’t know how to get my baby to sleep, I must be the world’s worst mum.”
“I Don’t Care As Much What People Think”: The Power Of Getting Older
Later, McCourt turned the conversation toward ageing — an issue at the heart of L’Oréal Paris’ Age Perfect range.
“There’s still a narrative that women, particularly mothers, become less visible as they get older,” McCourt said. “Do you feel that’s changing? And have you personally felt more powerful, or more overlooked, with age?”
For Keddie, the answer was complicated — but ultimately empowering.
“I do think it’s changing because I’m getting a lot of attention,” she said. “That does have to do with feeling worth it and feeling more worthy.”
“I am more comfortable with being vulnerable now than I ever was,” she continued. “There’s a different level of acceptance of who you are and what your identity is as you grow older.”
Rowe agreed, saying age has brought a new sense of freedom.
“I actually don’t care as much what people think, and I love that,” she said. “I almost feel like I want to put my finger up at people, but in a joyful way.”
Keddie also reflected on how motherhood forced her to release perfectionism — not only for herself, but for her children.
“Motherhood has taught me to let go of perfection because I didn’t want my children to be burdened with that from themselves or from me,” she said. “I grew up as a perfectionist, which caused an incredible amount of angst. It was a really great thing to release myself from.”
As the lunch drew to a close, McCourt left guests with a message that felt especially poignant ahead of Mother’s Day.
“For every mother in this room who feels like she’s falling short,” she said, “I want you to know — you are enough. You always have been.”
Because if the afternoon proved anything, it’s this: motherhood may not look perfect — but perhaps that was never the point.
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