This Is Not Real Life

De: Lauren Southern

Narrado por: Lauren Southern

This Is Not Real Life is a memoir about the total, unfiltered chaos behind the scenes of my time in media.

From an evangelical upbringing and a steady diet of Fox News to going viral and playing my first part in media disinformation, to meeting with terrorists, neo-Nazis, intelligence agents, and political crime rings. There's coke binges, MDMA diplomacy with enemies, a nuclear-grade marriage meltdown, and a trail of scandals across five continents. I was arrested in Turkey and Morocco, got banned from the UK, and maybe(?) violated international sanctions. Finally, a psychotic break, addiction, and the dark art of conspiracy.

I wrote this book to claw my way back to reality. I hope it helps you to do the same.

©2025 Lauren Southern (P)2025 Lauren Southern

Lauren is a decent person

As a Canadian woman living in the US I can't help but notice her lack of understanding of the cultural differences between the US and Canada. However, she was so young when the " business" got their hooks into her and I've always been sympathetic towards her. It took guts to go to SA and do what she did. She's a good woman and she is young, but in no way is she stupid. Faith Goldy never struck me as the brightest bulb in the box but to saw that was low.

She held nothing back! Wow!

Listening to Lauren is just as good as reading the book which I have done. She is so transparent in these chapters that I felt like I was listening to a reality show. Her reality show. I was shocked to learn that when Lauren was going viral at the start of her career, getting millions of views on her videos, she was making below minimum wage. Surprisingly she still hasn't learned her lesson when she was working for Tenant because she was making 100k while Tim Pool was making millions. Feminist will yell that this is proof of the wage gap, however, the truth is, this is proof about women who don't know their worth, not advocating for the pay they deserve. she has so many life lessons for women in this book. I thonk she would make a great guess for TED talk. Unfortunately, such an organization would never allow her to speak to their audience due to her past. if Lauren has a daughter, I hope her daughter knows her worth, speak her truth, put herself before any man who claims to love her, and demand to be paid her value. This was indeed a good read and I highly recommend it.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Thoughtful, pithy, horrifying and comforting: these are all things I thought while listening.

While there is a lot of craziness throughout the book, I appreciate that Lauren stuck to the idea of embracing honesty without making things salacious or graphic. I wasn't expecting to hear a lot of what I did, and some of it was shocking. But all throughout the narrative there is a constant recognition of her own role in each situation. Some chalked up to naiveté, and some to her own recklessness and poor choices, but the honesty isn't just about "what happened" but why she let some things happen. It doesn't come across as self-justification, but as reflection, which in the end is wha the book started off as.

The "not real life" part of the book is about hiding the woman behind the curtain, who she reveals was always there, sometimes loving and sometimes hating the life she was leading in favour of the persona she put forward online. It's a roller-coaster to listen to and it's not surprising to hear her acknowledge it as trauma. But there is truth and wisdom behind her reflective thoughts that I think even non-minor celebrities can take away from her hard-learned lessons. I'm glad she chose to publish and I highly recommend it.

An Excellent Story

This is an excellent story of the life of a girl in the modern political scene who through her own personal hell was given the chance to become a mature woman, and though a fool she may have been, at least she took that chance rather then giving in entirely to the host of temptation she endured.
This story, though not relatable in its details to the majority of lives, will likely be relevant for many who like her suffer the pain of life itself.

I've got a lot to think about now! Thanks Lauren!

Very well written/narrated. Honest even about the shameful things. Will inspire you to look internally and be honest with yourself.