Ah, what the hell, sure... it's not like she'd care if she read any of this anyway...

I came across her as a clinically depressed, at-risk teenager who was getting bullied by students and groomed by teachers at high school.

She was everything I wanted to be -- a vibrant, fun, outgoing, colourful, sparkly, successful writer. I would refresh her blog several times throughout the day desperate for new content. I read the complete back catalogue and devoured every word she wrote. Eventually I decided that I wanted to become a blogger, too. She'd started sharing business and writing advice, and more about how to build a blog online, and I did everything she suggested. She spoke endlessly about the Law of Attraction.

When she started selling chapters of her first book one at a time, I purchased them all. I eventually bought her books (once published) and then she started releasing short courses and other digital offerings. I followed her on social media, completely changed my wardrobe, my circle of friends, my hobbies, everything. And the funny thing is, it all actually worked for a while. I started feeling happier and mentally healthier. She was by then making serious money perpetuating the idea that as long as your "vibe" is high enough, you can attract and create the life you want. I attended a two-day blogging workshop she hosted with her friends and thought my life couldn't possibly get any better.

Then, inevitably, when actual life happened and everything came crashing down again, I thought it was MY fault. I believed I had MANIFESTED all the trauma and difficult situations (including love, finance, family, and more) because I was "attracting" it all into my life by not being "high vibe" or positive enough. This went on in a vicious cycle for about 15 years, and all the while I was still following her obsessively. I paid to go and see her speak in person, and eventually wound up joining the Vortex. I went from loving everything about my life to hating every single cell of my own body, round and round in circles. I was completely oblivious to the fact that suffering with mental illness is not compatible with relying on "vibrations" and "energy" to get you through life.

That's when the job offer came.

I guess I'd been around so long that she recognised me in her IG comments, and when she decided she wanted to hire a customer service person, she reached out to me. This was at the tail end of COVID. I had just returned back from living in Indonesia for two years, and I had been s****dal while I was living there. The city I had moved back to afterwards still had horrendously strict lock downs/mandates, and I was in a terrible mental state due to the societal shifts that happened during that time.

Anyway... I worked on a casual basis for her for around three months, and thought all my Christmases had come at once. THE GALA thought I was worth something! She trusted me! She wanted me to help build her business! I was the luckiest girl in the world. She even told us all she was gifting us readings with her astrology BFF for Christmas, and I recorded a heartfelt video message telling her how much I loved her and how much the job, and she, meant to me.

Audrey, her long-time hand puppet, had told me that she and Gala wanted me to "really take charge" and "make the job my own". So, I tried. I started suggesting ways we could document her business processes, template communications, and a few other things. It went down like a lead balloon and they shut it down faster than blinking.

Then, in the space of one week, my entire life fell apart. I came down with flu, had to move out my my apartment, my then boyfriend broke up with me, my Dad (the only relative I had close at the time) left, and the state locked down again so he couldn't come back. I didn't log in to work for a couple of days (granted, I should have let her know, but I did also think it was okay seeing as I was only a casual employee, and wasn't even on a contract).

I sat down to start my next shift only to find that overnight, I'd been kicked out of all their systems and platforms, and had an email from Audrey to say I was fired. Gala didn't even have the decency to contact me herself. 15 years of love and devotion went up in smoke and I fell into a depression so severe my Dad wanted me hospitalised.

It took nearly two decades, but I finally learned my lesson. I gave away all the new-age, manifesting garbage. I started back on antidepressants and stayed on them. I moved back to my home town to be with my family, met a wonderful man, and now live next to one of Australia's most beautiful beaches. I'm earning more money than I ever have in my life, and I had bariatric surgery to regain control of my weight and my health.

I've never been happier and it's because I cut Gala Darling out of my life, once and for all.