Broken Brains

A personal book about physical brain health and mental brain health, and how they coexist in two very different spaces.

At the age of 31 Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. When she shared her diagnosis with loved ones, good friend Rosie Waterland proposed the tumour eventually be named 'Jam's Jerky' and kept on display in a jar.
While this sensitive proposal was politely declined, there was a reason Jamila had turned to Rosie for support. Rosie knows what it's like to live with a broken brain. After a childhood of abuse and neglect, she had been dealing with significant trauma symptoms for years.
Jamila and Rosie soon discovered their broken brains had more in common than they could ever have imagined.
In this brave and honest book they share their parallel experiences of being sick, alongside the advice of those who've been there before.
Broken Brains offers exactly what both Jamila and Rosie wish they'd had at the height of their illnesses- comfort, solidarity and understanding. Sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, this book is essential reading for anyone who has ever been sick or loved someone who was.

About the Authors/b>

Jamila Rizvi is a broadcaster, public speaker and social policy expert, as well as the bestselling author of Not Just Lucky and The Motherhood. As deputy managing director of Future Women, Jamila champions women’s economic security and gender equity in Australian workplaces. She has been named one of Culture Amp’s 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, included in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and won the Women and Leadership Australia Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership in 2020. At age 31, Jamila was diagnosed with a rare type of recurrent brain tumour, and now lives with complex disabilities due to acquired brain injury.

Rosie Waterland is an author, comedian, podcaster and public speaker, but mostly calls herself a writer. Her first two books, The Anti Cool Girl and Every Lie I’ve Ever Told, were critically acclaimed, national bestsellers. Her podcasts ‘Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie’ and ‘Just the Gist’ have over 20 million combined downloads, earning her an Australian Commercial Radio Award and Australian Podcast Award. She had written for various TV projects and nationally toured three one-woman shows. Rosie has spent much of her adult years dealing with the debilitating symptoms of trauma caused by prolonged exposure to abuse and toxic stress in her childhood.