Comedian Jo Brand has said she experienced difficult emotional knockbacks as a teenager due to not being conventionally attractive.
Brand, 64, who worked as a psychiatric nurse for 10 years before moving to entertainment, said she does not think of herself as “pretty” but does not dislike her appearance.
She now regularly appears on comedy panel shows QI, Have I Got News for You and Would I Lie to You?, and also hosts The Great British Bake Off’s companion show An Extra Slice.
Speaking with Angela Scanlon on the Thanks A Million podcast, Brand said: “It’s a very weird thing that if you’re absolutely gorgeous, then you don’t really get any sense of how it feels to be desperate.
“Obviously, I’m not saying that happens all the time, but I think also if you’re kind of like me – I don’t dislike the way that I look – but I know that I’m not pretty.
“I know that I’m not what kind of men go for because I’m not thin and I don’t have long flowing locks and lovely eyelashes, and all that bollocks.
“So, it’s very hard for really attractive women to understand the mental state of not so attractive women, and the other way round.
“I would say, as a teenager, I got quite a lot of knockbacks, but also kind of like horrible ones, not them really meaning to be horrible, but just them being so dismissive.
“When you’re really keen on someone to be dismissed as a teenage girl, it’s pretty hard work, emotionally.”
She also discussed how she feels women are very resilient and have most likely taken the brunt of issues during the pandemic, and said “good on them for getting on with it”.
She said: “I think women are better than men, I always have.
“I think women are less complaining, they work much harder, they’re not as up themselves.
“I just think women have so many kind of unsung, heroic things about them to recommend them.”
Brand also hosts a show on Scala Radio on Sunday evenings where she plays classical music from different areas of Britain each week.
The Thanks A Million with Angela Scanlon podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and all podcast providers.
