Isabelle Silbery Alumni Visit

The Year 11 lockers buzzed with anticipation as students finished their lunch and headed over to the theatre. The occasion? A thought-provoking and inspiring guest speaker visited the school, a familiar environment for Isabelle Silbery. The television personality, writer, philanthropist, influencer, and former Melbourne Girls College student discussed the hardships and accomplishments that contributed to her successful career, particularly touching on her career and girlhood. 

Silbery delved into her personal experiences throughout VCE, exploring the importance of normalising an environment that values students who choose non-traditional pathways. As soon as the television star graduated from Melbourne Girls College, she applied for university and started straight away. Silbery didn’t have an understanding towards the career path she would peruse, ultimately deciding on the safest option - an arts degree. Three months later, Silbery had dropped out. She found herself sleeping till midday, watching daytime television, and locking herself away for an entire year. Her worried parents encouraged her to enrol in a course at RMIT to receive a diploma in television production, a passion that she had held onto since her days at Melbourne Girls College. Determination sparked when she reconnected with her old passion, spending the next ten years working her way up, putting everything on the line. Silbery gave birth to her first child in 2014, eventually finding herself unemployed and struggling with becoming a single mother. While scrolling through her Instagram feed, she came across casting applications for the popular show, Goggle-box, ‘I sent in my application and forgot about it. Now eighteen seasons later, I’m stuck with being paid to watch television with my mum and grandma’. After a few seasons of Gogglebox, Silbery noticed the families' large following and took advantage of the opportunity. Emily Milligan (grandmother), Kerry Milligan (mother), and Isabelle Silbery wrote a novel on girlhood, from the perspective of all three generations. ‘Out of the Box’ became a super-novel, now in production to become a TV show. 

The discussion of girlhood grew stronger throughout the speech, unpacking conversations relating to abuse, relationships, periods, sex, identity, divorce, pregnancy, affairs, peer pressure, and misogyny. She went into depth when speaking about her past abusive relationship, which left her a single mother. After the divorce from her ex-husband, Silbery decided to become a guest speaker, where she visited boy’s schools across the state. Her main intention was to begin the cancellation of misunderstanding and misogyny towards women displayed by young men, ‘I don’t want my son to become anything like his father, nor do I want any young men.’

Isabelle Silbery was truly an inspiration for us Year 11’s, the speech marked a valuable opportunity for our school community to engage with an accomplished individual and gain valuable insights on life.

Charlie Todd, Year 11