“When I was 15 years old, growing up in England, all I could see around me was such injustice. Margaret Thatcher had just left the office of Prime Minister and I decided that I would be the next female British Prime Minister, so that I could right all the wrongs I was seeing, and help people to be happier.”

Who is Sophie Le Brozec?

In an online world where we don't really know who anyone is, this is who I am, what I stand for, and what you can expect from me. This is Sophie Le Brozec.

I’m a Brit, married to a Frenchman and mum to two French/English daughters.

I have been living in Mauritius (a tropical island in the Indian Ocean in Africa) since October 2015; before that I lived in London for nearly 5 years, and the 12 years before that were spent on the French Riviera (in the Nice area).

Our family is bilingual and bicultural.

As a child I was petrified of dogs and, as I slowly overcame my fears as an adult, I vowed that my kids would grow up with a dog so they...

When you’re a child you long to be an adult - to stay up late, to do what you want, eat what you want, go where you want, see who you want. Adults can do whatever they want!

Then you become an adult and you realise that adulting is so bloody hard.

There are constantly so many things to do, to think about.

There are so many people you need to worry about - your kids, your other half, your parents, your friends, your family, your family-in-law, neighbours, colleagues…

Then there are the causes to worry about - politics and who is running the country, global warming and the climate crisis, the C-word and pandemics, Brexit, the rising cost of living, homelessness, racism, homophobia, sexism, discrimination in a million and one different ways.

I sometimes think of when I was a child and my only worry was which friend to go and call for to play out on bikes.

But that’s rose-tinted.

Because when I got home from playing I had to eat food I didn’t like.

I had fights...

I originally wrote a variation of this to my eldest daughter, Léna, when she was 9, on my mummy blog. It was my first blog post to go viral, and many adults told me they found the advice useful too.

Now my youngest daughter, Clémence, is 9 (nearly 10) it feels like it's time to share this again. For her, but also for anyone who needs to know this stuff.

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To Clémence – my 9 year old daughter,

When you were born, back in November 2012, I was very aware that you were only on loan to us for 18 years, when – if we’d done our job properly – you would take off on your own wings to lead your own independent life.

Back then, when you were a tiny newborn in my arms, 18 years seemed like a hundred years away. But now you’re 9 and we’re halfway there, suddenly it looks very soon.

Me with Clémence, a couple of hours after she was born

So I thought at this halftime point I should share with you...

“That’s just my luck!”

“Bad things only ever happen to me!”

Sound familiar? Whether you consider yourself an unlucky person or not, we can all do with a bit more good luck in our life, and that’s what I’m going to share with you today.

When I was in my 20s I had a boyfriend who classed himself as unlucky. And in the 3 years we were together he, and we, had some serious bad luck.

Cars breaking down and being impounded. Lawsuits from neighbours (from the previous owners’ actions). Health issues. Burst water pipes. Keys taken by workmen on moving day. Being made redundant and jobs falling through. You name it, he - or we - went through it.

I just put it down to him - and us - being unlucky, and I really didn’t think about it any more than that.

When we split up my luck changed for the better. And again I didn’t think about it much.

It wasn’t until over 10 years later when I read a book that changed my whole thinking...

You know that being kind makes other people happier and in turn makes you a happier person. But you keep forgetting. Or you’re too busy. Or you’re not sure how to actually go about it. So you put it off.

I’ll be kind next week after this big project is over.

I’ll be kind when that awful neighbour finally moves away.

I’ll be kind once I get a decent night’s sleep.

And until then you get through each day complaining about the lack of parking spaces near your office.

About how hot / cold / rainy / windy it is.

About your new boss.

About the fact your child seems adamant to never sleep through the night.

About never getting the breaks.

You don’t give up your seat on the train. You don’t fill the kettle up for the next person who comes along to make a coffee. You don’t make conversation with the new mum at playgroup. You don’t smile at anyone. Ever.

I know you. You’re a really nice person. But if a stranger witnessed you...

Aged 19 and 20 I was in an emotionally abusive relationship, and I constantly lived in terror of the emotional abuse spilling over into physical abuse.

I am lucky that I managed to get out, more or less intact, but I found out recently that my ex is in prison for physically abusing and harming his current partner.

As I read the newspaper article I was transported back to that world of abuse, that relationship, that time of my life when I lived in constant fear.

You might think I'm stupid or an idiot for getting myself into that situation, and I totally understand you thinking that. But read on so I can help you to better understand abuse.

Prior to that relationship I was an incredibly strong woman. I took shit from no one.

I remember hearing about women who were hit by their partners and either left them and then went back, or stayed with them.

I clearly remember saying "well then they're idiots if they're staying with a man who hits them".

For me it was black and white.

If someone...

Recently I lost a dear friend to cancer. I met Sarah in 2013, in the first year of my mummy blogging journey. She was a fellow blogger and she took me under her wing. She made me laugh (so much), gave me incredible tips and advice, listened when I ranted and was just generally an incredible human and friend.

When we moved to Mauritius from London in 2015 our friendship went mostly online. But every time I went back to the UK she was one of the few people I made sure I met up with.

Sarah always had a theme for each new year which she blogged about. They are so inspirational and I urge you to read her themes here (they are in chronological order):

Raising my game

Let the pieces fall

Say no and let it go

Don't make assumptions

I usually have a word for the year. In the past I've had RISE, HAPPINESS, EXPERT, FEMININE, COURAGE amongst others.

Then just before the new year I received the news that Sarah was being moved to a hospice.

My vivacious, funny, live-life-to-the-max...

Let me start by reassuring you this is not an evangelical bid to turn you vegan.

In fact one month before I became vegan I couldn't actually imagine anything worse.

I just want to share my story with you. In case it could help.

Today I have been vegan for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days.

I never EVER imagined I would be vegan for even one day, but then a few things happened.

I have never shared my story before but with Veganuary just around the corner it feels like it's time.

Before becoming vegan our family ate meat at least 5 times a week, often more.

I would get pissed off if we invited someone for dinner and they were vegetarian, let alone vegan!

I had been lectured to before about becoming a vegan and it pushed me even further away.

Then in September 2019 I went to a day-long retreat, with only vegan food on offer.

I was gutted.

WHAT was I going to eat?!? A bunch of leaves and tomatoes?

When it was time for lunch my stomach sank.

I LOVE food, and mealtimes are my favourite times,...

25 years ago today I moved to a foreign country for the first time.

I was 20 years old and I was moving from the UK to Nice, France as part of my French and Spanish degree (that's a photo of me in Nice at the time.) 

I clearly remember being at Heathrow with two of my uni friends, saying goodbye to my parents, feeling a mix of excitement and fear at what lay ahead of me.

It was the 6th October and we left a cold, rainy London to arrive in a sunny, balmy Nice.

Being driven down the Promenade des Anglais is engraved in my brain as I took in the BLUE sky and the BLUE sea (BLUE because they are just so blue!), and the palm trees that lined the road.

For someone who had spent the last 2 years of studenting in Liverpool it felt like I had somehow arrived in heaven.

I remember exactly what I was wearing that evening as I called my parents from a payphone to tell them we'd arrived safe and sound.

"It's 6 o'clock and I'm wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt!" I announced delightedly to my...

My first digital detox was in 2014, a few months after I diagnosed myself as a social media / smartphone addict.

I'd heard my husband and eldest daughter complain that I wasn't fully present. That I was permanently attached to my phone whenever I wasn't working.

I'd pick it up constantly.

I was always scrolling.

The last thing I did at night, the first thing I did in the morning was scroll my drugs of choice - Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

It was a horrible way to live. For me. For my husband. For our kids.

I knew it wasn't healthy but couldn't stop myself.

As I'm an "all or nothing" person I decided to go cold turkey whilst on a family holiday to France in August of 2014.

I switched the WiFi and mobile data off on my phone as I boarded the plane in London. And I didn't switch it back on until I got back home over 2 weeks later.

I did a complete digital detox.

And I learnt so much about myself. About this dirty habit. About the life I wanted, for myself,...