This Is Not Real Life

This Is Not Real Life is a memoir about the total, unfiltered chaos behind the scenes of my time in media.

From an evangelical upbringing and a steady diet of Fox News to going viral and playing my first part in media disinformation, to meeting with terrorists, neo-Nazis, intelligence agents, and political crime rings. There's coke binges, MDMA diplomacy with enemies, a nuclear-grade marriage meltdown, and a trail of scandals across five continents. I was arrested in Turkey and Morocco, got banned from the UK, and maybe(?) violated international sanctions. Finally, a psychotic break, addiction, and the dark art of conspiracy.

I wrote this book to claw my way back to reality. I hope it helps you to do the same.

©2025 Lauren Southern (P)2025 Lauren Southern

Lauren is a decent person

As a Canadian woman living in the US I can't help but notice her lack of understanding of the cultural differences between the US and Canada. I was the same way before I moved here. However, she was so young when they got their hooks into her and she deserves grace. It took guts to go to South Africa and it took guts to speak out about that swamp creature Tate. I wish her the best.

She held nothing back! Wow!

Listening to Lauren is just as good as reading the book which I have done. She is so transparent in these chapters that I felt like I was listening to a reality show. Her reality show. I was shocked to learn that when Lauren was going viral at the start of her career, getting millions of views on her videos, she was making below minimum wage. Surprisingly she still hasn't learned her lesson when she was working for Tenant because she was making 100k while Tim Pool was making millions. Feminist will yell that this is proof of the wage gap, however, the truth is, this is proof about women who don't know their worth, not advocating for the pay they deserve. she has so many life lessons for women in this book. I thonk she would make a great guess for TED talk. Unfortunately, such an organization would never allow her to speak to their audience due to her past. if Lauren has a daughter, I hope her daughter knows her worth, speak her truth, put herself before any man who claims to love her, and demand to be paid her value. This was indeed a good read and I highly recommend it.

Really good

Lauren’s voice is so needed during our time. Her intelligent and depth of experience, despite her young age is Profound.

Retrospective & Poignant In A Time Chaos

As someone who has followed the online political world Lauren discusses thoroughly in this book, it was emotional to hear her perspective, experiences, and thoughts of an individual on the other side of the screen compared to a consumer. Though never pulled in deep enough into that world to leave comments and get in online political flame wars, its scary to know how far some folks can fall. The story Lauren tells is a unique experience as old as time it seems. I only hope I can learn as many lessons in my own journey without nearly the same level of personal pain and struggle. Thanks for sharing Lauren. For anyone else who lived through this time period without falling to deep into the ideological pool, I would recommend the book.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Thoughtful, pithy, horrifying and comforting: these are all things I thought while listening.

While there is a lot of craziness throughout the book, I appreciate that Lauren stuck to the idea of embracing honesty without making things salacious or graphic. I wasn't expecting to hear a lot of what I did, and some of it was shocking. But all throughout the narrative there is a constant recognition of her own role in each situation. Some chalked up to naiveté, and some to her own recklessness and poor choices, but the honesty isn't just about "what happened" but why she let some things happen. It doesn't come across as self-justification, but as reflection, which in the end is wha the book started off as.

The "not real life" part of the book is about hiding the woman behind the curtain, who she reveals was always there, sometimes loving and sometimes hating the life she was leading in favour of the persona she put forward online. It's a roller-coaster to listen to and it's not surprising to hear her acknowledge it as trauma. But there is truth and wisdom behind her reflective thoughts that I think even non-minor celebrities can take away from her hard-learned lessons. I'm glad she chose to publish and I highly recommend it.