'Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies': The age-old narrative Bec Judd is fed up with

EXCLUSIVE: It's no secret – Bec Judd is a busy woman.

But between school drop off, red carpets, her podcast Vain-ish, her collaboration with Pyjama company Gingerlilly, magazine shoots and dozens of brand deals, she's managed to carve out time for an exclusive interview with nine.com.au.

Three minutes into our chat, I asked her how she managed to juggle it all.In that exact moment, her doorbell started blasting in the background of our phone call.

"Sorry, darling, my doorbell is going bananas. Oh my god – that's my life," she laughed through the phone.

She explained the pest guy had shown up 20 minutes early, but she let him in and got back to our call.

"Sorry, babe. I'm ready to go," she said.

There are few people in the Australian social media landscape with the level of influence Judd has.

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With an Instagram following of 753,000, brands are vying for Judd's attention and influence, but she is picky when it comes to brands she chooses to work with.

"It's always with brands that I love and buy and spend my money on," she explained.

Although Judd is busy she makes beauty and self-care a priority, and she's got no issues being open about it.

She was fed up with the narrative women just "wake up" looking flawless, when the reality is "it takes work," so she teamed up with Jess Roberts to launch her beauty podcast Vain-ish.

The podcast demystifies the big, often bizarre, world of beauty treatments.

"We're having a lot of fun doing it ... it's also nice not having to gatekeep and being really transparent is quite liberating, just speaking our truth and not hiding secrets any more," she said.

"Gone are the days where you go, 'Oh, I just woke up like this, and I look like this because I got eight hours [of] sleep and I drink lots of water and with sunscreen.'

"All those things are really important, don't get me wrong, especially sunscreen for anti-ageing ... but there's a lot of extra heavy lifting that goes into looking a certain way when you're aging, especially when you hit middle age."

Judd also added it's important for people to be understanding and open to however someone chooses to navigate ageing gracefully.

"Women get criticised for a lot of things, some things more than others," she said.

"Honestly, sometimes we are our own worst enemies ... I think it's just really great for everyone to be more accepting of everyone's journey.

"Some people don't like doing much, some people like doing a lot when it comes to anti-ageing wellness, I think wherever you sit on that, what someone else is doing shouldn't bother you."

Judd said there are plenty of treatments she's afraid to try and is sceptical of, but there are some she swears by. So how much work does it actually take?

"I swear by anti-wrinkle treatments, I've been doing it for a long time now ... I'm 42 and I don't have a line on my face."

She gets anti-wrinkle filler two to three times a year, along with some other daily upkeep.

"My favourite anti-ageing tool is SPF always, SPF 50 is the best," she added.

"Then, about every six weeks, I get Laser Genesis, which is this collagen-stimulating laser ... I've been doing that for 15 years and I love it."

The conversation turned to her other business ventures and hobbies, with styling and fashion a huge part of Judd's brand.

Her most recent being a collaboration with the Australian PJ company Gingerlilly, after being a "long-term customer".

"Gingerlily saw that we kept wearing their stuff in all of our shoots, so they said, 'Hey, we know you're a fan, would you like to collab with us?'

"I was like, 'Hell yeah, what a great fit!'"

Judd said the idea behind the collaboration was to create PJs you could leave the house in and still look put together.

Fashion and style have been a pillar of Judd's career, ever since she wore that iconic red dress to the Brownlow Medal in 2004.

For the very few people who don't know, she shot to fame overnight after wearing a low-cut red dress to AFL's night of nights, which she attended with her then-boyfriend, now-husband, retired AFL player Chris Judd.

Of course, I had to ask whether she knew exactly what she was doing when she put it on, or if she was shocked by the reaction.

"It was the latter ... the next day, I was like, 'Oh wow, I'm everywhere' ... I didn't expect that to happen," she confessed.

View gallery

The ultimatum AFL star Chris Judd gave his bride-to-be

She added the style of the dress was very popular in Perth at the time.

"A lady had worn the black version to a red carpet event in Perth the weekend before, and I wanted to wear something different from her, so I wore the red version."

"The next day, it was on the front page of every paper and there were journalists waiting downstairs at Crown Towers to interview me.

"I got a big shock at the response because in Perth, that's what everyone was wearing at the time.

"I was like, 'Wow, all of this from one dress', so it was pretty cool ... that definitely changed my life."

You can find Judd’s collection with Gingerlilly here.

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