‘You have to really take a risk and not have a plan B’

You address your depression, and how it led you to make videos and get on YouTube, in the book.
I felt super-vulnerable and it wasn’t pleasant to recall. There’s always that challenge — how to do I tell my story without making a blanket statement about depression. If you need to seek help, do it; there’s no shame there.

You switched from videos to text. What was the first thing you had to unlearn in order to tell your story?
To not feel the need to always make people laugh. With my YouTube videos, I do comedy, and you have to have the punchlines; and it has to be short enough for people to pay attention and make them laugh. With the book, the goal was to say practical things that could actually help people.

Your book tour includes motivational talks as well.
Yes, it’s not about what’s in the book, but it’s like an add-on. The talks are to get people to interact with each other and to know how to hustle, and know your mind better, to grow and understand yourself better. I like to be real and honest with my audience about what it takes to be successful.

What does it mean for you to be an original?
You have got to step outside the box and do things that haven’t been done before. You have to really take a risk and not have a plan B, a back-up plan. It’s the opposite of what Indian parents tell you.

What would you say to Indian parents?
Well, shout-out to them, I think you’re all wonderful. But if I have to say one thing, it is that I know it’s hard, when you’re traditional but you have to trust your kids enough to let them try out new things.

You’ve said that the most controversial thing you’ve ever said is that you’re a feminist. What was that about?
I guess people are scared of using the word. I think when they hear “feminist”, they associate it with man-hating, which is actually what it’s not about — it’s about equality and equal opportunities. That’s why I like the digital space a lot. Nobody is guarding the upload button, anybody can create content.

What is the one thing that ||Superwoman|| needs to learn from Lilly Singh and vice-versa?
What ||Superwoman|| needs to learn from Lilly is how to take a break. Lilly kind of knows how to do that. But it doesn’t go the other way around — ||Superwoman|| can only learn from Lilly, because she’s an extension of Lilly Singh.