Turia Pitt says her change in appearance is 'irrelevant' because her self-belief has never relied on that. Photo / Getty Images
Turia Pitt says her change in appearance is 'irrelevant' because her self-belief has never relied on that. Photo / Getty Images
For burns survivor Turia Pitt, the struggle has not been in coming to terms with
her exterior but showing the world she hasn’t changed, writes Angela Barnett.
The name Turia means princess in Tahiti, where Turia Pitt was born. But she's no precious princess. Full of grit and influence, she's got an iron will, remarkable courage and an army of loyal subjects who love her kick-arse attitude.
Because, after being caught, aged 24, in a bush fire that burnt two-thirds of her body, she's not afraid to be seen and heard. In being herself, and out, she's helped thousands of burn victims think differently about their own scars.
In a world obsessed with smooth, wrinkle-free, unblemished skin, boob and butt implants, and a beauty industry that's bigger than education, Pitt makes her own rules. Plus she seems to have her own internal fire that drives her to achieve things that makes the rest of us look like sloths.
Before the calamitous day of the Kimberly ultra-marathon bush fire in 2011, Pitt was an athlete, mining engineer, volunteer paramedic and ex-model. Since then, she's written two best-selling books, raised more than $1 million for Interplast, a charity that helps burn victims get reconstructive surgery, become a sought-after speaker, climbed the Great Wall of China, coached more than 30,000 people online with "School of Champs", sailed around French Polynesia, completed her first Ironman and met a real princess — Kate Middleton. Oh, and she became a mother last year. All after being told she wouldn't walk again.
And if that's not impressive enough, she's funny, too. Her right hand was fused in the fire so now there's only a tiny bit of finger visible on each digit and she affectionately calls it her "Bart Simpson" hand. On her website she promotes her Instagram (with 787k followers) as "a bunch of pics of me staring sultrily at no one in particular".
It's easy to focus on Pitt's scars but difficult to ask about, so we initially discuss her drive, via email. I've been told she's sick of talking about the fire so I ask if she gets sick of people assuming she's achieved so much because of the fire, as she was always ambitious.
Turia before and after the bush fire. Photo / Supplied
"I don't know if people assume that," she says. "I've always been a go-getter, and I believe that no matter what, I was always going to have a fantastic life, it's just that my life over the past few years has been played out in public."
She thinks her strong self-belief and determination comes from both parents but particularly her mother. "My mum was a massive inspiration, growing up. She's from Tahiti and when our family moved to Australia she was homesick so wrote a book about her homeland, sent it off and received 14 rejection letters. So she wrote another book and it was a success, translated into 10 languages and published in 20 countries. She taught me that hard work and dedication yields results."
Her mother was with her throughout the long, gruelling recovery after the fire, along with her boyfriend (now fiance) Michael Hoskins. To get through it Pitt pretended to be "a hard-arse, tough-as-nails SAS soldier who'd been blown up in Afghanistan. This helped me put on my 'game face' and to mentally manage the pain".
She also learned how robust her body was. "Six years ago, doctors stood by my hospital bed and told me I would be lucky to run again and most likely would need to spend the rest of my life in an air-conditioned room. Yet I've managed to complete the toughest race on the planet in the heat of Kona [Hawaii], plus carried a child for nine months and gave birth to that child."
Ironwoman Turia Pitt. Photo / Supplied
Wearing a full compression healing facemask for two years forced her to push through discomfort. "At first, that meant getting used to not wearing my mask around Mum and Michael, and then close friends; then out for a walk. It was the same with the rest of my body. I used to wear long-sleeved pants and tops. Then I moved to wearing three-quarter-length tops and pants. Now I can wear a singlet and shorts and feel completely at ease. But if I hadn't done the legwork — the slow process of gradually getting used to my skin — I'd still be in long shirts and pants. We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable."
Segueing into that skin, I ask what advice she gives teenagers who are struggling with their appearance, or perceived flaws. Instead of answering the question, she sends me to her blog, where she has quotes like: "A bad attitude is like a flat tyre, you can't go anywhere until you change it."
Pitt appeared on the cover of the Australian Women's Weekly in 2014 and was lauded as "changing the face of beauty". Bloggers, writers and tweeters went nuts. "Putting an inspirational young woman like Turia Pitt, whose face is visibly scarred, lets the younger generation know that beauty shouldn't be valued in merely a physical manner," said a popular site, Girltalkhq.
In her TED talk, Pitt said people emailed her after she appeared on the cover saying how much they hated their face, arms, legs or bum and how sad she felt about that. So I ask what advice she gives people who hate parts of their bodies. But she won't answer that either.
Women have been pushing for wider representation of beauty for decades. It's now uncool to feel insecure about appearance but while females are sharing body acceptance memes they're still digitally enhancing their Instagram feeds and sneaking into Botox clinics for fear of not looking good enough. I'm curious as to how Pitt has risen above it.
Going for a slightly different angle, I ask whether it's frustrating that people who don't know her focus on her exterior, her scars. Her media people step in, via email. "It's not aligned with Turia's brand to answer questions about body image." I am confused. She's an advocate for positive body image but won't talk about appearance.
In her TED talk she admits, "As a teenager I was all about looking good," and said how sad she felt, after the fire, when people questioned Michael about why he would remain with her. "I was so hurt — people assumed Michael had been with me because of my looks, not because I'm smart, gritty, determined."
When Kanoa Lloyd from The Project recently asked Pitt how she dealt with her changed looks, she said, "The more I regained my physical abilities, the more confidence I got. The change in my appearance is irrelevant because my self-belief has never relied on that."
Granted, she's got fantastic self-belief but it's hard to believe the changes are irrelevant, especially as Pitt lives her life publicly now. I asked my 11-year-old son how he would deal with scars on his face and body and he said, "I'd just hide." And I wonder if I would too.
But here's a woman who's not hiding and boldly standing up. Frustrated I can't get any insight I go back and watch all her interviews again, including 60 Minutes, where there's footage of the fire. During the 100km race, Pitt was ahead of the pack, unaware she was running into a raging bush fire because she had headphones on.
Turia Pitt makes her own rules. Photo / Supplied
After being engulfed, she was trapped on a hillside for four hours in the scorching sun, burning her already burnt skin. When the paramedics finally arrived she knew one of the volunteers but she didn't recognise Pitt in the burnt shell in front of her, so Pitt said, 'Hey it's me, it's Turia!' The volunteer friend had no words, just a tear rolled down her face.
Her doctor said she "was literally cooked" and the burns weren't just skin deep but down to the bone in places. She died three times on the operating theatre and had skin grafted on to her lips, bottom, elbows and breast. Her mother couldn't speak when she first saw her daughter; all she could do was sing to her. Michael was there day and night, in meetings with doctors. He had to agree to amputate four of her fingers to her knuckles.
He said, "If she can walk in agony, then I can be there for her every morning." And he was. You can see in the footage how painful it was to move, walk, or sit — and this was two years into recovery.
It's difficult to watch and not be moved to tears. The love between the couple is beautiful. And it's impossible to imagine how hard it was for her, not just the pain of physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy over 864 days in hospital but the daily bandage changes where she would lie in bed and sweat, listening to the screams of the other patients before it was her turn to scream.
Then there was the devastation that she couldn't even wipe her own backside, brush her teeth or do anything for herself. She was caught on camera saying, behind her balaclava-looking mask, "I just want to be functioning again. I want to touch my face and eat. I want to be normal and do things. Run again." Everything was taken from her. Her independence. Her physical strength, abilities, life as she knew it.
Pitt's story is one of incredible survival. Her doctor said he's never had a patient with such severe deep burns live. Ever. And now that broken and battered shell that died three times is functioning again, walking her out on stage, charging around the world raising money for a charity she cares deeply about, typing words with our own hands, running outside, surfing, cycling, brushing her own hair, conquering mountains (she was on her way to Everest Base Camp when she discovered she was pregnant), and bringing a baby into the world.
My vexation for not getting answers about body acceptance has turned into respect. When you've been through so much, how you look no doubt, is irrelevant.
Her disregard for the questions challenged me, and why I, along with others, are so interested with her exterior when it's her interior that she wants to share. What got her through an impossibly difficult recovery was courage, love and not caring about irrelevant things. I had to get comfortable being uncomfortable watching her story to understand she's not an advocate for positive body image; there are plenty of people doing that.
She's an advocate for living the only life she can: hers. Reducing Pitt to her appearance is like reducing any of us to our appearance. We're all so much more. Ask her about love, compassion, giving, drive, kindness and she's all over it.
No wonder she's got a legion of young minds following her. "Back yourself, bet on yourself and believe in yourself," she tells them.
Turia Pitt's coming to New Zealand for the first time to speak at an event created to celebrate strength, resilience and our enoughness; three values aligned with everything she believes in. It's on June 2nd in Auckland, tickets here.
