24. January 2025

Megyn Kelly – 8 reasons why she should be every girl’s role model

Caution: oncoming unapologetic fan-girling

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I love Megyn Kelly. I’m straight, no sapphic leanings to report. But I love Megyn Kelly.

And I do declare: every little girl who wants to succeed in the world of work should take Megyn as her role model. If I had a daughter, I’d be telling her: you want to get to the top? Look at Megyn – that’s how you do it.

Rare enthusiasm

I don’t mean to be unkind to womankind, but it’s rare for me to get this enthusiastic about another female.

Because: I’ve never been a girly girl. I was never “that” girl that all the others wanted to be friends with. In fact, when I was a kid, I felt like my female contemporaries were speaking an emotional language that I’d somehow not been taught. Consequently, my relationships with other girls (and later on, women) have frequently been fraught and prone to rapid breakdown.

Over the years, I have found some amazing female friends who are straightforward, absolutely slaying in their careers and with whom I can talk to openly and honestly about the trials and tribulations of our professional lives. These ladies are whip smart, tough, not afraid to speak their minds and take no nonsense. They are comprehensively brilliant.

I’ve learnt to quickly zero in on the women I’m going to get along with and the ones I repel like identical poles of a magnet (if you’re wondering, the ratio is about 1:9).

Megyn Kelly is one of those women I know is on my wavelength. I tune in to her podcast as often as I can to enjoy her excellent reporting, clear commitment to her professional duties and her uncompromising, no-BS delivery. In a world of media framing where fewer and fewer people want to do the hard yards of rational thinking, she feels like some kind of touchstone of sanity. A friend of sorts.

I could wax lyrical about her for ages. But I’d end up rambling, so I’m just going to make a nice, tidy list of all the reasons I think Megyn Kelly is magnificent.

1. Like me, she used to be a lawyer

As soon as I started listening to Megyn’s podcast, I knew she was speaking my language. And by that, I don’t mean English. I mean the way that she approaches and analyses her subjects in the same way I do.

She’s analytical, logical and (mostly) objective – after so many years of transparent framing and activism-posing-as-journalism, I find this so refreshing.

I was not surprised at all to find out that, prior to entering journalism, Kelly had worked as a lawyer for years.

Once a lawyer, always a lawyer

Having spent 11 years working in the legal sector myself, I can tell you that once your brain locks into that method of problem-solving and analysis, it never goes away again. Even if you leave the sector, you keep on applying the same mental tools to make sense of the world around you. It’s a kind of affliction.

Those who aren’t in this mindset can find the cold, emotionless way which you slice and dice any given set of circumstances off-putting and a little “psycho”. And that’s why we (ex-)lawyers tend to gravitate towards one another – we “get” each other.

And it’s not just that legal eagle mindset: it’s the thick skin you’ve grown from holding your own in a challenging professional field chock-full of egos and which, until fairly recently, was only sparsely populated by women.

Earning her stripes in the cut-and-thrust of the legal profession has given Megyn Kelly the hide of a rhino. And I can relate, because I’ve been there too.

2. She gets that being tough and being feminine aren’t mutually exclusive concepts

It’s true: women don’t come much tougher than Megyn Kelly. She’s so hardy in fact that she was recently nominated for “Man of the Year” by the “bro” podcast Ruthless.

That’s great. But to equate “being tough” with “being manly” misses the point of Megyn Kelly, which is to crack open the iron railings of that characteristic and make it accessible to females too.

For Megyn is very definitely a Woman-with-a-capital-W. She never looks any less than lovely with her long blonde hair and ultra-feminine style. And: she’s not afraid to say that she likes a “real man” who’s tough and will protect her. Women can be mighty and love to cuddle up to a strong man at night. One thing does not exclude the other.

3. F-bomb dropped, zero f-s given

However! Being ultra-feminine doesn’t mean that Megyn doesn’t get bawdy every now and again. Now she has her own podcast and can say whatever she wants, an f-bomb gets lobbed every now and again. No apologies, no holding back.

And the notion that women should be people-pleasers who don’t rock the boat? Forget it. Megyn doesn’t mince her words and knows that, to do her job properly and drill down to the truth, she needs to ask uncomfortable questions and piss people off. And if that’s the president of the United States, then so be it.

4. She elevates other women

When a woman steps into a leadership or prominent position, there is an expectation that she will promote other women. Failing or declining to do this can lead to accusations of being a “traitor” who is “slamming the trapdoor behind her”.

Look at Margaret Thatcher. She was pilloried for not promoting many women to ministerial positions during her 11 years as prime minister of the UK (1979-1990).

This is one of many Very Silly Things that women leaders have to contend with when they break the glass ceiling and ascend to a top position.

But I’ve never understood why you should promote women just for being women. If I got to the top of my profession by merit, I would surely only promote those coming up behind me who demonstrate through their skills and achievements that they also deserve it. Whether they are male or female is irrelevant.

A lioness driving the girl cubs forward

I think that Megyn is on this same wavelength. I’ve spent the last few months watching her rip into whichever hapless female happens to have behaved foolishly that particular day. Mostly, it was Kamala Harris, who gave Kelly ample daily cause to criticise her for being uniquely inadequate for the office to which she aspired.

However, Megyn supports younger women she considers impressive by giving them air time on her show. Emily Jashinsky, Amala Ekpunobi, Eliana Johnson and Ana Kasparian are the names which spontaneously spring to mind when I think of the next generation of female political commentators and journalists who often appear on the Megyn Kelly Show.

I particularly like it when Kasparian shows up: as a left-leaning commentator, she comes from a different range of the political spectrum to her host. Ana is well-informed, highly intelligent and ready to discuss and argue if she doesn’t agree. She certainly doesn’t hesitate to challenge Megyn and it’s great to watch.

Remember the names of these young guns, because they’re going places.

5. Megyn is still a work in progress – and she’s not afraid to admit it

One of my favourite Megyn Kelly quotes is “don’t be a know-it-all: be a learn-it-all”. In saying this, she was signalling her readiness to change her mind if she is persuaded of a different view to the one previously held. That’s something I’ve always got respect for.

Being the smart, informed and argumentative gal that she is, I can imagine that Megyn puts up a fight in the process of being persuaded to move away from a certain opinion. But her journey from being locked into a bitter feud with Donald Trump during his first term as president to throwing her full weight behind him in the 2024 election – even speaking at key rallies – is proof that she is always ready to change and adapt her thinking.

This isn’t weakness or flip-flopping. We know that this is a woman who thinks things through rigorously and in the most granular way, so her switching opinions and allegiances after reevaluating in the light of new information is a sign of sincere strength.

I can’t wait to see where her journey takes her next.

6. On a wavelength about what it takes to advance as a woman

I came to the conclusion years ago that effective feminism lay not in attention-seeking and whinging endlessly about unfairness, but in the simple formula of rolling your sleeves up and getting sh*t done. Getting on with your job and doing it well. Proving your worth by delivering time after time after time.

This is what Megyn does. She’ll defend women and call out injustice and discrimination when she sees it – see her contributions to the trans-debate where she has been one of the most outspoken and consistent critical voices in the US in the last few years.

However, her greatest value as a role model for girls and women comes from simply being consistently excellent in what she does.

Watch, learn – and don’t whinge.

7. Victimhood? Don’t even go there.

If there’s one thing Megyn Kelly can’t stand, it’s fake victimhood. I’ll always be thankful to her for ripping Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to shreds after THAT Oprah interview when the rest of us were still too scared of being labelled racist to say we thought they were full of the proverbial.

Women who cling tenaciously onto the victim label – to make money, to get attention, to avoid responsibility – damage the rest of us by reinforcing the labels we’ve been attempting to shake off these last 100 years or so. I don’t want to be dragged down with them into that morass – nor do I want politicians to canvas for my vote by implying my natural state is being a poor, helpless flibbertigibbit whom they are uniquely placed to help. Bugger off.

When I listen to Megyn owning these Women Behaving Badly, I breathe a massive sigh of relief.

Sanity – saved. Someone else gets it!

8. Resilience is Megyn Kelly’s middle name.

Well, actually, it’s Marie – but you know what I mean.

To get to where she is today, Kelly has been through her fair share of knocks and setbacks. She lost her father at 15. She’s worked as a lawyer and had to hold her own in court and in the office. She’s had the courage to change careers even though her legal career was on the up.

She started right down on the bottom rung of the journalism career ladder – and wasn’t too good for any of the work that came her way. She has had to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace when she was the rising star of the Fox News network. Then she made a duff career move to NBC and left under a dark, acrimonious cloud.

She’s a winner

Plenty of adversity, plenty of challenges, plenty of moments that could have knocked Megyn off course, broken her spirit and made her give up.

But she didn’t. Megyn Kelly is a truly resilient person and that is probably one of the most important qualities that someone can have.

Keep getting up each time you fall and eventually, you come out as a winner. If you can do that, you get your prize and the recognition you deserve.

One day, like Megyn, you might get interviewed in front of a big audience about your amazing life and stunning success. And, when the interviewer asks you how it was that you became one of the “best paid female journalists on any network” you can quietly, but proudly say:

“You don’t have to say female”.

(Go to 10:20 of the below video to watch.)

That’s it girls. That’s what you’re aiming for.