For years, Loganholme resident and TikTok host Therese Zuanetti says she struggled to understand why her emotions, relationships and sense of identity had changed so dramatically.
The Loganholme woman says that menopause-related symptoms beginning when she was 39 contributed to the breakdown of her marriage, conflict with her children and a period of profound personal turmoil.
She has now laid much of that experience bare in her independently published memoir, How Menopause F*cked Up My Life, describing the book as her “personal diary on public display”.
“I had to write it for my own mental health,” Ms Zuanetti said.
“I’m not healed. This is the first process of me trying to heal myself.”
But Ms Zuanetti said her goal extended beyond telling her own story.
After more than 10 years living in Loganholme, she has revived an idea she first pursued through Real People TV on the Gold Coast almost two decades ago: creating a place where ordinary people can speak openly about what they have endured.
Her current project, Real People Real Stories, runs through twice-weekly TikTok livestreams where participants discuss trauma, loneliness, family conflict and other personal struggles.
Ms Zuanetti said one participant told his story about mistreatment while living in care.
“He said: ‘The system is absolutely atrocious. They don’t look after you … and there’s the abuse,’” she said.
She said he felt comfortable sharing, after seeing how real the conversations were, replying that, “I’ve been watching you for weeks. I felt very comfortable in the way you come across. That’s why I wanted to come to your platform.”
“I was literally about to cry,” Ms Zuanetti said.
“I’m thinking, ‘You guys are coming on my platform. What does that say?’”
She said another young participant alleged his mother had been abusive and told her he had been forced to leave the house, while an older man spoke about losing contact with his children after a relationship breakdown.
“Why they’re so honest is because I’ve put my life on the line,” Ms Zuanetti said.
“I’m not a doctor or anything like that. This is just coming from my heart.”
She now hopes to move the discussions beyond her phone and establish an audience-based forum in Logan, supported by community organisations and qualified contributors.
Her ambition is not to replace professional services, she said, but to give people an opportunity to speak, connect and feel less alone.
“I want to give people the chance to speak up, to tell their stories and to be part of what I’m trying to do,” Ms Zuanetti said.
“You can’t help everybody, but people want to be acknowledged and appreciated. How hard is that?”
For Ms Zuanetti, the project rests on a simple belief: communities become stronger when people make time to listen to one another.
“They’re not supporting me,” she said.
“They’re supporting themselves.”
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