Poorna Bell She Wanted More: Reimagine Your Future and Live by Your Rules

About

What if the life you have been told to want is no longer enough? For generations, women have been handed a set of expectations about what a successful life should look like: how to work, love, age, behave, care for others and measure achievement. But what happens when those rules no longer fit? And is it ever too late to start again?
In this inspiring and thought-provoking talk, based on her acclaimed new book, She Wanted More, award-winning author and journalist Poorna Bell explores what it means for women to reimagine their lives, challenge the expectations placed upon them and build a future around their own ambitions, desires and definitions of happiness.
The book grew partly from Poorna's own experience. At the height of grief in her mid-thirties, simply getting through each day was an achievement. As she began rebuilding her life, she started to question how much of the life women are encouraged to lead is genuinely chosen - and how much is shaped by expectations they have inherited. Why should women be grateful for what they have been given rather than encouraged to ask for more?
Drawing on her own remarkable experiences and conversations with an extraordinary range of women, including bestselling novelist Marian Keyes, chef and restaurateur Asma Khan, poet Hollie McNish and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, Poorna explores work, relationships, ageing, identity, confidence and the freedom to change direction. Why should ambition have an age limit? Why are women so often encouraged to make themselves smaller? And how do we find the confidence to challenge the expectations of others and pursue what we really want?
Featured in Sunday Times Style and Grazia and discussed on Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, She Wanted More has been described by Marian Keyes as "wise, relatable and helpful", by Fearne Cotton as "an urgent, empowering read" and by Cariad Lloyd as "full of wisdom and vulnerability". Drawing on the experiences of women who have challenged convention, embraced new ambitions and transformed their lives, Poorna offers a hopeful and practical vision of what becomes possible when we stop allowing others to define our success.
In this uplifting and often deeply personal talk, Poorna explores reinvention, ageing, ambition and the courage to pursue a different path. What would our lives look like if we stopped worrying about what we were supposed to want and started asking what would genuinely make us happy? And why might the second half of life offer some of our greatest opportunities for fulfilment, freedom and adventure?
Poorna Bell is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster with more than two decades' experience in the media. Formerly UK Executive Editor and Global Lifestyle Head at HuffPost, she has written extensively on women's lives, ageing, mental health, diversity, fitness and identity, with work appearing in publications including The Times, The Guardian, Grazia, Stylist and i. She is the author of six books, including Chase the Rainbow, In Search of Silence, Stronger and the novels In Case of Emergency and This Is Fine.
Her awards include Stylist's Rising Star Award, Red magazine's Big Book Award and a Sunday Times Sports Book Award. A competitive powerlifter and advocate for women's equality and mental health, she is also an ambassador for the suicide prevention charity CALM. Her latest book, She Wanted More: Reimagine Your Future and Live by Your Rules, was published in February 2026.
A Q&A Session will follow.