Alanis Morissette Excited To Use Her ‘Passion For Feminism’ In New Advice Column

Canadian singer Alanis Morissette has revealed on her website that she’ll be writing a weekly advice column for the Guardian newspaper, with her first contribution set to appear January 16. The new gig comes as her recent therapeutic podcasts on relationships and peace of mind gain popularity. She publishes the podcast on her own website with topics that touch on “everything from psychology to art to spirituality to design to health and well-being, to relationships,” according to the official description.

“I’m definitely a therapy girl. I think that’s quite obvious,” she says. “I don’t want to say everyone should [have therapy], but do I think everyone might benefit from it? Yes. But I’m aware that a lot of people have great resistance to it.”

As the NME notes, Morissette says her “therapist” style is motivated by her experience with her own family. She has also taken to Twitter to express her excitement to “use [her] experience, passion for feminism, psychology/spirituality as an @guardian columnist.”

“It’s been the role I’ve played my whole life – family therapist,” she explains. “Parents, brothers, even extended family members, that was the role I took on, because I suppose I had this combination of intuition and empathy. I cut my teeth, basically, listening for a living.”

excited to use my experience, passion for feminism, psychology/spirituality as an @guardian columnist starting 1/16 https://t.co/22Y0sVdOC2

— Alanis Morissette (@Alanis) January 9, 2016

Morissette, who is taking over the column from actress Molly Ringwald, sat down with the Guardian to discuss her rise to stardom, creating podcasts, writing music and collaborating with artists.

“I was getting bored with just one form,” she told the newspaper. “Songs are my favorite, let’s be honest. But there’s a limitation: it’s just three or four minutes. In a podcast, or in a column, there’s an intimacy and vulnerability on my part and the questioner’s part. We’re going for it, and there’s no hiding.”

Alanis, who is perhaps best known for her powerful and emotive mezzo-soprano voice, has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. She has been dubbed by Rolling Stone as the “Queen of alt-rock angst.” Ironically, her first single from Havoc and Bright Lights, her eighth and most recent studio album, was called “Guardian.”

Back in the late 80s, Morissette had her first stint as an actress in five episodes of the hit Canadian children’s television program You Can’t Do That on Television. It first aired locally in 1979 before airing internationally in 1981.

Her love life has provided plenty of fodder for the tabloids, as well. She briefly dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier in the early 1990s, and in a 2008 interview he claimed to be the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette’s hit song “You Oughta Know.” Alanis has never confirmed nor denied his claims.

She met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds through Drew Barrymore in 2002, and the couple began dating soon after. They announced their engagement in 2004 but three years later they called it quits. The following year, Alanis became a U.S. citizen while maintaining her Canadian citizenship.

“Anyone who meets us often marvels at how different we are,” she says. “But where we unite is our true north. We have this shared sense of marriage being this hotbed for healing. It’s a context in which we can grow and uplift each other, and catapult each other’s missions even further. It’s a very sacred crucible. We’re both [traumatized] humans, just trying to get it together.”

Morissette was also an early investor in MP3.com after the site sponsored one of her tours. She owned nearly 400,000 shares in the company, which she sold off in late 1999 and early 2000 for $3.4 million.

Most of fans have been using Alanis Morissette’s music as therapy since the mid 90s, but if you want to make your connection with the artist feel a bit more personal, questions for her column can be submitted by emailing ask.alanis@theguardian.com.

[Images courtesy Larry Busacca/Michael Buckner/Getty Images/Twitter]