Broken Brains
By Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland
Release date: 6 May 2025
At the age of 31 Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. When she shared her diagnosis with loved ones, good friend Rosie Waterland proposed the tumour eventually be named ‘Jam’s Jerky’ and kept on display in a jar.
While this sensitive proposal was politely declined, there was a reason Jamila had turned to Rosie for support. Rosie knows what it’s like to live with a broken brain. After a childhood of abuse and neglect, she had been dealing with significant trauma symptoms for years.
Jamila and Rosie soon discovered their broken brains had more in common than they could ever have imagined.
In this brave and honest book, they share their parallel experiences of being sick, alongside the advice of those who’ve been there before. Broken Brains offers exactly what both Jamila and Rosie wish they’d had at the height of their illnesses: comfort, solidarity, understanding and lots of laughs.
Sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, this book is essential reading for anyone who has ever been sick or loved someone who was.
Biography
Jamila Rizvi is an experienced leader and gender equality expert, as well as a best-selling author, popular podcaster and sought-after public speaker. As Deputy Managing Director at FW, Jamila champions women who work and women who want to work, through professional development, employment services, memberships, storytelling and advocacy.
A published author for adults and children, Jamila is also a columnist for the Nine newspapers and has hosted podcasts for Listnr, ARN, and FW. Previously, she was Editor-in-Chief of women’s website Mamamia and advised the Rudd and Gillard Governments on gender, early childhood education, media and employment.
Jamila was named in Culture Amp’s 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators 2024 and was Women and Leadership Australia’s Victorian award winner in 2020. She was the Australian National University’s Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014 and has been included in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence.
A board member of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, Jamila is also an ambassador for PLAN International and the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Foundation.
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