Andrea McLean
Menopause, anxiety and midlife transition are still managed quietly in most organisations, even as they shape the working lives of a large share of the senior female workforce. The cost shows up in attrition, in lost confidence at the point women should be moving into their most senior roles, and in a workplace conversation that policy alone cannot carry. Personal voice, told well, is what shifts the room.
Andrea McLean is a broadcaster, author and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire who speaks to organisations about midlife reinvention, menopause and the inner life of women navigating high-pressure careers.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Andrea McLean
- Thirteen years anchoring Loose Women gives her a craft of audience handling that few corporate keynote speakers can match, useful for events that need a host who can hold a room as well as deliver content.
- She speaks publicly about her own surgical menopause, breakdown and career exit, which lets internal audiences raise menopause and midlife anxiety as workplace issues without the conversation feeling clinical or performative.
- As co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, she brings the perspective of someone who has built a women’s personal growth business from scratch, not just a presenter reading a script on the topic.
- Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire gave her a defined, recognisable position in the UK menopause and midlife conversation, useful for employer events targeting women in their forties and fifties.
- She can move between keynote, panel chair, awards host and after-dinner storyteller in the same engagement, which suits women’s networks, internal D&I events and customer-facing brand evenings.
Biography highlights
- Longest-serving anchor of ITV’s Loose Women, on the panel from 2007 to 2020.
- Began her television career as a GMTV weather presenter in 1997, building a 24-year run across UK daytime broadcasting.
- Author of four books published with Hodder & Stoughton and others, including Confessions of a Menopausal Woman (2018) and the Sunday Times bestseller This Girl Is on Fire (2020).
- Co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, a women’s personal growth platform launched in 2018 with masterclasses, podcast, app and live events.
- Has interviewed Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Drew Barrymore and Michael Bublé across her broadcasting career.
- Runs a CPD-accredited media coaching course used by founders, authors and executives preparing for high-stakes broadcast appearances.
Biography
Most organisations still treat menopause, anxiety and midlife reinvention as private events that happen to women alongside their work, rather than as workplace issues. The result is a steady, quiet loss of senior women at exactly the point they should be moving into their most influential roles. Andrea McLean has spent the past decade turning that private territory into public conversation.
For thirteen years she anchored ITV’s Loose Women, the longest-serving lead on a panel show built around women talking honestly about their lives. The role gave her a particular kind of authority: the craft of holding a room of strangers, and the experience of doing it while navigating a surgical menopause, anxiety, two divorces and, in 2019, a public breakdown that became the trigger for leaving television.
In 2018 she co-founded This Girl Is On Fire with her husband Nick Feeney, a personal growth platform for women that now runs masterclasses, a podcast, an app and live events. Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire established her as a recognisable UK voice on midlife women’s health and reinvention, with the second book reaching the Sunday Times bestseller list.
She is most useful to organisations that need someone who can host an event, deliver a keynote and answer questions about midlife transition without flinching. The audience is usually a women’s network, a D&I forum, or a customer event aimed at women in their forties and fifties. The substance is personal, the room is her craft, and the topic is one she has built a company around.
Key speaking topics
- Menopause in the workplace
- Midlife reinvention for senior women
- Anxiety and personal recovery
- Women’s networks and inclusion events
- Storytelling for high-stakes communication
- Confidence and career pivots
- Building a business in midlife
Ideal for
- Women’s networks and ERGs at large employers
- D&I and wellbeing events focused on women aged 40 to 55
- Customer-facing brand evenings and awards nights needing a host with on-air craft
- Internal leadership events seeking a candid voice on midlife transition and resilience
Audience outcomes
- A frank, named account of menopause, anxiety and recovery delivered without clinical distance.
- Permission for senior women in the room to raise midlife and health issues as workplace topics.
- A story of leaving a high-profile career and building a business in midlife, useful for audiences considering their own pivot.
- A room held with the pace and warmth of a broadcaster, not the rhythm of a corporate presenter.
Talks
A personal account of working through anxiety, surgical menopause and a public breakdown while staying in front of a live studio audience.
Key takeaways:
- How fear functions differently in midlife and what shifts when it is named in public
- The cost of hiding personal struggle inside a high-visibility career
- Practical first moves for women who want to act on a long-postponed change
A talk on leaving an established career and building This Girl Is On Fire from scratch, aimed at women considering reinvention after a long tenure in one role.
Key takeaways:
- What it actually takes to leave a defining career rather than wait it out
- How midlife confidence is rebuilt from work rather than from affirmation
- The specific habits that supported the transition from broadcaster to founder