Women to Watch: Louise McSharry's awesome advice should be in a book

Louise McSharry speaks to Beaut about her path to becoming the success she wants to become.

If anyone can wear a red lip on their wedding day, it's Louise McSharry. Brides are often told that it's a tricky look for your wedding day if you're not used to it - but Louise is used to it. The radio presenter, writer and full-time badass told Beaut that if she wasn't the powerhouse she is right now, she would be a makeup artist. But, while her 26.3K fans on Instagram (and 22.9 Twitter fans) follow her for her makeup looks and beauty advice, it's her wit and prowess as a writer that caught their interest in the first place.

Early followers (like me) will probably have discovered Louise when she was a writer for The Daily Edge. At the time, she was also doing radio work, filling in for lesser-known presenters like, oh, I don't know Ryan Tubridy; she finally got her own hugely successful 2FM show - the same year she was diagnosed with cancer. Her diagnosis was highly publicised; it was shocking that a 31-year-old bright, bubbly presenter could receive such terrible news. But Louise bet the disease, creating an inspiring documentary ("F*** Cancer) in the process.

You have stuff to learn, I have stuff to learn; we all have stuff to learn.

Her next public announcement was a much happier one. She was pregnant against all the odds. In 2018, she's cancer-free, married to Gordon, an RTE producer, and mother to Sam.

Her upbeat personality and her positivity is infectious, and the words of wisdom she gave during her Women to Watch session should be made into a book. (Louise, when you read this, take my advice and write that book!). It's hard to understand that she had an extremely challenging upbringing (her dad died when she was very young, her mother suffered with alcoholism), and she has battled with her own mental health issues.

But she's tough. She's resilient. And she is extremely ambitious.

What keeps me up at night is the fear that I won't reach my potential.

The key, it seems, to success, according to Louise, is believing in yourself, but not accepting at any stage that you're the finished product. Through her difficulties and personal and professional battles, she's learned her lessons and carried on. And she advises you to do the same.

If someone gives you feedback try to take it on board and even if you feel annoyed initially that's absolutely fair enough but keep it together, go away and be annoyed and then go back and have another look or think about what they said again and see if you can find something useful in it. At the end of the day, even if you can find just a tiny little thing to make yourself better, you're the one who's the winner out of that.

For someone to possess that refreshing attitude, you could almost forget all that she's accomplished. But this fighter won't stop (well, maybe until Miriam O'Callaghan tells her that she has, in fact, reached her potential).

She's a presenter; she's a writer. A wife. A mother. She's a body-positivity advocate, an Instagram influencer, and a voice that represents women in a modern Ireland. But she's not done. We will continue to follow her journey and cheer her on all the way.

I don't see myself as a failure but I suppose I think of myself as still very much on the path of becoming the success that I want to become.