Busy Philipps on Being Bold for Health Magazine

Funny and outspoken, Busy Philipps is gracing the cover of Health’s June issue. Here, she opens up on why she doesn’t want to work with men ever again, how her new show inspired her to come out of her self-imposed acting retirement, parenting her nonbinary kid, Birdie and the wellness lesson she’s still trying to learn.

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• On talking about Birdie’s pronouns and being nonbinary: “My mom is older and wants to understand the pronoun conversation more. There are some really good books out there—like What’s Your Pronoun? Beyond He & She by Dennis Baron. I said to my mother, “Here’s the deal: You don’t have to understand it.” That’s how I feel about all human rights—you don’t have to understand it. You can choose to believe what you want, but you don’t get to have jurisdiction over anyone else’s body or belief system.”

• On what wellness means to her: “As a woman in this country, in this world, in this time, we all have a lot of responsibilities. I do think that the idea of securing your life mask before helping others is important. The other thing is, make sure you have your s— figured out and that you are being kind to yourself. For me, that’s one of the harder things. I can be really hard on myself. Something I have been working on is thinking about the way I talk about my family and friends and then trying to be that kind and gentle on myself, too. It’s not easy, you know? Expectations to take care of other people are put on girls from a very young age—I should say girls or femme-presenting kids. That’s what Birdie is, femme-presenting nonbinary.”

• On how she’s teaching her kids to take care of themselves: “I think the secret with kids is leading by example. I make a concerted effort to be aware of how I talk about diet and exercise around them—like, what my intention and goals are with those things. I’m also lucky that I have a partner in Marc, who does cycling and works out for his own mental health. We talk about therapy in our house and never shy away from hard conversations. I’ve always been open—but not in that ‘I’m not a regular mom; I’m a cool mom’ way. I don’t want to be my kids’ best friend. I want them to know by watching me what my values are and the things that are important. You can tell your kids to stand up for what’s right until you’re blue in the face. If they don’t see you doing it, they never will.”

The June issue of Health magazine will be available for purchase on May 14th.

[Photo Credit: Grace Rivera for Health Magazine]

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