Will Young

Navigating day-to-day life can be a tricky business. By the time we are adults, our experiences have formed our way of thinking and we have learned patterns of behaviour that are not always helpful. We must unravel these to understand, accept, nurture and allow ourselves to rise with our vulnerabilities, not in spite of them.

After having a breakdown in 2011, Will Young went about the process of interrogating everything he thought he knew: how he formed his identity, what he relied on for self-esteem and how he behaved and communicated. Everything he has learned over the past ten years, he has now condensed into this easy to access A-Z guide. He digs into how everyday life can affect our wellbeing, how we can navigate our emotions, where they come from and how to create a balanced mindset, offering practical techniques we can all use to ground ourselves and set boundaries.

With wit and wisdom and revealing his own vulnerabilities along the way, Will shows us how to identify destructive patterns, develop good mindful habits, be true to who we are and grow into better versions of ourselves.

In To Be a Gay Man, Will Young speaks out about gay shame, revealing the impact it had on his own life, how he learned to deal with it and how he can now truthfully say he is gay and happy. We know Will as a multi-platinum recording artist, Olivier-nominee and the first winner of the Idol franchise. But his story began long before his first audition. Looking back on a world where growing up being called gay was the ultimate insult and coming out after a lifetime of hiding his sexuality, Will explores the long-lasting impact repressing his true self has had. As Will’s own story demonstrates, internalised shame in childhood increases the risk of developing low self-worth, and even self-disgust, leading to destructive behaviours in adult life. Will revisits the darkest extremes he has been to, sharing his vulnerabilities, his regrets, tracing his own navigation through it all and showing the way for others who might have felt alone in the same experience. Here you will find a friend, champion and mentor, breaking taboos with frank honesty and offering invaluable practical advice on overcoming the difficult issues too often faced within the LGBTQ+ community.