What would Jo and Donna do?

They'd launch a podcast, I'm so glad you asked!

Donna is always excited to spend time with me.

It’s definitely a human sewage system these days, but Twitter/X will always have the credit for gifting me with one of my most significant humans.

I’m not quite sure exactly how it was that we got talking. It was the early 2010s, I was the editor of Glamour and Donna Ida was a chatty, chirrupy little Tweetie bird who started replying to my comments. She seemed nice. And funny. At one point one of us suggested meeting for a coffee and I was more than happy to. Even now that I’m not editing a magazine, I love meeting fashion designers and entrepreneurs, checking out their work, learning what inspires them. Never a chore for me to learn more about what’s going on in fashion. 

Not our first meeting but one of the earliest ones. What a bitch I was, wearing a dress to it and not her jeans, lol.

Twitter was around, but smartphones as we know them weren’t quite there yet. I think I’d have had a very un-visual Blackberry at the time and so I knew nothing about Donna apart from that she had some jeans shops. When I met her for the first time - at her Belgravia London store - and she said hi I immediately shrieked, ‘OH MY GOD YOU’RE AN AUSSIE!” What can I say, it still feels comforting to meet anyone from the old country. 

Turns out she’s from Baulkham Hills in Sydney, which is really not far at all from my (also not very chic) hometown of Penrith. In fact, because of my teenage job at a Disney-like theme park, I’d known a few people from her town and school. How we laughed about being so geographically close to one another for all of our formative years, yet it took moving to the other bloody side of the world to ever meet. She always teases me that she’d have probably snubbed me out there the second she learned I was from Penrith. 

I remember her digging into her handbag to pull out a pill to take, a big yellow disc called a Mersyndol. ‘I’m getting a headache and these are the only things that work, I get my mum to send them to me,’ said Donna, and I just about screamed laughing. ‘I get my sister to send me those! They’re the only things that work!’

Chances of life-long bonding: high to extreme. I don’t know about her, but I knew that I was already in love. 

Of course, the initial reason for the meet-up was business. Woman had jeans to sell and I was in charge of a magazine heavily favoured by her target customer. She was easy for me to give editorial space - her jeans were great, and she knew her shit about fit, inside and out and back to front. She was (is) also an inspiring, self-made firecracker. A proper hard-working Glamour girl who was also very glamorous. These days, her eponymous jeans line is hugging the derrieres of every influential fashion person you can think of. The one and only Trinny is a fan.

What turned Donna into one of my favourite people beyond the professional was her killer sense of humour, her endlessly generous spirit, and her outrageous potty mouth. I confess we have that in common. 

We’d been meeting for coffees and drinks for a few months - for gossip, shop talk and a lot of hilarious shared Aussie history - when we decided we would risk taking our relationship to the next level: not sex, no. We’ve never had sex. I mean… introducing our husbands. 

What a stressful proposition that is. We’d have both been devastated if, for some reason, they didn’t get on. But we both married very charming, outgoing Brits, so why were we worried? To this day they are as bromantically happy as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Though she and I are The Best Ones, let’s just be clear on that.

Over the years, Donna has become so important to me. In the phase I’ve written about where I’d secretly lost my direction, she was really the only person, apart from Ross, I talked to about it. And she was an heroic sounding board, cheerleader and bum-kicker all in one. In recent times I’ve faced other challenges - which I will probably write about one day but not today - and she’s shown up again.

She is also my friend who insists that some hapless soul at Fortnum and Mason’s absolutely writes out the ‘c’ word on the personal Christmas message she sends with a hamper. She once offered to write to the Metropolitan Police for me, when I got a speeding ticket, to swear to them that I’m simply incapable of driving faster than 15 miles an hour. Cheeky bitch.  

She also bought a 15-room mansion in Devon to make sure I always have somewhere nice for a holiday. Yeah, I think that was the reason. 

She’s got her own stuff going on but still makes time to check in, fight my corner and give me the hard truths when necessary. I hope she has also found me of some use in all these years.

So here’s why I’ve talked Donna into launching a podcast with me. Between us, we have lived through and conquered a lot. If there is a problem we find we can’t solve, we always know who else to call who can.  We were practically children when we travelled to the other side of the world just to see if we could make something of ourselves in That London. Now we’re in our 50s and have a lot of life, love, work and style experience under our belts. 

The podcast, What Would Jo and Donna Do? is here to solve your dilemmas, questions and problems, with our particular brand of Aussie directness. We’ve been around the block countless times now, and we’ve been each others’ cheerleaders for nearly 20 years. Now we want to do that for you. 

If you’ve ever seen us on any panels together, or on Instagram lives, you’ll know that we will do all of this with love, laughs and a lot of swearing. 

What can you ask?

Anything you like! Problems with the partner? Or the boss? The kid? The horrible co-worker who you see more than anyone? Maybe you just need a bit of a style lift, or want some inspiration for what to read, or even cook, next. Nothing is off limits. Nothing is too small for us to pick apart and solve.

How to submit questions

You can DM the Instagram account @whatwouldjoanddonnado . Also please follow! Or you can DM me @jo_elvin Also please follow!),or @donnaida . You can even ask me via this Substack, in the comments below.

But of course, if you want privacy, any of the above work. In fact, I will stress: You have our absolute assurances of your anonymity. 

Neither Donna or I have access to the podcast Instagram account, so if you DM that one we won’t know who you are. There are two people who have access to that account. And well, this podcast won’t work if people can’t trust us so we will not be risking that trust. 

You may also want everyone to know who you are - it really depends on the scale of the problem! But just to say, you can remain nameless it is not a problem.

So please get involved. We will be recording our first episode, imminently. I’m excited to have an excuse to spend more time with my favourite dickhead, but we’re going to use our powers to spread goodness too.

More of My Goodness

Two very quick things I’m currently obsessed with

1. As mentioned above, Twitter/X is a bin fire. I’d have altogether by now if it wasn’t for Niall Harbison’s account. He’s an Irish guy who saves street dogs in Thailand. And while it’s incredibly hard for my dog-crazed heart to stand the state in which these creatures arrive with Niall, the transformations he makes are so beautiful. What a wonderful soul he is. If you love what he does as much as I do, you can always support him here.

I’d been following Valentina’s progress. Sadly she was too ill to be saved, but she knew kindness and comfort in her last weeks thanks to Niall.

2. The millennials amongst you will be no doubt be all, ‘Yeah, keep up grandma’, but Golden Milk is recently blowing my tiny mind. It’s basically any milk you like mixed with turmeric, cinnamon and maple syrup and it is wonderful. I feel very virtuous and healthy as I sip it. If this is also news to you, then you are welcome.