Former late-night host Lilly Singh on finding a new path toward success
Lilly Singh has worn many hats throughout her career. She first found fame as a YouTuber, which catapulted her to headlining her own TV show, "A Little Late with Lilly Singh," making history as the first woman of color to host a late-night TV show on a broadcast network.
Each time, she's had to make big pivots as her former projects wrapped up or as new ones started to shape up.
It's no wonder Singh, who's also worked as an actress and producer, had to rethink her life and figure out what her next steps might be throughout each hurdle, a journey she's documented in her new book, "Be a Triangle," and its corresponding audiobook mixtape, out on April 5.
"When I was writing this book – I don't know if anyone at home can relate – but I felt pretty lost," Singh said on "GMA" Monday. "And I think this is something people feel at all points in their life, whether they're graduating from college, whether they're choosing a career path, we feel like we don't have this strong foundation, a place we can return to."
A solid support is what Singh based her second book on, whose title she decided on based on the very idea.
"I jumped onto Google, and I put 'strong foundation' and Google said triangle is a shape with structurally the strongest foundation and I thought, 'That's how I want to build my life. I want to be a triangle so all my life experiences can pile up on this strong foundation,'" she said.
Singh said in order to stay creative, she turned inward to guide herself through multiple career changes.
"I think it's a lot of just tapping into liberating yourself, honestly. It's being open to ideas, trying new things. This audiobook mixtape is kind of weird. As you watch it, it's weird, it's funky and it was me just letting myself be free spiritually, which is a lot of what the book is about," she said.
Although career changes can feel scary, jarring, or unfamiliar, Singh added that it can also be a freeing and positive experience.
"In the book, I talk a lot about allowing yourself grace to be human. And I think a lot of times we don't allow ourselves to change, we resist change. 'I have to do this. Society told me to do this. My parents told me to do this, you know, I have these obligations,'" she said.
"But I think if we allow ourselves to be human, and embrace change, and also learn that we don't need to have one definition of success our whole life, it's allowed to change, then we'll be a lot happier," she continued. "So I think, be open to changing those definitions you have in your mind."
