Pssst, wanna know a secret?  A big-time celebrity lives right here in Oakville. She shops at our grocery stores, she plays with her children at our parks, she even hits the town for a bite to eat every now and then (when she’s not whipping up something delicious in her kitchen). She’s a New York Times Best Selling Author, an award-winning blogger, Instagram mogul – and honestly, a downright charming and lovely individual. Can you guess who it is yet? We’ll give you one more clue: she’s vegan.

That’s right. We’re talking about Ms. Oh She Glows herself, Angela Liddon. We recently sat down and chatted with Angela about balancing work and motherhood, and even got the scoop on her upcoming third book. And truthfully, interviewing Angela was one of the most pleasant experiences. Take a look: 

Give us the quick and dirty –
how did Oh She Glows come to life?

In 2008, I started my blog Oh She Glows because I was unhappy with my career as a researcher (I had recently graduated with a Masters degree in social psychology) and needed a fun, creative outlet. 
I quickly fell head over heels in love with blogging, and discovered a passion for recipe creation, writing, and food photography that I never really expected to find. After a couple of years of blogging, I was approached by a major publishing house asking whether I’d like to write a cookbook. Almost 10 years since starting my blog, I’ve shared over 600 recipes online, written two bestselling cookbooks, and published an award-winning recipe app. I’m grateful every day that I get to wake up and live my passions.

Have you ever had a
“wow, I’ve made it” moment,
or several, or none?

Shortly after my first cookbook went on sale in 2014, I received a call from my editor. Lucia was bursting with excitement and yelled, “Angela, you’re a New York Times Bestselling Author!!” I think that was when I truly realized the immense support behind my work. To see how many people had gone out and bought themselves and friends/family a copy really blew me away. Another moment was winning a WXN’s Canada’s Most Powerful Women Award in 2018.

While building your brand, you’ve also been building your family. As a working mom, I’ve felt the pull so many of us feel to “do it all.”
How do you find balance – or do you?

Almost 5 years into motherhood, I’m just starting to feel like I have some sort of balance in terms of my personal wellbeing. It’s taken a lot of hard work to get to a good place of mental and physical health. In terms of feeling balanced in other areas, I honestly can’t say I’m there yet. 
I’ve had to temporarily give up a lot of things in my business because there is only so much time in the day! Being a parent of two little ones has forced me to embrace the chaos and also focus on which projects are the most important right now. Rather than trying to do a little bit of everything and feeling overwhelmed, I now focus on one main goal at a time. I’m learning that I really don’t need to do it all. 

How do you build and create your recipes?
Does it take a lot of trial and error – or does it come pretty naturally at this point?

Now that I’ve been doing this for about 10 years, I do find that recipe creation is a bit quicker than it used to be. I’m better at planning the recipe I want to create, from balancing flavours to knowing how much of each ingredient to use. I’ve learned a lot, but I’m a perfectionist at heart so I still tweak recipes even when the first attempt was great. It’s fun for me. Not everything works though – I still have some epic fails now and then, and when a recipe goes horribly wrong, I tend to abandon it and focus on something else for a bit.

How do you spend
your free time in our
beautiful little community?

We love finding new parks/playgrounds/splashpads. There are so many great ones in Oakville and the kids love scoping out new ones!

What’s next for Oh She Glows?
and what’s next for you?

I’m currently immersed in the creation of my third cookbook – up first, is the writing, recipe creation, testing, etc, and then once my manuscript is handed in, I’ll be shooting the food photography. It took my creativity a while to “reset” after my second cookbook, Oh She Glows Every Day, and having my second baby. I was patient and didn’t force myself to dive into a new big project, and then one week the inspiration just struck me and I literally couldn’t get my ideas down fast enough. I’ve learned that being in a creative field has its highs and lows. There are super inspiring months when ideas and creativity are flying, and other months that leave me wondering if I’m ever going to create anything worthwhile again. Both are necessary parts of the creative process. After my cookbook is mostly complete, I’m going to shift back to my recipe app and work with my app team to consider expanding it in new and exciting ways.

Chocolate or vanilla?

No contest here – chocolate, hands down! My go-to snacking chocolate is Green and Blacks 85% dark chocolate.

Sweet or savory?

Oh, that’s tough…how about both? I love a little something sweet after a savory meal.

by Anneliese Lawton

Local Link

Angela Liddon Oh She Glows
Ohsheglows.com