With the anticipated limited series ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ set to hit Netflix in February, now is the perfect time to revisit the Belle Gibson case, and the book that inspired the upcoming series, in case you missed it the first time around.
Published in 2017, The Woman Who Fooled The World follows the meteoric rise and fall of Aussie “wellness warrior” influencer Belle Gibson, who sits amongst the ranks of Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes as young women who scammed their way to notoriety.
Gibson shot to fame in 2013, amassing an online following for sharing her journey as a young mother with malignant brain cancer who abandoned conventional cancer treatment and opted for a vegetarian wholefood-based diet to “heal naturally.” By 2015, Gibson garnered over 200,000 followers on Instagram, signed multiple international book deals, and had a best-selling mobile app and a partnership with Apple.
The catch is, Belle never had cancer at all.
From Gibson’s wellness empire and fabricated health claims, her childhood, to fraudulent charity fundraisers, reading this book feels like falling down an immaculately researched rabbit hole. Grippingly written by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the journalists who broke the story while working for The Age in 2015, the book is not only a documentation of Gibson’s rise and fall but blow by blow retelling of the investigation that uncovered her rouse.
Beyond being a true crime expose this book equips readers with the tools to approach health and wellness claims with more cynicism. Throughout the book, the authors intersperse Gibson’s story with chapters diving into topics including wellness, superfoods, and clinical trials. These chapters not only provide readers with context to Gibson’s rise to popularity but remind us of the golden rule; if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Reviewed by Hannah Kingsmill
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Beau Donelly is a multi-award-winning journalist who covered social affairs for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. His news-breaking and investigative skills have been recognised by the United Nations and the Melbourne Press Club. Donelly has been awarded for an expose on illegal brothels, coverage of clergy sex-abuse trials, and reporting on disability issues.
He has also been a finalist for Australian journalism’s highest honour, the Walkley Award. Donelly has a Bachelor of Journalism from Monash University, and is based in Europe.
Nick Toscano is a multi-award-winning journalist based in Melbourne, who specialises in federal politics, business workplace relations, and the labour movement for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
He has been awarded the the Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism, and has twice received the highest honour in Australian journalism, the Walkley Award, for exposing the country’s biggest-ever underpayment scandal. Toscano has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and a Masters in Journalism from RMIT.
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