Mary Birdsong

Mary Birdsong is primarily known as an actress, with credits that include Oscar-winning films such as The Descendants, opposite George Clooney; hit tv series such as Succession (HBO) & even lead roles on Broadway, in musicals like Hairspray, & Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, She is also a writer and an illustrator.

Response to creative prompt: "When I look in the mirror, I see..."

I got my start as a writer at the tender age of six, ghost-writing a series of successful “sick notes” for my mother, “Katharine Birdsong.”

It’s because of her that I’ve grown up to be such an overachiever. My mother was bipolar, but couldn’t feel content saddling her psyche with merely one mental health malady (bipolar disorder? kid stuff!); she decided she’d like to try her hand at borderline personality disorder, too! ) It was such a huge success, that she soon became fluent in several mental health dialects, even managing to teach herself extreme narcissism, qualifying her as the bonafide PTSD-planting triple threat she knew she could be.

My refuge was drawing. Even now, at the age of fifty-one, I draw every morning. My therapist calls it self-regulating. I call it surviving.