Moxie

Moxie: How I Learnt to Harden the F*ck Up is a raw, unfiltered memoir by award-winning entrepreneur, speaker and disability advocate Justine Martin. This is not a story of toxic positivity or neat redemption arcs. It is a truth-telling account of what it really takes to survive when life does not get better on schedule.

From early childhood trauma and complex family dynamics to sexual assault, domestic violence, chronic illness and multiple life-threatening diagnoses, including multiple sclerosis, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and an acquired brain injury, Justine's life reads like a medical and emotional battleground. Yet this book is not simply a catalogue of adversity. It is a blueprint for resilience in its most honest form.

In Moxie, Justine introduces her philosophy of "harden up and soften down" and redefines resilience as the courage to keep showing up, even when circumstances refuse to improve. She explores shame, identity loss, grief, reinvention and the quiet strength required to build a life within limitation rather than waiting for perfect conditions.

Alongside her journey through illness and survival, readers witness the evolution of her voice as she becomes an artist, publisher, keynote speaker and founder of multiple businesses. Through lived experience, she demonstrates how purpose can be forged from pain, and how bouncing forward, rather than back, becomes the only option when there is no returning to who you once were.

Moxie speaks to anyone who has felt broken, dismissed or underestimated. It offers solidarity instead of platitudes, grit instead of gloss, and hope grounded in reality. This memoir is a powerful reminder that resilience is not about being untouched by hardship. It is about refusing to disappear because of it.

Bold, confronting and deeply human, Moxie invites readers to find their own version of courage and to live fully, even in the face of relentless adversity.