Dawn Porter: A License to be Different

Dawn Porter, writer of soft porn or hard core journalist?

She has been described in many ways, brave, daft, honest, extreme and controversial, but definitely not average. She never seems shy or unafraid to make a point or to show us her “real side” TV Scoop have described her as “at her best reporting when all concerned are a bit less conservative and more willing to open up” and “not afraid to be a bit dippy or giddy or frightened or... all the things all of us are from time to time.” Her documentaries have seen her slim down to a dangerously thin size zero, get naked on national television and travel to various parts of the world investigating often controversial issues surrounding the many ways people choose to “love”.

Dawn Porter was born on 23 January 1979 in Scotland, although she grew up in Guernsey. Her mother died three days before her seventh birthday, and she was then raised by her aunt. She studied Acting at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, before graduating in 2001 and becoming a reporter/presenter for BBC Radio Humberside and then BBC Radio 5 Live. Dawn’s background was originally in Production and PR, after losing her job, she realised where her passions truly where. Rather than go back into the rigmarole of full time employment she decided to take the plunge and go it alone as a writer.


Dawn opens many of her documentaries with the statement “I’m Dawn Porter and for the last four years I've been single. It's not that I don't want a relationship. I do. But, before I take the plunge, I plan to experience some of the most extreme ways women find love and live with men." With her documentaries Dawn shows how the younger generation have a choice and an extensive amount of freedom when it comes to living their lives, there are no set rules anymore and who says you have to follow the majority?

The media plays such a big part in the way the younger generation learn, they are continually under pressure to be a certain way, look a certain way and are still not totally free from traditional ideas about how men and women should play the dreaded dating game either! If there are any rules on dating who makes them? What is the “perfect bloke or woman” and which rules are supposed to be followed or even acknowledged anyway? Dawn’s answer? “It's all about good, old-fashioned chemistry” and she's damn right. 

One of Dawn’s earlier idea’s of how to tackle the art of dating the perfect bloke was through the perils of internet dating as told through the pages of her first raunchy novel “Diaries of an Internet Lover,” It describes in great detail the different people she met and the experiences she went through with them, such as the one who unexpectedly stole her heart or the one who has now become a life long friend, of course never afraid to shy away from the details, some of which are rather eyebrow raising, definitely makes it no PG book!

Dawn’s first TV debut saw her testing the morals of the men in the television show Balls of Steel, Dawn has since reported on many issues that the younger generation today struggle with such as size zero, body image and attitudes towards women, she understands the pressures of growing up in the world we live in today.  

When reporting about size zero she made the brave decision to slim down from a size 12 to a US size zero, which was by some thought of as either very brave or extremely daft, as it could have potentially been threatening to her health.

During this documentary Dawn went on to show the reality behind what for some being a supermodel was truly like, highlighting the media and fashion world’s obsession with being thin and the new increasing problem of child anorexia. Is modelling really as glamorous as it seems? Dawn showed otherwise; by in no way being shy to leave out the disturbing details and practises models go through in the name of staying thin. The fact that Dawn’s prepared to practically throw herself into the middle of every challenge she approaches, shows the viewing public she’s passionate about her subject matter.

Early 2008 saw Dawn presenting a series of documentaries on BBC Three entitled “Dawn Gets...” These had her asking questions that most of us are too afraid to ask, she investigated attitudes towards nudity, lesbianism, dating, pregnancy and childbirth. Dawn Gets Naked saw her exploring female body image, she even went naked on an open top bus in London and had a naked picture of herself taken and then airbrushed, when asked to comment on this Dawn explained “I looked amazing after I had been airbrushed, anyone would. But the issue is that it wasn't me. I am all up for evening out skin tone and making hair a bit shinier. But total reformation of a head and body is weird. My point was not to be angry about it and try to stop it, just to make normal people aware of it so they don't compare themselves to a computer generated image”. The results being “Ten Years Younger” is changing its ethos, the surgeons are officially packing away their carving knives and people are now favouring less invasive ways to change their image.

Like most women the thought of having a baby and going through the pain and after effects to one’s 'nether regions, is a daunting one, who is around to tell a woman what can really be the consequences to there bodies after childbirth? During Dawn Gets a Baby she investigates many unanswered questions and even convinces a mum to be, to let her be present at the labour after which she concluded “I suddenly realise why women don't really remember the whole thing because the child is THE thing to remember”.

So why has Dawn had such a profound effect? Is it because no-one has tackled the issues the way she has? If they have they’ve not had her unique style, wit or knack of getting people’s trust and their true opinion or her way of putting things into a context we can all relate to.

With today’s life continually demanding everything now, now, now, at least we can sit back and watch Dawn take her time to find out what people really think and tell us what we really want to hear.