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Carrie Fisher dishes out 'Advice from the dark side'

Get tips from the Star Wars actress about life, love and everything in between. Fisher tells the next generation, "Tell me your story; I'll tell you mine."

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
2 min read
Carrie Fisher's advice column offers to give life-pointers to the next generation of young rebels.
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Carrie Fisher's advice column offers to give life-pointers to the next generation of young rebels.

Carrie Fisher's advice column offers to give life-pointers to the next generation of young rebels.

Lucasfilm

Princess Leia's life has been anything but easy. Her controlling birth father is responsible for helping murder her friends. She kissed her brother without realizing it.

She was chained to a ruthless crime lord while wearing a very uncomfortable metal bikini. And her love interest is a space smuggler with commitment issues.

The actress who played her in the Star Wars movies, Carrie Fisher, has had quite the dramatic life as well. Her parents, singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, went through a scandalous and very public divorce.

Fisher had two failed marriages. She battled a drug addiction for years. And when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder she underwent the controversial psychiatric treatment of Electric Shock Therapy.

So if anyone is qualified to tell us what pitfalls to avoid in life, all while keeping a sense of humor, it's Fisher.

On Friday, Fisher debuted her new advice column, appropriately titled "Advice from the dark side" and published in The Guardian.

In her first column, she asked for questions from the "younger members of our congested world."

"I can't help you with your homework; but I can tell you what I did if I've had an experience like yours," Fisher wrote. "Throw it at my wall and see what sticks. What you do with that info is up to you."

"Hilariously -- after all the drug addiction and celebration marriage and mental illness and divorce and shock treatment and heartbreak and motherhood and childhood and neighborhood and hood in general -- I've turned out to be (at close to 70) a kind of happy person (go figure!)," Fisher continued.

"A human who's had her fair share of challenging and unhappy experiences," Fisher added. "Over time, I've paid attention, taken notes and forgotten easily half of everything I've gone through. But I'll rifle through the half I recall and lay it at your feet."

Want to ask Fisher for advice? Send your problem to carrie.fisher.advice@theguardian.com