Lisa Cornwell on Being a 'Troublemaker'

Sports journalist and former Golf Channel anchor, Lisa Cornwell, visits Writer’s Voices to discuss her riveting memoir in Troublemaker:
A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming. Co-written by Tucker Booth, her book details the hostile environment she worked in while employed at the Golf Channel, and the discrimination, and subsequent retaliation, she and other women faced while there. After her first demotion, she decided to file her first charge to the EEOC against the Golf Channel, and then filed her second after the nonrenewal of her contract. She also received little to no help after reporting her complaints to human resources. Additionally, she lacked support from other women who worked there. While some did cooperate with her, others dropped out because of the risks involved, and one person even turned the tables and blamed her instead. Reflecting back on that time, she remembered thinking, “This is my battle. This is my doing, my choice. I’m not asking anybody to come along for the ride, but don’t go with me for a little bit and then all of a sudden make me the enemy, and I still cannot wrap my head around what happened with that one person. It was the only person it happened with. Everybody else was absolutely wonderful and gracious and when they decided not to do it, I completely understood.”

In her book, Cornwell also details her challenges battling an eating disorder. While the experience itself was difficult, writing about it was not. “It was easy to write about. I wanted to write about it. It was not difficult at all and I will say the reason is that I’m not ashamed of it. The reason that I did not get help for so long is I was ashamed and embarrassed and I felt like a failure, and what I learned through therapy was that… not only was I human, but I had overcome this really challenging obstacle in my life and so I’m proud of it… We all have issues in our lives… we’ve all been through things, and I guess that I, for some reason, there is no longer a stigma for me with having an eating disorder, and I think that it’s because I realized that we all have our own demons that we have to battle, but the question is, do you really take it on the right way and learn about yourself and, sort of, let that stigma go and be ok with who you are? …I was thinking while I wrote it of all the young girls who may be where I was when I was going through it and I wrote it with the intention of, I want them to be where I am one day because everybody can get there… realize that you’re not a failure. There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s just life…”

These days, Cronwell works for PGA Tour Entertainment as an announcer and feels very fortunate to work in the peaceful, productive environment that the company promotes. “…they’re living proof that in this, sort of, male-dominated environment… you can still have fairness and equality if you have the right people running the show, and so it’s been such a wonderful experience on the heels of what I experienced at Golf Channel that was the exact opposite. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of yelling, a lot of egos, a lot of tempers, and PGA Tour Entertainment, they don’t put up with it. They would rather sacrifice the product a little bit to create a good working environment and it’s really been a blessing for me. I’m very grateful for that.”