Bek Condello - Can You Handle a Girl Like Me?

Name: Bek Condello - Can You Handle a Girl Like Me?
Start: 2026-07-14T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-07-14T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Tuesday 14th July

In conversation with Richard Baker

Growing up, marrying in and ultimately abandoning an Australian cult.
Then learning how to make friends, live, love and thrive.

We all grew up under constant instruction- from the pulpit, from our parents, from each other. The Ten Commandments. Obedience. Submission. Purity. Fear God. Honour your leaders. Hell for the wicked. There was no space for questions because we already had the answers. If something felt unclear, that was our spiritual flaw.
Pray harder.

In a sleepy Canberra suburb, Bek Condello was raised in a strict patriarchal Pentecostal movement. The influence of the Geelong Revival Centre extended deeply into the lives of the congregation, promoting discipline and dictating how girls and women behaved, who they socialised with and who they would marry.

After enduring a tumultuous marriage, Bek Condello made the courageous decision to start her life again. Anyone who leaves the GRC is cut off, from family, identity, history.

Can You Handle A Girl Like Me? chronicles Bek's journey of challenges and transformation as she navigates dating and friendships. With little experience, she is rebuffed and exploited.

Through embracing healing and self-empowerment, Bek is now embarking on a second life of adventure and joy.

Bek Condello grew up in Australia inside a closed-off doomsday Pentecostal church that controlled every aspect of her life. Leaving meant losing her family, her community and the identity she had been told was hers since she was a young girl. By her early thirties she had broken free from both the church and the marriage she had been pressured into within it, reclaiming her life and discovering who she truly was. Today Bek lives with unapologetic joy, deep bravery and a commitment to freedom, inspiring others to rebuild and thrive after deep loss.

Richard Baker is one of Australia’s most creative, engaging and groundbreaking investigative journalists.

His work on corruption, crime, social affairs, business, politics, national security and indigenous affairs has had national and international repercussions, sparking criminal prosecutions at home and abroad, leading to legislative change and giving a voice to those without one.

With a 23-year career with The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, Richard has won Australia’s most prestigious journalism honour, a Walkley Award, on five occasions. In 2017 he was named Australian Journalist of the Year with his long-time investigative partner and friend, Nick McKenzie. He has also won 15 Melbourne Press Club Quill awards.