I followed their strong trail of oud into the convention centre – an oddly corporate setting for a starlet this mythologised. For more content like this, tap through to our Life section. Like the girls and the gays around me, I was fizzing.

We know so many versions of Pamela: the Playboy model, the Baywatch bombshell, the ’90s beauty icon. Her influence was everywhere in the crowd – gorgeous women in their fifties in skinny leather pants and sleeveless tanks, a kind of living homage. And thanks to her memoir, Love, Pamela, and the Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story, she’s firmly cemented herself as something else: an icon of reinvention.

Thirty years on from that infamous stolen sex tape, Pamela Anderson, now 58, stood on a stage in Australia speaking about self-acceptance, in front of roughly 2000 people. Wearing a loose black jumper over a slip dress, she drifted across the stage to join moderator Edwina McCann on the couch. We were instantly charmed.

Between her tousled blonde hair, makeup-free face and girlish giggle, she felt both larger-than-life and completely disarming. Over 90 minutes, she moved through her childhood, her rise in the ’90s, motherhood, relationships and solitude. And threaded throughout were nuggets of wisdom, the kind you want to jot down in your Notes app so you don’t forget.

Here are eight that stuck with me. Don’t throw away your journals If you’ve seen her documentary, you’ll know Pamela is an avid writer. She’s been journalling since childhood and can still recite poems she wrote at nine.

Her takeaway: archive your life. Keep everything. You never know when it might become material. Youth is a mindset “I’m almost 60 and I feel like an ingénue,” she said.

“I feel like a starlet.” Rather than being in denial about aging or too self-deprecating, Pamela explained that continuing to learn – about herself, her craft, the world – is what keeps her feeling young: “I’m not chasing youth, youth is chasing me.” Icon behaviour. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pamela Anderson (@pamelaanderson) Read and you’ll never be boring When asked about the best advice she’s received, she quoted her late friend and mentor, Vivienne Westwood: “Read and you’ll never be boring.” Simple but hard to argue with. Do things that scare you Pamela described herself as painfully shy when she was younger, something that pushed her into situations where she had no choice but to be bold, from Playboy shoots to, more recently, Broadway in her fifties.

“There’s always a reason not to do something,” she said. “You have to be brave. That’s the fun part of life.” Be okay with who you are Her makeup-free appearances, which first made headlines at Paris Fashion Week in 2023, didn’t happen overnight.

It started with grocery runs, then escalated to red carpets. “It’s intimate, seeing someone’s skin,” she said. “It’s like the face you’d only show your boyfriend, except everyone’s my boyfriend.

Only you get to see me like this!” She’s still figuring it out though. “I’m still very insecure… but you don’t have to be perfect. You can just be good.” Authenticity is its own kind of power There’s also a practicality to her no-makeup approach.

“I’ve cracked the code,” she laughed. “I actually look like my Instagram photos.” It’s self-awareness but also a rejection of the airbrushed image we’re all expected to maintain – one she definitely felt pressure to when she was younger. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pamela Anderson (@pamelaanderson) Treasure your time being single Right now, she’s choosing independence.

“I could never do these films if I was in a relationship… I want this time for me,” she said. “I have to be strong enough to live my life as I want it.” She admits it can get lonely at times but “loneliness can be good, it’s poetic. I have dogs, I have my garden.” Stay a hopeless romantic anyway Despite everything, she hasn’t let herself harden.

“I reserve the right to fall in love with my co-stars… for film purposes,” she joked. “Keeps me alive.” When the film wraps, she moves on but the openness remains. Underlying it all was a sense of humour and lightness that felt authentic, despite sounding like a soundbite at times.

“Happiness is a choice and a practice,” she said. For someone who spent years as tabloid fodder, it didn’t come across as naive ignorance but like a decision she’s had to make, again and again. By the end of the night, what lingered wasn’t just nostalgia for the Pamela we thought we knew, but an appreciation for the one still unfolding. “I’m not gonna take my foot off the gas, I’m gonna see what I’m made of.” For more on Pamela Anderson’s