Celeste Barber is easily one of the most recognisable faces in the country.

She’s a comedian, actor, writer and producer who founded a beauty line. She’s a mother, social media influencer and proud feminist. But you probably know her best as the woman in big knickers pulling faces on Instagram — and we love her for it.

She’s found her tribe in millions of Australians by normalising what an actual everyday woman’s body looks like in a world where photoshop, posing and procedures are relentlessly promoted to us on a daily basis.

But behind all those hilarious posts is someone who’s spent years figuring out her own messy, complicated life. A chaotic childhood. A brain that works differently. Becoming a wife, then a mum. And navigating what it actually means to be called “real” — plus all the pressure that comes with that label.

First, listen to Celeste Barber’s conversation with Kate Langbroek on No Filter. Post continues below.

Growing up neurodivergent, Barber was a little bit different. Her big personality and boundless energy often left her feeling like an outsider.

In the pre-social media era, the bullying she faced was the quiet, calculated kind.

Almost overnight, two popular students decided no one was to talk to her. The shift was instant and brutal.

“I remember getting to school, got off the bus, went up, and no one was talking to me,” she told Mamamia‘s No Filter podcast.

When she approached a friend to find out what was happening, the response was devastating: “No, it’s off… Everyone hates you. You’re a b****.”

“I’ll never forget that feeling,” Barber recalled.

“I remember my mum asking one of the girls in our year… ‘What did she do? Has she done something?’ And (the girl) going, ‘No, I don’t know.'”

Each day, Barber was already battling her own brain, telling her she wasn’t good enough. To hear her peers say the same was crushing.

So she did what many of us do when we’re hurting — she made herself invisible, throwing herself into drama and dance.

It was a coping mechanism that would later become her superpower: an unshakeable understanding of her own self-worth.

Watch: Celeste Barber opens up about what it takes to be vulnerable in a relationship. Post continues below.

Finding her voice.

At 16, everything shifted. Barber was diagnosed with ADHD.

“It changed my life,” she said.

Suddenly, her studies became easier. But it was a small moment at home that showed her parents how much their daughter had been struggling.

“I went home that afternoon, I sat down, and we had, I think it was ADHD for Dummies or something was sitting there, and I picked it up, and I read a paragraph, and my parents burst into tears,” she said.

“I was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ And they went, ‘You’ve never, ever done that. You’ve never read.'”

For the first time in her life, things felt manageable. After high school, she studied drama, finally understanding her brain and finding her place in the world.

“It felt like everything was going to be okay,” Barber said.

That feeling proved prophetic. Barber landed a role on Aussie medical drama All Saints, where she met Mark Priestley, the late actor who would change everything.

The pair became comedy partners, writing and filming sketches together between takes.

“We’d just kill ourselves laughing,” Barber said. “We’d always joke, ‘We don’t need an audience. We are good here.'”

Then came the moment that shifted her entire career. During one of their writing sessions, Barber second-guessed herself on a joke. Priestley had heard enough.

He tore the paper from her hands.

“Stop it… You not knowing how f***ing funny you are is very boring to me,” he told her.

“You are the funniest person I’ve ever known in life, also in your work. That’s just boring, so just don’t.”

And just like that, she stopped doubting herself.

Celeste spoke on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast about her journey. Image: Supplied.

Love and family.

At 21, Barber walked into a bar and her life changed forever. There was Api Robin, now affectionately known as “hot husband” to her Instagram followers.

“He walked into that bar and I went, ‘I’m done. Lock it down.’,” she said.

Robin was 30 and had two young daughters, aged two and four. But Barber was in love and convinced she could manage it all.

“I had big hopes and big dreams for myself, but my heart just exploded when I saw him and I went, ‘I can make it all work. It’ll be fine.'”

Spoiler alert: it was complicated.

When All Saints wrapped, Barber felt the pull of Hollywood. She wanted to chase her American dream, see how far her career could take her. So she made the heartbreaking decision to end things with Robin and move to LA.

Then, driving down to Malibu with a friend, reality hit.

“I was like, ‘I haven’t had my period in a while’,” Barber recalled. “And she was like, ‘You’re pregnant. I was like, ‘How dare you’.”

Her friend was right — she was pregnant. Barber came home, they reunited and she had Lou.

Two years later, in 2013, they married in Bali.

Life looked very different from those Hollywood dreams. She was teaching acting and dancing at the local public school, just trying to stay creative.

They moved to the Central Coast, had their second boy, Buddy, and settled into family life. After more than 20 years together and 15 years of marriage, they’re still going strong.

Then something called Instagram appeared.

“This could be something. This could be amazing,” she said.

Api Robin and Celeste Barber. Image: Getty.

The Instagram revolution.

By the time Instagram rolled around, Barber was fed up with the perfection plastered across magazines. Instagram felt like her chance to show something real.

And so “#celestechallengeaccepted” was born.

“The first one was just a silly yoga pose, and I had Buddy who was in a little walker in the background, just kind of showing what it’s like to be at home trying to do yoga,” she recalled.

But it was her parody of a Kim Kardashian photo that changed everything.

Barber, recreating Kim’s barely-there lingerie pose on a mound of dirt, struck gold. That single post launched her into the spotlight and millions of followers followed.

“I knew it was making women laugh and not hate themselves as much,” she said. “Fighting against everything that is pushed on us. And I also knew it was funny, and I wanted producers and directors to see it.”

Her timing was perfect. Women were hungry for someone to call out the absurdity of social media perfection, and Barber delivered it with razor-sharp wit and zero filter.

The success has been staggering: nearly 10 million Instagram followers, celebrity fans including Kris Jenner and Cindy Crawford, a Netflix special, international tours, her beauty line Booie Beauty, a bestselling memoir, and starring roles in Wellmania and The Letdown.

But for all her success, Barber knows the fight isn’t over.

“If you are thinner, you will work more in the industry,” she said.

 Facebook/Celeste Barber.

What keeps her grounded.

For all her success in calling out social media’s toxicity, Barber isn’t immune.

When she’s at her lowest, she’ll seek out bad comments, feeding the nasty voice in her head that tells her she’s not good enough.

“It’s quite it’s masochistic, isn’t it,” she admitted. “Why am I trying to hurt myself? Why can’t I just take the wins?”

These days, she’s learning to focus on the positive.

“I’ve been talking with my husband about it. We need to lean in to the joy,” she said.

When it gets too much, she has a simple solution: delete the app.

“It is such a brutal device, like I said, that seeps in, and the only way I can do it is to delete it,” she said.

Through it all, there’s one constant: Robin.

“The constant for us, and I know this sounds cliché or annoying, is love. We have such a desperate love for each other,” Barber said.

After more than 20 years together, they’ve weathered plenty of storms.

“I love him on a cellular level… It terrifies me and it infuriates me.”

After 20-plus years together, what keeps them strong is continuing to grow. In couples therapy, she’s working on making sure Robin knows how valued he is.

“I could do this on my own, but I have no interest in doing it on my own. I don’t want to have the biggest house on the tallest hill and live on it alone. I want it to be with him.”