Wit, charm, and unapologetic honesty are in no short supply when Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner enter the chat. The hosts of the cult-favourite Giggly Squad podcast have turned their signature banter into a bestselling book, How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously.

Equal parts irreverent and insightful, it’s a manifesto for navigating modern life with humour, self-awareness, and a really good lip liner. We laughed (a lot), but we also got real about career wins, personal growth, and how to survive your twenties (and beyond) while not taking yourself too seriously. I giggled reading it, I giggled speaking with them, and I suspect you will too.

Caitlin Green: You guys have a top, very top tier chapter titled the power of being Delulu. What advice you would have to anyone who’s trying to shush their inner and maybe even outer hater?

Paige DeSorbo: “I think for me, I wrote a part in that section where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I was being delusional or just stupid, but either way it worked out.’ It’s being delusional, but you know, believing in yourself and not even letting those thoughts come into your brain. So, kind of like being stupid.”

Hannah Berner: “We realized that the hardest part is just believing you can do it and putting yourself out there. So many people don’t even put themselves out there. It’s deciding that you’re going to let your dreams come true. And that’s literally the hardest part that a majority of people don’t even attempt.”

Green: Did you ever think you would write a book?

DeSorbo: “No. Never.”

Berner: “No, definitely not now. We were on a podcast tour. We were doing so many things. We all have all these side gigs and Simon & Schuster approached us. I think it was a giggler on the team and we thought it was a bit.”

Green: In the book you discuss how bits are a form of manifestation. Can you speak a little bit more to that realization for you both?

DeSorbo: “I think when we want to accomplish something career wise, we’ll disguise it as, ‘we’re manifesting it,’ but really we’re working toward it. And we are just in the mindset that, if you speak things and say things out loud that, this is what you want, this is what you’re going to do, like it will happen for you. The universe will kind of put you on the right path for it. So we just like…love that.”

Berner: “How you talk to yourself, how you talk to your friends, that energy really affects what happens to you. And the book overall is about, you can’t control what happens to you, but you could control how you react to it. So, if you can react to life, like it’s just a bunch of bits, everything’s lighter, everything’s more fun, and things aren’t as heavy. And I think that’s important.”

Green: If you could advice to a women who are in a career slump, what would you say is a good place to start?

DeSorbo: “For me, I get really overwhelmed and then freeze and not do anything. Hannah is someone that always says ‘If you’re doing one thing a day that’s working toward your end goal, you have to work backwards.’ So, I have always remembered when she said that, even if it’s just something simple, I think just taking one step each day gets you closer and closer.”

Berner: “I think because we’re open about our mental health, we both can’t function doing a job we don’t like. We weren’t going to survive in corporate America. We tried. So, it’s like kudos to people who can.”

DeSorbo: “They kicked us out of it though too, they gave us the push we needed.”

Berner: “They guided us in a different direction. But we’re just we really are proponent of girls doing what makes them happy and taking up space.”

Green: What was the chapter that you guys giggled the hardest at when you were writing?

Berner: “There’s so many. We did a lot of it separately. We had a sit down for the Bachelorette chapter. That was really funny. I was literally on Paige’s couch. We were snacking. And I was like, ‘Paige, I’m going to name where girls are going with for the Bachelorette and just tell me everything about them.’ And that’s how we wrote our whole like live show is just, if I can make Paige laugh or she can make me laugh, the joke works and it’s going in.”

DeSorbo: “I love our bits. because even if you aren’t a Giggler, I feel like you still can appreciate the book because it’s just like things that happen in life.”

Berner: “This is kind of vulnerable because we’re kind of showing our intimate inside jokes to the world and we’re like ‘hope you guys like it.’ But I do think it’s fun to see other friendships and their like languages and just creating a community in that way.”

Green: Describe your dream day off.

DeSorbo: “Like I know what everyone expects that we have like some New York City like amazing day. But both of us like staying in our own separate apartments, really truly enjoying our rent and having our cats there.”

Berner: “We love…lying down. I feel like with Paige and I, our lives are kind of crazy because we’re either like running around performing, doing press, crazy stuff, or we’re literally asleep and there’s like no in between. But it’s like an exciting time in our lives for sure.”

Green: So, Hannah, since Paige is single, if we time travel to a place, say 2050, where ChatGPT could build the perfect man, what prompts would you give ChatGPT to build Paige’s perfect man?

Berner: “Obsessed with her. That’s probably the number one thing. Then also he needs to not be intimidated by her, he needs to carry himself well and have his own passions, leave her alone sometimes.

DeSorbo: “I’d love it they left me alone and I’m very into like a quiet confidence. Yeah.”

Berner: “He needs to be busy, but then he also needs to like really have a good sense of humor, like arguably as good as mine or she will want to hang out with me more and that’s a problem. Literally me, but like handsome.”

Green: What would your desert island beauty products be?

Berner: “Not to be so annoying, but now I’m all into sunscreen. A little too late in my thirties, but I can’t be on Desert Island without sunscreen. I also love lip liner.”

DeSorbo: “I use a lot of Face Reality skincare products, I love them. And then I love a Caudalie mist spray, it really does something to your brain where you’re like, ‘okay, let’s like take a minute and refresh.’ So I’m obsessed with that.”

Berner: “Youthful Lip Replenisher from Revision Skincare. It’s the best. And no one talks about it. It’s also $45, but like for a reason.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Photographed by Sydney Rawlins, courtesy of The Giggly Squad.