AT THE age of 51, Jennifer Aniston is a wealthy movie star beloved by fans across the globe with an enviable jet-set lifestyle and a career she relishes. Why then, has she been portrayed for years as someone to be pitied because she hasnt cradled her own baby in her arms?

In a candid moment six years ago, Aniston told Allure magazine, I dont like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women that youve failed yourself as a female because you havent procreated.

Despite her status and celebrity, Aniston is far from alone. Her treatment reflects societys view that having a child is the right and valid thing to do and that, by implication, choosing not to is wrong.

So, kudos to Emma Gannon, best known for the Ctrl, Alt, Delete podcast and business book The Multi-Hyphen Method, for creating a titular character in her first novel, Olive, who doesnt want to be a mother by choice.

In 2018, the Office for National Statistics revealed 19 per cent of women whod reached 45 did not have children; a proportion thats doubled in a generation, so the books themes will no doubt resonate with many women whove been maligned because theyre not mothers.

Kim Cattrall [Samantha in Sex And The City] inspired me. I read an article where she said you must say childfree, not childless. Cattralls another woman who takes up a lot of space in the world but because shes not married or has children, people turn their nose up at her and I just think that needs to change, says Gannon, 31, whos known for a long time she doesnt see herself having children and was keen to find other women who felt the same.

I really dont have that formula in my head that having a child will make me feel complete. I feel complete and I just want women out there who feel the same to know that is valid. Its very different to someone who might be in pain because they havent had the child they always wanted. This is a choice. Maybe we just need to reframe what this strange definition of having it all actually means because I personally think I have it all, says Gannon, who studied English and film at Southampton University before moving to London and getting a job in a big shiny PR agency.

Its something she regards as invaluable given shes created her own brand out of a blog she started at 20 and was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018.

Its never really appealed to me to follow the crowd. I didnt follow the one, two, three-step guide to a successful job, I made my own career, so Im OK with staying away from what people think is the norm. Im lucky I dont have any judgement from my parents or friends. Maybe there are women who find it harder to break away and feel judged, and for some people, saying, I dont want children is a bigger thing.

But when Gannon turned to social media to find those who felt the same way she discovered she was far from alone.

I tweeted I was looking for women who were childfree by choice and got about 200 replies in minutes and then my emails blew up and I realised my feelings were very much those of others. There was no sense of shame or victimisation. It wasnt poor us, it was more, were here and unapologetic about our life choices and can someone shine a light on us? I knew this was going to be my first novel.

The book is about four lifelong friends in their early 30s, Olive, Bea, Isla and Cec, who are facing the inevitable issue of motherhood, but in markedly different ways.

Olive thinks her friends are being selfish because all they talk about is their children. They think Olive is being selfish because shes quite rightly obsessed with her own feelings and break-up and then youve got Isla going through IVF and is incredibly self-absorbed, which she has every right to be because shes going through a traumatic time. They all have struggles, all make mistakes, and are all insensitive at times, says Gannon, who adds she isnt Olive, but writing this novel is the closest Ive got to expressing myself in the truest way.

And its through Olives experiences Gannon reflects the reality for many childfree women.

As part of her research, she asked the women about the most irksome remarks theyre subjected to.

It was the same across the board Whos going to look after you when youre old? Arent you scared youre going to be lonely? Wont you regret it? Dont you want to leave behind a legacy? It was scaremongering, says Gannon. Then theres the belief that childfree women are out partying every night without a care in the world.

Im getting married next year, and we stay home a lot. I love nesting. And Im not this person who has all this endless amount of time. I have other commitments. Thats something I really wanted to show in the book, that just because someone is childfree, theyre not gallivanting around town.

Gannon hopes her book will prompt honest conversation, and show theres nothing wrong with taking your time to make up your mind about what you want in your life.

A lot of women fall into having children because their mother and grandmother did and there are a lot of women out there who think, Hmm, I dont know whether I wouldve done this differently, and thats OK as well, she says.

I think were too quick to judge people for their decisions, even our friends sometimes. Were all just figuring out our own way, whatever path we choose.

Researchers predict the worlds population will peak at 9.7 billion around 2064, before falling down to 8.8 billion by the end of the century.

If the fertility rate falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall.

The average number of children a woman gives birth to is falling, due to more women being in education and work, and more access to contraception. Researchers at the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved between 1950 and 2017.

The University of Washingtons study predicts that by 2100, the rate will fall below 1.7. With 23 nations including Spain, Portugal, South Korea and Japan expected to see populations halve by 2100.

I realised that so much of the pressure I was feeling was from outside sources and I knew I wasnt ready to take that step into motherhood Kim Cattrall

If I had kids, theyd hate me. Theyd end up on a show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it wouldve probably been them Oprah Winfrey

You have to really want to have kids and neither of us did Portia de Rossi

As a comic, always working and on the road, I have had to decide between motherhood and living my fullest life and I chose the latter Sarah Silverman

Motherhood has never been an ambition. I dont think like that Rene Zellweger

Having children was not my destiny, I kept thinking it would be, waiting for it to happen, but it never did and I didnt care what people thought Helen Mirren

Olive by Emma Gannon (HarperCollins) is out now

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Trends: To have or not to have a baby childless author Emma Gannon is blazing a trail for choice - Metro Newspaper UK