Hello and welcome to Changes, it's Annie Matt Manis here.

If you want to talk about change, how about going from complete obscurity to being one

of the most famous people on the planet, pretty much overnight?

That is exactly what happened to Melanie Chism when she was just 22 years old.

Melanie Chism, otherwise known as Mel C, otherwise otherwise known as Sporty Spice.

Yes, Melanie is one of the five women who together as the Spice Girls, kind of articulated

all of the spirit and energy of pop music in the 90s and had this incredible impact on

culture around the world.

But the reason I called her by her given name Melanie Chism is because in reading about

her life, it struck me that she's kind of been flitting between these very public identities

for pretty much her entire adult life, and I wanted to know what effect that has had

on Melanie, not the pop star, but the person.

We're talking about fame and success of a really quite hard to fathom level.

With the Spice Girls, she sold something insane, like 50 million albums worldwide and another

23 million as a solo artist.

So with that level of success, there comes a lot of attention, not all of it welcome.

And in talking to Melanie, it was really clear to see how much of an impact the tabloid

media had on her when she was still quite a young woman.

But despite all that, she's managed to grow and thrive through an unbelievable amount

of upheaval and change.

And she's found her way back to the Spice Girls, this almost mythical and magical entity

that created her fame in a much happier and healthier place.

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