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Dana Perino knows something about having a quarter life crisis.
It was 1997 and the Fox News anchor was 25, working as the press secretary for a Colorado congressman and questioning every life choice.
“I thought it was just me, but it’s everyone and all the young women I’ve ever mentored. They all go through this period of like, ‘God, I thought I would be farther along than I am. I thought I’d have met somebody by now. Did I even choose the right career?’” Perino told The Post.
“And you start second guessing all these things and getting worried,” she said. “I worried so much of my 20s away.”
Within months of reaching her own crossroads, Perino took a cross-country flight for work and locked eyes with a handsome stranger with a British accent. It was “love at first flight” and she wound up moving to England and marrying Peter McMahon, then 43, the following year.
By 1999, the couple relocated to San Diego, where she worked in high tech PR, until 9/11 pulled her to reenter politics.
Then in 2007, she landed a job as press secretary for President George W. Bush, becoming the first female Republican to hold the role.
“I look back and think all of that worry was for nothing,” she said. “I went through a pretty tough quarter life crisis looking back.”
It’s why Perino, who’s known for her bestselling advice books for young women, including 2021’s “Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman)” decided her debut novel, “Purple State” (Harper Collins, out now) would center on three 25-year-old women navigating life and love without any easy answers.
Although she’s now 53, Perino’s passion for guiding and mentoring young women hasn’t dimmed which is why she decided to build her charming fiction debut around three NYC besties who are trying to figure it all out.
“I’m trying to tell them, don’t worry your young life away,” Perino said.
The lives the characters think they’re supposed to have aren’t panning out the way they planned, and gnawing questions bubble up about whether they’re on the right path at all.
Dorothy “Dot” Clark suddenly leaves her sensible boyfriend, Ryan, and a plum job in high tech PR in New York to work for a Democratic Super PAC in small-town Wisconsin, trying to flip the purple state blue. She’s joined by her besties Mary Russo, a lawyer on track for junior partner, and Harper Adler, an aspiring author.
Charmed by its ban on big chain stores and the cheap blowouts, the gals find Cedar Falls to be quintessential heartland USA, teeming with local charm and flavor, from the Flour Power bakery to the independent Reader Falls Bookshop. But it’s the guys in town who are the most pleasant surprise, even if they are – gasp! – Republicans.
But political differences melt away like the first spring thaw, and the women fall for surprising suitors they likely wouldn’t look at twice in NYC.
“I’m a little alarmed by how many people say they would never date anybody or even be friends with people who don’t vote the way they do,” said Perino, who’s still close with famous lefty political strategist Donna Brazile. “And it might be an old fashioned notion, but when I worked on Capitol Hill, I had friends from every walk of life.”
One of her main messages is to listen to someone with different views.
When there’s a dinner on a farm that’s in jeopardy, Dot resists her impulse to defend her party to the distressed farmer who’s asked why all the farmers who used to vote Democrat jumped to Republican.
In addition to feeling “taken for granted all those years” in favor of cityfolk, the farmer admits: “There’s been a lot of cultural issues that drove people to the right.”
“Her inside voice says, ‘Wait, let me just sit here and listen,’” said Perino, adding the importance of “showing kindness … And what I’m hoping to do is to pass on some of these messages, like how moms hide vegetables in the mac and cheese.” said Perino.
Perino was “terrified” to try her hand at writing fiction, but she makes a point of taking bold leaps of faith like her characters – at any age, such as leaving her own job after 9/11 for politics.
“You always do things that scare you,” notoriously snarky Fox News host Greg Gutfeld admiringly told his colleague, as she recalled to The Post.
Being able to scrub the mapped out life plan that doesn’t feel right anymore is Perino’s point.
“My biggest hurdle to get over was what other people were gonna think about my decision,” she said of her own leap of faith to move to England for love at 25. “And then I realized that no one’s thinking about you – they’re thinking about themselves.”
“The Five” co-host said she wouldn’t be where she is now without taking risks. “Best decision I ever made. Choosing to be loved is not a career limiting decision – it can actually make all the difference for your happiness.”
Her biggest message is that any relationship should be able to survive political differences.
“I think that our opportunity to be here on earth is not meant to be spent fighting over politics,” she said, adding the polarization isn’t as dire as it might seem. “I also believe Americans are more friendly towards each other and more neighborly once you get off the devices.”
Dog mom Perino, who lives in NYC, has her own novel way of breaking out of the echo chamber: “I don’t let anybody talk politics to me at the dog park!”
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