Lisa Wilkinson. She went from copy assistant to editor at glossy girl's magazine Dolly before she was 21, before editing Cleo for almost a decade. This editorship set her up to join the judging a panel show on Channel Ten in the 90s, which launched her television career. Now eight years into her gig as co-host of Channel Nine's Today show with Karl Stefanovic, Wilkinson has seen the show overhauled several times as the global television industry navigates its way through the impact of the internet and social media. "The show is more interactive than it ever has been, as well as more raw," Wilkinson said. "We get brutally honest feedback online instantly, but I couldn't be more myself if I tried. It's impossible to hide for more than three hours on air every day." But there have been days when hiding was all Wilkinson wanted to do as she sat in the makeup chair at 4am.

One of the most difficult days still weighs on her mind: December, when Wilkinson and Stefanovic would break the news of the violent end of the Sydney siege as Australia awoke. "I'd had less than an hour's sleep as we watched on thinking after everything that had unfolded, that the gunman was going to get tired or tense, and make mistakes," Wilkinson said. "I just felt so sick going into work that morning, knowing that people had lost their lives." Wilkinson went on to face one of the people whose lives was directly struck by the tragedy the next day, when she interviewed Thomas Zinn, the partner of Lindt café manager Tori Johnson who died during the siege. Communicating upsetting news to an audience barely awake and often surrounded by their children is among Wilkinson's toughest tightropes to walk each morning and she expects it to become more challenging.

The mother of three and her husband, columnist and author Peter FitzSimons, were in Paris when 12 people were killed in an attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Wilkinson described it as a stark reminder that the world has changed and says it has informed her increasingly outspoken stance on Australia's elected leaders. "People are more concerned than ever about the radicalisation of Australian citizens," Wilkinson said. "Our audience doesn't want us to beat up politicians on air but they don't want us to go softly on them either." Despite, or perhaps because of, this increasing challenge, Wilkinson has no intention of leaving the Today show any time soon.

"The news cycle is more intense but I've got used to the horrendous hours and I'm still having fun," Wilkinson said. "I've never been a planner. I've always had a lot of balls in the air to juggle, but as long as I'm only dropping one occasionally, it works for me." Her early morning gig means the mother of three misses the morning bedlam of getting her kids to school but says her family has learned to appreciate the slightly differently structured day. "Pete has probably more than his fair share of making vegemite toast and finding text books under the couch but it means we both get the lovely time in the afternoons of helping the kids with homework and making dinner with them," Wilkinson said.