There’s a moment of mild astonishment when erstwhile reality show star and model Nick Bracks discloses he’s 30. It doesn’t seem so long ago that he was a child posing with his father as part of Victoria’s photogenic first family, the son of former premier Steve Bracks.
And truth be told that was a dominant part of the journey of this assured, articulate young man.
It took the best part of his 20s, Bracks says, to emerge from his father’s charismatic shadow and create his own niche as a mental health advocate, social entrepreneur and, more recently, actor.
“Even though I am so proud of my dad, I would almost get offended when people were referring to me as Steve Bracks’ son,” Nick says.
“I developed a real chip on my shoulder, every decision was driven by what I could do publicly to be seen as Nick Bracks, not the son of this guy. This was probably amplified because I didn’t know what I wanted.”
After a year studying acting, Nick is today in a better place and has recently landed a recurring guest role as Lassiter’s Hotel receptionist Brandon Danker on the ever-green soap Neighbours.
But it is the launch of Happy Waves – a meditation and mindfulness lifestyle app, the product of years dedicated to raising mental health awareness – of which he is most proud.
Happy Waves is the co-creation of Nick, restaurateur and design guru Davis Yu and lawyer turned app and digital platform developer Boyd Martin. “It is a mindfulness, meditation, self-improvement platform that I describe as being like Netflix for the mind,” Nick says.