Be yourself. Believe in yourself.

What advice would you give to your 15 year-old self, particularly when it comes to careers and personal development? This was the question that sprung to mind when I was invited back to The Royal School recently to lead three careers workshops for girls aged 15-18. My feeling was: Be yourself. Believe in yourself.

The girls were able to choose their areas of interest and attended three preferred workshops. I was really excited (and a little nervous!) to be able to speak with, learn from and hopefully inspire the girls so was keen not to limit them to tales of my career alone. With that in mind, I canvassed opinion from my friends beforehand to ask them five questions covering what they do now, what they thought they would ‘be’ when they were at school, where they see themselves in 10 years, what impact having a family has had on their career (if applicable) and what advice they would give to their 15 – 18 year old selves.

Their fascinating and varied responses were really inspirational to read and a pleasure to compile in to a booklet for the girls to keep, which I wanted to convey my overarching message for the workshops: all young women (and men!) should be themselves and believe in themselves too. This was echoed in the booklet’s design, combined with inspiring notable quotes as well as the real opinion and advice from my peers who have since gone off in very different directions to the ones they thought they would, or that they ought to, once upon a time! The girls’ feedback was very affirming and the booklet seemed to really strike a chord with them. I hope it will be something they revisit and which will encourage them to keep the faith in those moments of stress about next steps.

It was great to connect with the girls, staff and other speakers at the event, including theatre tour manager Janice Brittain, artist Poppy Porter, childcare play specialist Zoe Parton, barrister Katy-May Balmer and M&S fashion buyer Roz Duncan. Justine Hardy from charity Healing Kashmir delivered a fascinating keynote speech. Her story is inspirational and as well as leading her charity in Kashmir, she also finds time to write and also to teach at MIT and Tufts. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope that the students found it to be equally interesting and inspiring.