STEMETTES CO-FOUNDER. AGE 27.
How did you get to where you are today?
I got to where I am today because I’ve always been interested in technology and saw a problem within the industry and wanted to solve it. One of the main reasons why I love technology and why I run Stemettes is because I’m a really creative person and technology allows me to be really creative. The second reason is because technology is all about solving problems and there are a lot of problems to be solved. Whether its huge problems like diseases that we have in the world or small problems like booking train tickets online, technology is really great at solving all of them.
Please could you tell us a bit about Stemettes?
Stemettes is a social enterprise that is trying to inspire, support and encourage young women into STEM related fields. This could be anything from panel events or coding workshops to school trips. Everything that we run is always free, its always fun and there’s always food!
What were you like at school?
At school I was as lovely as I am now… just not to my teachers!
What advice would you give to your teenage self?
If I could go back I don’t think I’d give any advice to my teenage self. I have no regrets – everything happens for a reason and I wouldn’t do things any differently!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given has been to seek forgiveness, not permission. What that means is that it’s really easy to ask someone if you’re allowed to do things, but life is so much better when you just do it. And if it wasn’t okay you then ask for forgiveness when you realise it wasn’t okay. If you ask people for permission they’ll say no and most of the time the answer is actually yes.
Where do you find your confidence?
My confidence comes from my sense of self-worth and my sense of my own value. For me, that’s something that I’m able to measure in myself and that means that when I’m in different situations it doesn’t really matter what other people might be thinking because I know my own value.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
There’s no decision I’ve ever make without calculating the upsides and downsides, so I never really find myself taking huge risks that aren’t really calculated. But you can still live riskily…