I write and publish books that show a little girl doing different jobs, so show boys and girls that anyone can be anything. I choose male-dominated Tech and STEM jobs (engineer, doctor, astronaut, scientist for starters) to normalise these jobs for women and encourage girls to be ambitious in these fields. After graduating in Biotechnology I did an MSc in Science Communication, and have had careers in scientific publishing and medical writing. When my daughter was born, I wanted to read her books with a strong female lead character who tackled STEM jobs and showed resilience, analytical skills, courage, inquisitiveness, resourcefulness and imagination. When I couldn’t find them I wrote and published the books myself. I visit primary schools to read to the children, raise aspiration and introduce the idea of Tech and STEM careers. I use my books to break gender stereotypes and encourage girls to see a career in Tech or Sciences as desirable, so that in the future there is gender balance in the tech industries and the industry benefits from the creativity, talent and ideas of more girls. Two of my books were nominated for the prestigious 2016 Carnegie Medal and my mission to ‘give little girls big ideas’ has been featured in The Sun newspaper. Harper Collins support my ambition to get more girls into Tech and STEM and are planning to publish my books in their Big Cat reading scheme next year. I’m not strictly a Woman in Tech, but I am doing everything I can to encourage the women of the future to go into tech so that we are no longer a minority and more girls can contribute to the most innovative and exciting industry to be in.
