If my seven year old self could see me now...

She'd probably call me a "Bum face"

(But, she always had a bit of an attitude)

If I could talk back, I'd tell her to follow her heart, be a go-karting engineer (if she really wants to), but first, listen to Debbie Millman...

At seven years old, I remember my older brothers building go-karts, dressing up in army clothes, climbing trees, and on Sunday evenings, during The Clothes Show, secretly wrestling on the fold-out double bed in my Dad's office (why a carpet fitter needed a home office, I still wonder). Many brothers would have shaken their little sister off for 'cramping their style’, but I didn't give mine the choice. I joined in each and every one of their activities growing up, whether they liked it or not. I've even been known to pull out a podgy 'clothes line' during wrestling nights. I may not have been tall but I was darn mighty.

Growing up, I was a tom-boy and I was fine with that, until it dawned on me, I was a little different. At secondary school, my childhood ambitions of being an Action Man (I wasn't a Barbie fan) or go-kart engineer evaporated. Girls, apparently, couldn't do this. Perhaps, I thought, I should channel my ambitions towards becoming a primary school teacher, vet or nurse, like my friends. That's when I noticed two of the rebel skater boys in my class spent most of their lunch break and often 90 percent of class time, camouflaging the covers and contents of their exercise books with drawings, really good drawings. I decided I wanted to draw like them, but none of the other girls did, they seemed to just spent their school days drooling over the pre-pubescent boys from the peripheries of the football pitch, while they skidded into each other in an attempt to impress their peers with the latest Alan Shearer-style tackles.

Since then, I never really knew where to find creative role models that I could relate to. That is, until I came across this lady's name at University. Her name? Debbie Millman.

Writer, designer, educator, artist, brand consultant and host of Design Matters (the first ever podcast about design), Debbie Millman has been the facilitator of change in my life. Bold statement, I know, well, she deserves all the accolades people can bestow upon her. She has opened my mind to more creative and critical thinking, and has expanded my visual learning with the stories and experiences of creative women owning their place in the creative world. In her podcast Design Matters, Debbie has, for the last 14 years, interviewed some of the most amazing female (and male) minds. Here are some of my favourites... Paula Scher, Marina Abramović and Elle Luna.

Many of the themes and topics discussed by Debbie and her podcast's guests: from brand identity, to modern tribes, have massively shaped both my undergrad and postgrad dissertations, as well as my practice.

Quite simply, without this lady, and her ground-breaking podcast, Tiny Grey may never have become the illustration studio it is today.

So, happy International Women's Day everyone, and thank you Debbie, thank you.

​Oh, and my seven year old self says she thinks you're neat!