At the age of 26 I had healthy kids, a gorgeous husband, had travelled to many
parts of the world and enjoyed some great friendships. I should have been
happy, but I wasn't. It wasn't how I had planned my life. I was supposed to
be climbing mountains in Peru, chatting up some hot guy from Italy with all
my possessions in a backpack - I didn't know who I was or how I
got there!
I was frustrated and I felt inadequate due to my own lack of fulfilment.
This was further cemented by images of 'beautiful' women in the media - to
me they were everywhere and I was the ugly minority. I was having some sort
of identity crisis. It drove me to create an advertising idea, aimed at the
real, normal and everyday woman. I was a part-time Travel Consultant and
mother of 2, living in suburbia with no formal training in marketing.
Everyone I talked to thought I was mad, but I persevered. I emailed my idea
to Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi and he agreed to meet with me. He
loved the presentation and sent me off to a major sportswear company, but
unfortunately they didn't think the real, normal and everyday woman was a
big enough market?!
But this whole creative exercise gave me a huge rush and I wondered why
I wasn't doing something like this full time?! So I sat down and
continued to write my story,
Writing and creating books allows me to be completely free to be myself. I hope by being so
open I can pass on some of that freedom to others.
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