Friendship

2023 – The Year of the Girl. From Gerwig’s Barbie, to T Swift’s Era’s tour. From #girldinner, to #girlmath. Young women are embracing a fascinating cultural moment. I asked my…

Droughts, fires, floods, a mouse plague and a global pandemic. These challenges of almost biblical proportions have affected many of us in varying ways in the past few years. Lee…

I am a passionate believer in the power of gratitude; some of you may have even done my one hour workshop on gratitude with me at your school. Yah! It’s…

My teenage daughter has shut down and is no longer speaking to me. In lockdown this is tough! We’re living through the stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne and my 15…

Had a relationship bust up? The road towards healing, we are told, begins with devouring ice cream (or cocktails), commiserating with close friends, then singing along defiantly to Gloria Gaynor’s…

Kindness isn’t the cure for complex issues like bullying. If we’re serious about stamping out bullying, we need to stop thinking in trite slogans.

Reports of improper teacher-student relationships are on the rise. Earlier this month, in a Daily Telegraph exclusive it was revealed that sexual misconduct incidents have increased by two thirds in…

Learning to be content in your own company is a vital life skill.Let’s not deprive our kids from the opportunity to develop it.

Worried that your little girl is 10, going on 15? You’re not alone. When I first started working in schools with young women to give them the skills they need…

Mental health issues are taking a terrible toll on our teens. It’s time we also acknowledged the damaging ripple effect may be having on their peers too.

Forget carb counting. There are more important resolutions we need to make (and keep) if we are serious about the passionate pursuit of happiness.

We celebrate various types of courage on our screens, yet in real life we also need to acknowledge that bravery badges can be earned in a myriad of ways.

What’s the one word we need to teach our daughters to be more comfortable saying?

This week the HSC exams finished for another year and, as an educator and the parent of a teenage girl who sat her last test on Monday, I can’t help…

It’s the deceptively unhelpful piece of advice that every well-intentioned adult has at one point issued to a child: “You should be friends with everybody!” Admit it — who among…

I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to a book that is destined to become a teen-girl must-have; Rebecca Sparrow’s latest title for teen girls, Ask Me Anything (heartfelt…

This post originally appeared on News Corp’s popular online opinion site RendezView. “Lies, scams and deceit — just your average teen girl.” “Lost innocence: Why girls are having rough sex…

I recently posted the following on my Facebook page. It quickly attracted over a hundred shares so I thought it worth sharing with you here too. Sometimes I see things…

I find unpacking stereotypes fascinating and important work. The following post was first published by RendezView. View image | gettyimages.com As a teen girl I swapped secrets with my friends;…

The following post was first published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper 2/1/15. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Princesses? They are often far more resilient than we give…

Despite the popular rhetoric about social media leading to the demise of real-world friendships (you’ve heard the criticisms, right? “Teens are now too busy texting to talk”, “Young people care…

This advertisement for Skype is just gorgeous. In the current culture that mocks teen girl friendships and focuses on the negative (think Mean Girls, Ja’mie) this shows just how genuine…

When I first co-founded Enlighten Education with my partner Francesca Kaoutal back in 2003, the vision was to create workshops for both girls and boys that would inform, inspire and…

I was absolutely thrilled to have been asked to join the panel discussing the topic, “All Women Hate Each Other” at The Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas. The…