My first clear memory of rejection was when I was about five years old. My boyfriend, James, (a loose term as all we did was walk round the playground holding hands- it was very innocent) dumped me. He dumped me because I refused to eat a Cadbury's Cream Egg that he'd squashed with his plimsoll and was covered in dirt. He started seeing another girl called Anna instead. So followed a wealth of romantic rejections but that's not my focus here (that's for a book called - 'All

I am a Gen X gal and spent my thirties working my way up the corporate ladder. It was a slow and painful process but I never questioned what I wanted. I'd started my career working in McDonalds as a Saturday job, then moved onto retail- working long hours on the shop floor in Habitat. When I finished university I thought about TV (for all the wrong reasons - it sounded glamorous and exciting) but in the end I applied for a job in a global market research agency based in Chisw

(Image of Elizabeth Moss in 'Mad Men') First off let me tell you that I'm a big fan of Emma Gannon. I first met her when I was in my old research job and she appeared on a panel we were running all about 'The Imposter Syndrome'. I was bowled over by her confidence. She made me feel a bit insecure but she was positive, had great advice on how to battle inner demons and I came away thinking WOW that woman is pretty cool. Fast forward a bit and I've bumped into her a couple more

(illustration by Katie Walmsley) It's funny because when you say the words 'market research', people tend to think about a woman with a clipboard who asks you about the last time you ate a digestive biscuit. And that is what it is sometimes. When I got my first and only real job back in the late nineties I'd never heard of market research. I applied for the job because it mentioned 'travel', the website looked cool (my Dad said it looked like the website of a 'cult' but that'

So Thursday 7th June I'll be chairing an event with a bunch of fabulous women including Annie Ridout, Lisa Williams, Candice Braithwaite and Kelly Ford and we'll be talking about all the challenges of the freelance life. It'll be at this cool, new working space called The Cuckooz Nest and kicks off at 7pm (think tickets have sold out so sorry this is a bit late in the day to flag it up). I have mixed feelings about it (not the event but freelancing generally). The thing is I

(Image of me starting out in market research back in the day) So for ages I've stopped and started when it came to having my own website. I spend a lot of time working on Selfish Mother and The Hotbed Collective and I kind of questioned whether I needed a site myself. Then people kept asking me WHAT DO YOU DO? And I quickly realised that it wasn't clear what I did (not even to myself really) so I've put a pretty damn BASIC thang together just so I can give some sort of cohere