who i am. why i care.

Black & white photo of Natalie talking to a student (out of view) and smiling at a LEGO Build the Change Youth Council event at the LEGO Discovery Centre in Birmingham.

i was once the young person i help.

I grew up in a small town, went to state school and worked hard to become the first in my family to go to university. I left with two degrees, a tonne of new skills, a shedload of debt but still no clear path ahead.

I had big dreams but no well-connected aunties or uncles to sort me out with a way into the career I longed for.

So I made learning my superpower.

Whenever I hit a career wall, I learned through it. And I had a lot of fun doing it.

I never set out to be a teacher. But education led me to opportunities I could never have dreamed of.

Learning became my thread.

This taught me two lessons:

  • Learning has the potential to change the world. It definitely changed mine.

  • It should always feel like play.

Two decades of learning adventures later, I know how to make learning useful, memorable and fun.

For a long time, not fitting the linear, specialist mould made me feel like I was a problem to solve.

Now I see it for what it is: my edge.

I connect dots others miss. Across ideas, people, systems and future possibilities.