Josie Pohla is just 16 years old. After her mum committed suicide she started a petition to educate students about domestic violence. She collected over 100.000 signatures and now the Prevention of Domestic Violence program is taught to all students in years 7-10 in New South Wales.

Lianna Perdis is the 17 year old daughter of Napoleon Perdis. She is a model and has her own makeup line under her Dad's range, Total Bae! She shares her top three beauty tips at www.beautycrew.com.au. They are:

1. Natural is always better
2. Moisturising is key
3. Primer can be an amazing multi-tacker - you can use it on a Q tip to remove specks from your mascara.

Click on the link above to read the full article.

Twelve year old Darci Lynne was recently crowned the winner of America's Got Talent. She asked for a puppet for her tenth birthday as she thought it would help her overcome her shyness.  Darci has since become passionate about ventriloquism and is keen to keep the art alive. The moral of the story? Don't let your limitations stop you from trying - you might just win a million dollars!

You would have to have been living under a rock (that is, isolated from all media and social media) to  not have heard Sam Kerr's name in recent weeks. For those of you who don't know who she is, Sam is a 24 year old women's soccer player from Perth. Here is a list of some of her achievements:

• Captain of the Perth Glory Soccer Club Women's League
• Player for Sky Blue soccer team in the USA
• Became the all-time leading goal scorer in the US National Women's Soccer League
• Played for Australia at the Rio Olympics
• Plays for the Australian Women's soccer team, the Matildas who are currently doing well in the World Cup
• Has been named by FIFA as one of the top 10 players in the world - the first Australian man or woman ever to do so.
• She loves to celebrate with a backflip.

Sam was just a regular girl who dared to dream. Despite her success, Sam remains humble - what a legend!

I've been reading Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and I love it. The book is full of short stories of women through history who have rewritten the rules about what girls can do. From queens to pirates, and nurses to ballerinas - you'll find them all in the pages of this book. There are 100 stories, each one just a page long and illustrated. It is an easy and inspiring read. Rebel Girls has it's own webpage at https://www.rebelgirls.co.

16 year old NSW surfer, Macy Callaghan, won the Junior World title in January this year and has been awarded her first wildcard in a World Tour event. Macy said she had to grow up fast. This year has been up and down, being a teenager, a student (she's in year 11 this year) and travelling the world to different surf comps without much sponsorship money. ​The Swatch Pro is on now.

You don't have to wait till you're an adult to achieve great things.  When she was 14, gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first woman to achieve a perfect 10 at the Olympics. This occurred at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 (yes, that was a while ago). She achieved three perfect 10 scores and won three gold medals. Her success did not come easy though. Nadia grew up in communist Romania and from the age of six she trained six hours per day.

Ally Watson was originally from Scotland but moved to Melbourne several years ago.  She worked in the male dominated field of computer science.  Ally would often be the only woman at tech events so she organised a female focused event which attracted 100 girls/women and Code Like A Girl was born.  They have 12 volunteers who work with them now and are looking at expanding nationally. They also keep their prices down so more girls can attend.

Shukufa Tahiri fled war torn Afghanistan in 1998 as a child.  Now, in her early 20s, she is studying law, works as an assistant policy officer with the Refugee Council of Australia and speaks in schools about the issues surrounding refugees.