One step back, two steps forward
(hopefully…)
One year and one week (377 days) ago, I packed up my life in Leicester to move to Oxford. I had big hopes for the city of dreaming spires, yet one year after I’d unpacked my bags, I was loading them back into a van to make the trip home.
And that’s where I am now, sat at my own desk in my Leicestershire family home. My room in Oxford is left bare, and while I enjoyed moments of my year in the city, I’m relieved to have left it behind, at least for now.

A tale of two cities
Most of my life has been spent in Leicester — aside from early years by the sea and a brief stint at University — this city (or more accurately, the village I grew up in) has been my stomping ground. As friends moved away over the years, citing a need to get out of the hometown that had begun to suffocate, or wanting to create a new life for themselves, I stood by our town. Yes, you couldn’t go to the pub without bumping into at least one person you knew, and sometimes it felt like the embarrassing drunken nights from when you were 18 were woven into the fabric of the village, but I didn’t mind it as much.
Living in the same place for so long hadn’t stopped me meeting new people or joining new groups. In fact, when I launched Girls Empowered in Leicester in 2017 I was lucky enough to add a whole host of people from the launch into my friendship group and contact list.
When Girls Empowered launched I was working full-time running the marketing department for a busy, growing technology company. When I was asked to move to a new head office in Oxford, I couldn’t see a reason not to. I had a plan. I’d launch Girls Empowered there, get more involved in the company and experience a new city. I suppose I was starting to get the itch to move away from Leicester like my friends had, as if leaving the city would be like shedding a skin.

Moving home
A year on, and I’m back in Leicester. Oxford was fun — I did launch Girls Empowered and I did experience a new city. I also quit my job.
Going somewhere different taught me a lot about myself — who I am and am not, what I want and what I don’t want. And ultimately, I want to run an organisation that has every woman believing they can do anything they put their mind to and providing the support and guidance to get them there. In Leicester.
So Girls Empowered moves with me. For now, there won’t be any further events in Oxford. But there will be other things to get involved in. I’m launching a monthly newsletter, putting the spotlight on the women I’m admiring and things I’m reading/watching/listening to. Together, we’ll build our online community so even if you’re not in the same city, you’ll always have access to the Girls Empowered network.
Alongside Girls Empowered, I’m running Space. (a network for creatives around Leicester to come together and co-work) and working independently providing marketing support for a range of organisations (see above branding!).
If you are in Leicester, we’ll be holding quarterly events with panel discussions, speakers and opportunities to network. Our first one back is on the 20th September and we’ll be speaking more about some of the topics I touched on here — how some mistakes are really opportunities, how to redefine success and identifying potential leaps in your career. Reserve your seat here.
In a way, moving home feels like a step back. But my hope is that it means I can take some massive leaps forward — in building Girls Empowered, launching my own marketing consultancy and learning more about myself.

