An uber-friendly, outgoing child, I'd take any opportunity to play with and meet new people, regardless of age or background, whether I was joining in games with kids far older than me, or greeting unsuspecting strangers in the street with an energetic "G'day".

These qualities only strengthened as I grew older, and in my final year of primary school, I decided to start a school newsletter run by students, for students, to give us a space to connect, share and create together. I would sometimes work through lunch breaks writing and designing (with the help of a few friends) the latest edition, to be distributed to families the coming Monday.

In high school, I was introduced more formally to graphic design, branding, and the magic of Adobe Photoshop, and I developed a passion for visual communication. As I navigated the challenges of teenage-hood, and dealt with heightened levels of anxiety and self-awareness, design classes became my refuge – a safe, relaxed space to once again connect, share and create – and upon graduating, I was awarded College Colours for the subject.

Early influences

I began studying Visual Communication and Design at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia in 2011, and graduated at the end of 2013. The following year, I quickly gained some experience volunteering at Ethical Switch, a Melbourne-based social enterprise, and through an internship at Space Between the Gaps Films based in Brunswick, Melbourne.

It was at this time that I also discovered the practice of yoga and meditation, attending regular classes at my local town hall. My instructor Nadine had an enormously positive impact on me, sharing many aspects of Eastern philosophy that aligned with my own emerging opinions and beliefs at the time. Up until this point, anxiety and self-doubt had often gotten the better of me, but these philosophy-driven classes gave me a better understanding of my own inner workings, and I became committed to nurturing both my physical and mental health in order to overcome these personal challenges.

Early work experience

In 2015 I landed my first full-time design and marketing role at water sport wholesaler Australia Underwater Products. In this new environment my professional network expanded quickly, and it wasn't long before I started getting requests for freelance work from some of my contacts. I liked the idea of working for myself and helping clients directly, and after sixteen months of long commutes to the office, I decided to take a risk and quit my job to pursue freelance design.

Later that year, I published a simple website and began offering a freelance graphic design service under the name Bodhi Creative (Bodhi meaning 'awakening' in Sanskrit). As any freelancer will tell you, finding enough work to sustain my business was my biggest challenge, but I was committed, worked extremely hard, and was helped by an ever-growing interest and passion for both mental and physical health and wellbeing, which made me an attractive option for small businesses within that space.

I got a very lucky break in January 2017 when I became the primary freelance design service provider for the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association, a wonderfully progressive and supportive organisation with a strong focus on student health and wellbeing, who believed in me and helped me to believe in myself as a designer and sole-trading business owner.

Embracing health and wellbeing

As I continued to prioritise work focused on the areas of health and wellbeing - my favourite kind of work - I started to attract more and more clients from within the space. My interests in these areas meant I was spending quite a lot of time with people who shared my passion for health and wellbeing outside of work, and they'd often recommend my services to their colleagues and personal connections.

The projects I started to attract at this time were super interesting, and often highly rewarding, including working with doctors and research students to promote studies about egg freezing and fertility preservation during cancer treatment (these were separate studies), a health-food ecommerce startup, a wellbeing-focused interior decorating service, and many more.

Navigating COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe (and as many businesses went into cost-cutting mode) my design service was hit hard. Demand for my work dried up almost completely, and I lost touch with nearly all of my clients within the space of a few months.

Out of work and confined to my property during the world's strictest lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia, I decided to invest in furthering my education in the areas of small business marketing strategy and web design, filling some gaps in my knowledge as I enrolled in and completed several online courses. I also became proficient in a new and exciting web development software called Webflow, which allowed me to offer far more accessible website design and maintenance options to my clients.

The marketing strategies and techniques I learnt during this time revealed new ways to incorporate my love of connecting, sharing and creating into my business, and gave me a new understanding for how I could serve my clients more fully and effectively. Determined to pick up where I'd left off pre-pandemic, I worked extremely hard on my business' assets, resources and brand identity, building a new website, developing content and worksheets for a series of marketing strategy workshops, and creating unique design and strategy resources.

Relocating and rebuilding

While I'm still in the early stages of rebuilding my business, I'm committed to bouncing back, and as I write this in August 2023, I've just relaunched my business (now named Healthy Designs), launched a new website, and have just relocated to the coastal town of Peregian Beach on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, Queensland.