During this time participants will register for the day

Students are welcomed to Girls Write Up as we run through the day's events.

What is the world like when you’re blogger, writer, speaker and appearance activist Carly Findlay? Our opening keynote examines the stories we’re told and the stories we tell. How do you find the confidence and perspective to trust your own voice amid the chaos of everyone else’s?

How do others’ stories shape who we are? How do they limit us or change us? How can we resist, reimagine, reclaim and take ownership of ourselves in the face of these narratives? Lorin Elizabeth, Simone Howell and Alice Pung explore their own relationship to the stories they have been told about who they are and their place in the world by reading a letter to their younger self. Followed by a short, hosted discussion and Q & A.

Slam Poetry with Lorin Elizabeth Graphic Narrative with Mandy Ord Emotional Cartography with Simmone Howell Poetry with Laniyuk TBC with Alice Pung

Is the writer invisible, or does the body they write from within inform their writing? Is it possible to move through the world in a body without the world imprinting on it, without the dents left shaping the words the body writes? Why do we care so much about bodies? Carly Findlay, Mandy Ord and Laniyuk talk about the way the body, and body image, impacts their lives and writing.

In this 30-minute session, two of our Girls Write Up speakers will answer some of the anonymous questions posted in the Ask Me Anything box over the course of the day. This is the chance for audience members to ask questions they’ve always wanted to ask, but never had the opportunity.