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My Family Care asks Heather: We are surrounded by people that are deemed role models. What makes a role model, who have been your role models, and who would you hope your children see as a role model?
What makes a role model?
In my mind, a role model is anyone who represents a skill or action that I respect, admire, or aspire to have... Someone who has a purpose and takes responsibility for a person/people, cause or action that is over and above their own personal responsibilities of life... Someone who goes that extra mile to deliver the seemingly unobtainable or unachievable, who doesn't take no for an answer, and who becomes the change they want to see.
Who have been your role models?
Boadicea - A widow and warrior. As the first British Heroine, she took on the Romans and made change happen.
Lady Godiva - The rebel with a cause: a woman who used her femininity to promote and do something against taxes she believed to be wrong.
Margaret Thatcher - Britain's first female Prime minister, AKA The Iron Lady. She was a woman who showed my generation of women that you could be and achieve anything you wanted in life regardless of gender.
Liv Garfield - Soon to be the youngest female FTSE 100 CEO of Severn Trent. She just happens to be a successful business leader, as well as being a wife and mother of two, who isn't afraid to acknowledge it.
Who would you hope your children see as role models?
Any men or women who are "more than celebrities" and have done something over and above self-promotion, for example:
Angelina Jolie - A successful actress, a great ambassador for UNICEF, and a great role model for anyone who has experienced Cancer in the family.
David Beckham - A successful footballer who has set up sports foundations, supported an incredible amount of charities (with his time as well as his money), supported the Olympic Games coming to the UK, and someone who hasn't always got his personal life right... but has never been afraid to show he is a hands on father!
Heather Jackson, CEO and Founder of An Inspirational Journey
