Author: What She Did Next

Highlights from our third season of conversations with some truly inspiring women.

Ingerlise Svaleng is the founder of 21 Gifts – an initiative she started with her husband after their first daughter, Maia, was born with Down syndrome, to support other families like them.

Kylie Flament is the General Manager of an award-winning social enterprise helping young people and former refugees into employment, while leading the way in growing fair food and diverting waste from landfill.

Solai Valliappan is an investor in the tech space, with a keen focus on start-ups that are bringing about positive change. She’s also a champion of female founders and hopes to inspire more women to start their own companies and get the backing they need to bring their big ideas to the world.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe is a passionate advocate for human rights, social justice and the environment. A proud Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, she was the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Victorian Parliament, before making the leap to Federal Parliament as the first Aboriginal Senator for Victoria.

Victoria McGrane is the artist and textile designer behind The Scenic Route, whose distinctive illustrations inspired by Australian nature have earned her collaborations with major brands and retailers. She’s also among a growing number of Australians who’ve traded in the daily grind, in search of a different way of life and a greater sense of freedom.

Australian nurse Yanti Turang has spent the past year working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. She’s also the founder and executive director of LearnToLive, a global health not-for-profit she started in response to seeing her own family members in Indonesia suffering from chronic and preventable illnesses.

Sanaz Fotouhi is an author, academic and filmmaker, whose book-writing journey began back in her 20s with a life-changing trip to Afghanistan. What she saw on that trip would stay with her forever and it set her on a path to show the world what was happening for women and children in that country.

Jenny McAllister is a young stroke survivor and the founder of StyleAbility. She's on a mission to transform the fashion industry, to make it more inclusive and accessible for the one in five Australians living with a disability.

Lorna Deng is an HR professional and the co-founder of DivTal, a new social enterprise that aims to break down employment barriers for people from minority backgrounds. Having faced and overcome barriers to employment herself, Lorna is determined to make the future of work more inclusive.⁣