Growing up my parents didn’t make me conform to gender stereotypes. I grew up on a farm and was taught to shoot an air rifle, encouraged to climb trees and to get muddy playing in the fields with my sisters. I still loved my dollies but I also loved rough play.

When I started primary school the friends I made were mainly girls. I was encouraged to play house and wasn’t allowed to join the football team. Looking back now I can see that my Teacher perhaps favoured the girls within the class and got the boys in trouble much more frequently.

Uniform was always an issue for us girls. I remember being told off in primary 7 for wearing eye shadow and having my teacher take me to one side to tell me, sternly, that my bra strap was showing and that this just wasn’t acceptable. Being 11 at the time I remember I was incredibly embarrassed by this as I was just beginning to explore new things and attempt to express myself.

In terms of my achievement, I did well. I was good at maths and english and passed all my tests. The boys in my class who had been deemed ‘trouble makers’ did not pass their tests and went on to high school to be tarred with the same brush and leave in fourth year without standard grades.

Perhaps if our primary school teachers had been less biased and more encouraging they would have had a better experience. I was just lucky that I was a girl, and that’s something that shouldn’t have to be said!