Confidence in Nigeria with Irene Bangwell

03/24/21 • 51 min

In today's episode, I am absolutely thrilled to speak with our first ever international guest, Irene Bangwell from Raising Girls in Nigeria.

Irene and I connected over our respective Facebook groups, Raising Girl Shaped Flames and her Parenting Champions Community. We instantly connected over our shared values, beliefs, and of course, our hopes and dreams for young girls in each of our countries, myself in Australia, and Irene is in Nigeria.

I can genuinely say that this was one of the most empowering, exhilarating, insightful discussions I've had with a guest on this program to date. What we cover in this episode is so aligned, and really heartening to find someone on the other side of the world that not only believes so infallibly in the premise of Girl Shaped Flames and why I've started and what we're doing, but also the fact that she's over there doing it herself.

The work that Irene is doing to support parents in Nigeria predominantly to raise strong, confident, independent girls, brimming with self worth.

I do want to flag up front that we touch on a couple of topics that might be sensitive to some listeners, but I do want to stress: everything we spoke about is very real and very now, and is being experienced right now by thousands of girls in Nigeria.

In today's discussion, we do cover a lot of ground including:

Her own personal confidence journey and influences from a teenager to now
The importance of the proactive development of confidence in young girls
An example of what life is like for a 15 year old girl in Nigeria
Some of the key challenges girls in Nigeria face when building their confidence
Some of the key challenges parents face when trying to raise confident daughters in Nigeria
We also spoke about The KNOSK N100-a-day Secondary School, Kuje that Irene runs

About Irene Bangwell
Irene is the Co-founder, The KNOSK N100-a-day Secondary School, Kuje and Raising Girls Coach at Parenting Champions in Nigeria.

In today's episode, I am absolutely thrilled to speak with our first ever international guest, Irene Bangwell from Raising Girls in Nigeria.

The work that Irene is doing to support parents in Nigeria predominantly to raise strong, confident, independent girls, brimming with self worth.

In today's discussion, we do cover a lot of ground including:

Her own personal confidence journey and influences from a teenager to now
The importance of the proactive development of confidence in young girls
An example of what life is like for a 15 year old girl in Nigeria
Some of the key challenges girls in Nigeria face when building their confidence
Some of the key challenges parents face when trying to raise confident daughters in Nigeria
We also spoke about The KNOSK N100-a-day Secondary School, Kuje that Irene runs

About Irene Bangwell
Irene is the Co-founder, The KNOSK N100-a-day Secondary School, Kuje and Raising Girls Coach at Parenting Champions in Nigeria.

Previous Episode

Exam Study Expert with William Wadsworth

We’re doing things a little differently in this week’s episode. We are absolutely still covering confidence, but from an angle that might not spring to mind straight away.

This week, I discuss with our special guest William Wadsworth, how stress, pressure and overwhelm affect the girl’s confidence.

William is a memory psychologist, an independent researcher, and a study skills coach. He helps ambitious students to study smarter, not harder, so they can ace exams with less work, less stress and especially in the case of Girl Shaped Flames, more confidence!

In today's discussion, we go through a number of really fascinating topics:

Growth mindset: which is this having confidence in your ability to improve at something that you find hard at first
We also dive into motivation and the impact on girl’s in-class participation
Then we talk about memory, which is one of William's most favourite topics - which is helping people switch to smarter ways of learning and more effective memory strategies, thus helping build their confidence.
We also touch a little bit on test anxiety, which is definitely linked to under-confidence, as William will speak to in his experience.

In this episode, William shares a free Exam Success Cheat Sheet for RGSF listeners.
Grab your Free Resource Download here: https://examstudyexpert.com/flames/
About William Wadsworth
William Wadsworth is an expert in the science of studying effectively, equal parts independent researcher and evangelist for effective learning and memorisation techniques.

He is an experienced speaker, having been featured at conferences hosted by leading organisers such as ResearchED and the British Education Research Association (BERA), as well as delivering talks on learning at Cambridge University, FTSE 100 organisations, and leading schools across the UK.

He holds a First Class Hons. degree in Psychology from Cambridge University, and his research includes the largest-ever field study on student approaches to learning, surveying some 30,000 students on their learning habits, in collaboration with the world-renowned Washington Memory Lab.

William is the best-selling author of Outsmart Your Exams, and through the Exam Study Expert blog and podcast, William’s advice on how to study effectively is followed by half a million students in 150+ countries every year.

Next Episode

Confidence and Passion with Ceara Bakes

In today's episode, I am thrilled to be joined by teen cake artist, the very talented Ceara from Ceara Bakes.

Ceara courageously reached out to me to be interviewed for this podcast. It wasn't just her cake creations or karate skills, but her drive and determination blew me away from the get go.

Her passion for baking brewed in the classroom when science taught Ceara about chemical reactions along with her Grandmother's baking influence, but it's her self assurance and confidence that allows her to continue to grow her passion.

In today's discussion, we dive into a range of topics including:

Where her motivation comes from
The role her friends play when it comes to combating demotivation and overwhelm
Social media and managing negative commentary
The confidence she draws upon and now that she has moved her hobby into a business
Insight into how her parents supported her journey from the beginning
Juggling her priorities including school work
Key advice for young people wanting to follow their passion

Ceara’s passion for baking stems from her Grandmother, a professional baker from Ireland. She cooked her first cake on her own at the age of seven, and now seven years on, Ceara sells her incredible cake creations online.

In January 2020, she posted in the Mornington Peninsula community Facebook group about her idea to bake cakes and donate all proceeds to a charity during the Victorian bushfires. Her hobby quickly grew into a business that she manages alongside her school life and championship karate practice.

As a teen role model to other girls, Ceara wants girls to know that business ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, no matter their age. Her advice is to be patient, start with friends and family and:

“Trust the process and take everything as it comes."

Click here to check out Ceara's Instagram!