25 under 25: The bright young things changing our world
FROM a YouTube gaming star with an audience of millions to the naked farmer, these 25 hotshots aged 25 or under are making waves in Victoria and across the world. They share their stories on how they made it.
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THEY’RE young, they’re gifted and bound for great things.
Among them a YouTube gaming star with millions of viewers, an aerospace engineer set to revolutionise travel and an adventurer who completed three of the world’s toughest polar expeditions at 17.
They’ve all done what most of us would dream of in a lifetime. Before turning 25.
The 25 under 25 share their stories as part of the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun special series Our Gen.
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Elliott Watkins
Gaming personality and manager
ELLIOTT Watkins is the international celebrity you’ve probably never heard of.
Every day, more than three million people tune in to watch Watkins, aka Muselk, play video games on YouTube.
With six million devoted subscribers, the 23-year-old is one of Australia’s most viewed gaming personalities — and he’s made a small fortune doing it.
Starting his YouTube channel in 2014 as a simple way to share his love of gaming, Watkins’ contagious enthusiasm quickly drew viewers from around the world.
Unlike the competitive world of eSports, Watkins’ content is about having fun.
There are those who excel and those who entertain, Watkins says.
A year after creating his channel, and hundreds of thousands of views later, Watkins decided to drop his law degree to pursue his passion full time.
“Sure, some people thought it was crazy, but I had got to the stage where I had this amazing opportunity and I needed to go for it,” he says.
“If you’re passionate about it, explore it to its full extent.”
Watkins says the success of Muselk is still “beyond comprehension”, but he’s realistic about its longevity and views his latest venture as his “long-term” career.
Last year, he launched Click Management, a talent agency for gamers, influencers and eSports players.
The company now has almost every major channel in the country under its management.
Growing up in Melbourne, Watkins now splits his time between his home base in Sydney and flying around the world, mostly the US, where the gaming industry is booming.
David Purser
Aerospace engineer/management consultant
IT started as an idea, sketched hastily on the back of a napkin.
Less than a year later, it was being touted as the future of high-speed travel.
At only 23, David Purser was part of a team of Melbourne aerospace engineering students who won international acclaim for their design of a driverless travel pod that could reach up to 1200km/h.
The revolutionary mode of transport had the potential to slash travel times between Melbourne and Sydney to less than an hour.
“Not in my dizziest daydreams did I imagine it would escalate into what it did,” Purser says.
In 2017, Purser again found himself at the forefront of modern innovation, launching
the world’s first 3D printed rocket engine.
“We (manufacturing company Amaero) had already printed the world’s first jet engine. So a rocket seemed like the next best thing.”
Purser recalls the entire local CFA station coming out to have a gander at the test launch in an open field in rural Victoria: “They all wanted to watch … it was a lot of fun.’’
This childlike wonderment is what led Purser down the path of aerospace engineering — an industry he says is full of “big kids”.
“I’ve always loved figuring out how things work and problem solving. It’s exciting,” he says. “I just have such fascination with the field.”
But with no dedicated space agency in Australia, job opportunities for aerospace engineers are limited.
“You either design fighter jets or bombs …
I came to realise I didn’t want to be involved in that (defence) any more,” he says.
So he took maybe his biggest leap yet — into finance.
“It’s problem solving — but in a whole new environment. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Ben Brooksby
Founder of the Naked Farmer mental health initiative
BEN Brooksby wants to expose an issue affecting many Australian farmers — and
he’s baring all to do it.
The 25-year-old country boy from western Victoria is the founder of the Naked Farmer,
a social media initiative and fundraiser encouraging farmers to strip naked and have their photo posted online in the name of mental health.
In just over a year, Brooksby’s naked ambition has seen thousands of men and women “get their gear off” and raise awareness of mental health issues affecting those in the agricultural industry.
“It’s about starting a conversation,” Brooksby says. “It’s not about body image or how good you look, it’s about having the guts and confidence to do it.”
Because it takes as much guts to take your clothes off for a photo as it takes to talk about mental health issues, Brooksby says. With more than 72,000 followers on Instagram, the Naked Farmer is thriving.
After a sellout calendar and underwear line, a book from his recent Australian tour with photographer Emma Cross is also on the cards.
As a fifth-generation sheep and grain farmer, Brooksby grew up during the Millennium drought and speaks openly about his struggles with anxiety growing up.
“I was always nervous as a kid, I struggled to talk to people or look them in the eye.”
Rock bottom came when his family home in St Helens Plains was destroyed by fire. Brooksby was tasked with rebuilding the house and facing his fears head on.
Brooksby hopes the Naked Farmer will help others who are struggling to realise they’re not alone.
Jade Hameister
Adventurer
TEENAGER Jade Hameister made history this year when she became the youngest person to complete three of the world’s toughest polar expeditions: the North Pole, Greenland Crossing and South Pole.
The Hampton schoolgirl traversed more than 1300km, pulling a 60kg sled through “inhumane climates”, for a total of 75 days on the ice.
While her friends were planning their summer holidays, Jade was navigating an uncharted route, sidestepping polar bears and deadly crevasses.
But it wasn’t only the physical challenges the 17-year-old faced, as many questioned her ability to complete the expeditions as a young woman. Jade was trolled incessantly by men, who told her to get back to the kitchen and “make a sandwich”.
“It’s silly to think we’re any different to guys,” Hameister says.
“Let’s stop focusing on how a girl’s body looks and instead think of what it can do.”
In a searing reply to the trolls, Hameister posted a picture of herself at the South
Pole with a sandwich, captioning the shot: “I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km … and you can eat it.”
Along with her message for girls, Hameister wants to spread awareness among her peers of the devastating effects of climate change.
“We are the generation who will inherit all those consequences,” she says.
“It’s about education, not just listening to the previous generations.”
And she’s taken the message all the way to Vatican City after she was invited by Pope Francis to speak at a youth climate conference last month.
“If you have a dream or a goal, just give it a crack,” she says. “Work hard and give everything you have to try and achieve it.”
Darcy McGlade
Founder of Diamer Signs
AT only 15, Darcy McGlade had his sights set on making it in the business world. And fast. His printing and design company, Diamer Signs, opened in December 2012 after 2½ years of research. It started out in a spare bedroom at home, where McGlade designed small stickers and signs for local clubs and businesses.
Now, the 22-year-old supplies big corporate companies and government departments with large-scale designs and prints.
McGlade has also had a positive impact on the community, including playing an integral part in the Corangamite ICE Taskforce campaign. In May, McGlade was awarded the Academy Graphics Regional Achiever Award as part of the 2017/18 Victorian Young Achiever of the Year Awards.
“As honourable as it is to win the award with so many great young people in the state,
it means more in a personal sense,” he says.
“It says, yes, you can build something from nothing and hopefully, it will inspire others.”
Growing up on a dairy farm in Scotts Creek, McGlade is now based in Timboon, where he went to school.
“In the early stages, my motivation partly came from people telling me it wouldn’t work. But I did receive support along the way and that helped to keep going.”
McGlade also volunteers his time and business resources to make awareness-building trailers and billboards.
Jack Codling
Beatbox champion
JACK Codling, better known as Codfish, has taken his musical talents across the globe
after winning the world’s largest beatbox competition.
The 20-year-old holds the title of Grand Beatbox Champion after triumphing in Switzerland this year.
“I first discovered beatboxing through seeing Australian beatboxers such as Joel Turner when I was younger, and it caught my interest, but I never thought it was possible to learn it,” Codling says.
He taught himself how to form different sounds, learning his vast array of bouncing beats and techniques online.
Now Codling also holds the title of Australian Beatbox Champion.
Codling wants to grow the beatboxing scene here, becoming co-owner of Beatbox Australia. He has a large social media presence with more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers and 27 million-plus views.
He says this has encouraged him to push himself even further: “I have found that even though pressure can be very stressful, it often creates the best art.”
Samantha Yap
Founder of YAP Global
FINTECH expert Samantha Yap made her big break after delving down the “rabbit hole” of cryptocurrency.
The former journalist became “super fascinated” with the emerging technology and started to play around with different cryptocurrencies.
It wasn’t long before the 25-year-old saw her business opportunity. She established YAP Global, (Your Angle Presented) a boutique PR and communications firm promoting blockchain and cryptocurrency start-ups.
The Monash University graduate says it helps bridge the “large communication gap” between start-ups and the public.
“A lot of people may have heard about Bitcoin but not many know about what blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies are,” Yap says. “We work with start-ups and journalists to better educate the public about blockchain and how it will increasingly be an important part of our lives.”
Yap educated herself about the industry before taking the plunge.
“I then tried to buy myself some Ethereum — the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap — and learnt about the process of storing my cryptocurrencies in a paper wallet,” she says.
“It even got to the point where I created my own cryptocurrency for fun.”
Her London-based firm works with clients in the US, Switzerland, UK, Singapore and Australia.
“The hardest thing is to start something but once you have, it’s all about riding that journey that can take you places you never thought it would,” she says.
Simon Papamarkos
International eSports athlete
SIMON “Swiffer” Papamarkos considers himself a professional full-time athlete.
But unlike other sportsmen or women, he does not play football, soccer or other traditional sports.
Papamarkos, 24, of Collingwood, has made a name globally by playing for Melbourne-based eSports team Order, which plays League of Legends in the Oceanic Pro League.
Papamarkos never thought his career path would lead him to be a professional gamer.
“I completed a degree in international politics, but I’ve been so fortunate to be playing for Order as I’ve had an incredible experience so far and made great friends,” he says.
Papamarkos has played in several international competitions.
“In 2016, I travelled to Brazil, China, France and Spain, where my previous team won a qualifying tournament with a prize pool of about $20,000,” he says.
He says he is fortunate to enjoy a pretty cushy lifestyle with his teammates.
“We earn about $20,000-$25,000, with all our living expenses, including food, gym and housing, paid for,” he says.
“And if one of us was selected to play in North America, we could earn up to $300,000.”
Papamarkos says there is nothing better than being cheered on by thousands of people at eSports events.
He says eSports players are leaving the nerd image behind.
“For a long time there was this perception that gamers had adverse social interaction, but that’s totally not the case with gaming as the industry has come such a long way.”
Christy Hildyard
Co-founder of Grace Pads
SOCIAL entrepreneur Christy Hildyard became the change she wanted to see in
the world.
While travelling across South Africa, the 25-year-old was shocked to discover millions of women and girls don’t have access to sanitary products.
Even worse was learning the effect it had on their education and job prospects.
Hildyard translated her shock into action and co-founded Grace Pads, a not-for-profit enterprise providing reusable sanitary pads to women in Malawi.
“I just knew in my heart that I had to do something about it,” Hildyard says.
Hildyard says sanitary products — taken for granted by Western societies — open up huge opportunities for girls and women.
“Providing sanitary pads instantly reduces dropout rates and improves participation in the school environment, allowing girls to thrive.
“Women can also work throughout the month with Grace Pads, which increases female socio-economic status.
“We also employ local women so they can earn an income to support their families.”
The sanitary pads come with hygiene kits, which help reduce the risk of sickness and infection.
Hildyard has also established an educational program, Grow with Grace, which teaches girls about their period.
Hildyard says improving the world takes more than words.
“If you are going to set yourself a goal to create positive change in the world, the most important thing is knowing what practical steps you need to take to achieve that goal.
“Social media is a powerful tool for change, (if you have a platform, use it) but we must not get caught up in the illusion that sharing videos, posting statuses and liking posts translates into action and real change in the world.
“There must always be a ‘call to action’. Figure out what that is, refine it and
implement it.”
Carissa Moretta
Co-owner CarsRus Australia
INDUSTRY game-changer Carissa Moretta, 23, is an unlikely success story in the fast-paced world of car sales.
Co-owned with boyfriend Rossario Cosentino, 26, CarsRus Australia is a small, mobile business that buys and sells cars privately across Victoria.
Moretta, from Taylors Lakes, attributes the pair’s thriving business to savvy online marketing and dedicated customer service.
“I mean, wow, we built a business from the ground up and it hasn’t been easy,” she says. “I am very passionate about helping our clients.”
Moretta emphasises that her gender isn’t important. “It’s good to have a female’s perspective, but I don’t believe it sets me apart too much,” she says. “I’m good at what I do and Rossario is good at what he does.”
Moretta says the pair’s goal is to transform the way Australians buy and sell cars.
They have experienced tremendous growth in the past four years, including two nominations for the Australian Small Business Champion awards in 2017 and 2018.
“I don’t have any qualifications in this space, so we’re sort of learning as we go. But it’s not about money, it can’t just be about money. I’m excited to do that — to keep learning.”
Lachlan Monty
Entrepreneur and businessman
LACHLAN Monty is a man in a hurry.
The 25-year-old has a bar, a PR agency and a new social media/marketing business, all less than three years old.
Oh, and he wants to retire at 31.
The understated overachiever from Footscray has 25 employees across the three businesses and, with the help of his business partners, has big plans for the future.
“I have never been the type of person to feel accomplished working for someone else,” Monty says.
Since the age of 16, Monty has spent time touring internationally with his band.
He has a background in photography, which included a brief stint hanging from helicopters taking aerial shots.
In 2016, Monty and his business partners opened The Black Rabbit underground bar on Queen St, in Melbourne’s CBD.
A short time after, he opened Friends Like Us, a band management and PR agency, and most recently, The Glass Collective, a marketing agency.
Partnering with some of Australia’s biggest booking agents, Friends Like Us has had artists play internationally and feature on the cover of BEAT magazine.
Monty says while The Glass Collective is still in its infancy, it already has clients such as food delivery service Deliveroo and Max Watt’s, one of Sydney and Melbourne’s most popular music venues.
Lachlan prefers to invest his money back into his businesses to see them grow and develop.
“I do have a plan to retire by 31,” Monty says.
“Being self-employed makes it near impossible for your brain to stop thinking about work. I feel guilty not working 24/7.”
Monty says his girlfriend of three years is part of the reason he can juggle so much. He copes with his stress by turning off his phone and making time for his friends.
“It really has been a rollercoaster. It’s an absolute adventure, but I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else.”
Georgia Atkin-Smith
Scientist
GEORGIA Atkin-Smith spends all her time thinking about death — and she couldn’t
be happier.
The scientist is leading groundbreaking research into cell death, a process that occurs millions of times in our bodies every day and has the potential to unlock lifesaving cures,” Atkin-Smith says.
“Lots of infectious diseases cause a huge amount of cell death, so understanding the process could help develop new therapeutics to overcome infections such as influenza.”
The 25-year-old has won or been short-listed for more than 15 science awards and has a cult following on Instagram, where she blogs as @someblondescientist, showing the fun side of laboratory work.
The La Trobe University PhD student broke into the field at age 22 with a remarkable world-first paper that captured white blood cells dying and exploding on film.
Atkin-Smith says the paper’s publication was her proudest moment and jump-started her career as a scientist.
Her passion for the lab was ignited during her undergraduate degree, where she “completely fell in love” with the daily challenges and variety of the work.
“I knew straight away I wanted to do the PhD in biochemistry.”
Atkin-Smith’s work may have the potential to save lives, but the modest scientist says she doesn’t get carried away looking at the big picture.
“It’s hard not to get tied up in the details — only at the end of the project do you get to sit back and reflect that this might actually lead to a very significant finding one day.”
Atkin-Smith says her social media presence began as a hobby before she realised the importance of communicating with young people.
“They have the idea that a scientist is a white man in a lab coat — but scientists come in all shapes and forms, men, women and different cultures,” she says.
“We need to engage young people and gain public trust.”
Nick Pearce
Homeless service provider
SOMETIMES, a five-minute chat is all it takes to change your life.
Nick Pearce was on his way to university in Melbourne three years ago when he stopped to talk to a rough sleeper.
The then-student said until that point, he had never thought seriously about homelessness.
“This guy went to the same school as me, he had a supportive, loving family, but he was suffering from mental illness and that led him to the street,” Pearce says.
“He totally changed my perspective of homelessness by making me realise it could happen to anyone.”
Now 24, Pearce heads HoMie, a hot streetwear social enterprise that devotes
all profits to young people experiencing homelessness.
After experimenting with free shopping days and clothing giveaways, Pearce and his co-founders hit on workplace training as their most valuable resource.
“There’s pathways out of homelessness and having a job is crucial,” he says.
Through a partnership with Launch Housing, young people have been shown
the retail ropes at HoMie’s flagship shop in Brunswick St.
After a six-month paid traineeship, candidates apply for permanent positions at retailer Cotton On.
Pearce says he has been blown away by the dedication shown by the new recruits.
“The biggest thing is that homelessness hardship should not be a barrier to the workforce — this program is challenging the assumption that they might be lazy workers.
Pearce says confidence was the biggest challenge for trainees.
“People who come from a rough background are often told they don’t deserve good things in their life and there can be a lot of negative self-talk that needs to be overcome,” he says.
“We are trying to give them the skills to right the wrong and tell them that’s not the case.”
And for Pearce, the street conversation that started it all will never be forgotten.
“It made us all passionate and motivated about homelessness and determined to break down the stigma around the issue,” he says.
Homie, corner of Brunswick and Johnston streets, Fitzroy, homie.com.au
Emilia Sterjova
Whittlesea councillor
IF Emilia Sterjova had a dollar for every time someone asked her age, she wouldn’t need to work another day.
But the 21-year-old Whittlesea councillor laughs the question off every time.
“People would come up and say, ‘Is your mum running for office?’ and then they’d realise it’s me … that’s when they’d ask whether I had a drivers’ licence,” Sterjova says.
Sterjova was elected in 2016, the youngest councillor in the City of Whittlesea’s history — and among the youngest in Victorian history.
And despite being on her P-plates on the road and in politics, she is determined to effect serious change in her community.
“Growing up as the only child of a single mum really inspired me to get involved in the community to help others.” she says.
Sterjova has spent the first 18 months of elected life lobbying for better transport and advocating for local jobs in the growing northern region.
The busy first-termer juggles her council duties with call-outs as a State Emergency Services volunteer.
To top it all off, the bilingual student claimed a global top 10 ranking for Malaysian public speaking at a competition last year.
“Everyday life has become so much more busy, but in a fantastic way,” she says.
“I’m going to community events, hearing concerns from locals and doing odd jobs, like sorting out a bin in front of someone’s shop. It’s the most rewarding role I could dream of.”
Sterjova’s university political studies led to a stint volunteering for Yan Yean state Labor MP Danielle Green, who encouraged the then-teenager to consider public service.
Sterjova has big ambitions, but remains focused on a desire to inspire other young people.
“I find that a lot of young people are disenchanted with politics and I want to show them it’s really important to get their voices heard,” she says.
Cal Harris
Circus founder and acrobat
CAL Harris is the first to admit he’s living the dream.
The 25-year-old has wowed sold-out crowds at home and abroad with circus troupe Head First Acrobats, a company he co-founded.
“We’re three young mates travelling the world doing what we love — I’m very grateful,” Harris says.
Harris’ rise as a performance artist began with appearances at children’s birthday parties as a teenage magician.
At 15, he started busking with a mate, which led to his first circus show — which was a hit.
“We were doing a show a weekend, making quite a bit of cash … all my other mates were working at McDonald’s,” Harris says.
At 20, Harris co-founded Head First Acrobats with a small loan from his parents — a boost he described as life changing.
The troupe’s latest work, Elixir, depicts “three mad scientists trying to create the elixir of life” and has been lauded as an acrobatic masterclass. The company employs up to 12 people, including Harris, to pull off the shows.
The past year has been a blur for Harris, with three festivals in Australia and a UK tour pushing the trio to the limit. But the hard work appears to have paid off, with rave reviews helping fill seats at every stop and earning the troupe gongs at the Adelaide Fringe Awards for best circus and new theatre.
Harris says the company survived several mishaps that almost ended the dream.
“The first few years, we were just breaking even, and then a festival went bankrupt and we lost $40,000.”
Now, with steady income flowing, Harris has his eyes set on expansion.
“We’ve got three different shows and we’re looking to do more.”
His advice to aspiring performers is simple.
“If you’re in a position to be able to keep pushing, just keep pushing.”
Jake Shadbolt
Vegetable farmer
JAKE Shadbolt could drive a tractor by the age of eight. The Swan Hill farmer spent his early years helping around the family vegetable farm, and put in 10-hour days by the time
he reached high school.
He’s now 23, and only a few years off taking over the reins at Scotties Point Farms with brother Ryan, 21.
“I love it. I’m a builder one day and then a mechanic or plumber the next,” Shadbolt says.
“I learnt everything through Dad and if we ever get stuck, we jump on to YouTube and figure it out ourselves.”
Shadbolt’s involvement in the farm, which supplies onions, broccoli and beetroot throughout Victoria, led him to be nominated for the 2018 Australian Young Grower of the Year and Victorian Young Grower of the Year awards. He was also selected to travel to New Zealand and California as part of the 2018 Young Grower Industry Leadership and Development Mission.
Shadbolt has come back with big ideas about innovation on the family farm: “It was good to see the harvesting equipment and how they grow produce in the US.”
Shadbolt had the opportunity to study in Melbourne as a paramedic, but says he was born to be a farmer.
“I love the country lifestyle and being my own boss. Dad had me on a tractor by eight and I have been in love with it ever since,” he says. “The work is diverse. It never gets boring or repeats itself … I can get creative and learn many different skills.”
Louella Hogan
Contemporary dancer
WHEN Louella Hogan’s mother put her in ballet classes in Mildura at the age of four she never imagined that would be the start of a lifelong love affair would take her daughter around the world.
But flash forward 20 years and Ms Hogan is living and working as a contemporary dancer in Copenhagen.
“My mum put me into ballet when I was four. She said I would just flit around the house,” the VCA graduate said.
“I just loved it and kept on doing it. It felt very right and it was always the best thing I did.”
Ms Hogan said she liked the way dancing made her feel and discovering contemporary dance after years of ballet was exciting.
“School never felt as good as I felt dancing,” she said.
“I feel smart when I dance, in a way I don’t outside of dancing. I feel like I am pushing the edges.”
At 24, Ms Hogan is living her dream, having signed with the internationally revered Corpus contemporary dance company, under the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.
“Europe values dance differently than Australia does and often there is more support for arts over here.”
But the reality of being paid to dance every day with famous choreographers including Bobbi Jene Smith and Sebastian Matthias has not quite sunk in yet.
“I actually kind of can’t believe this is my job.”
“You’re always told that it’s an unattainable dream and that it’s going to be really hard to achieve and that you’re going to have a lot of failures and that you’re never going to get there.
“Even though that’s true, I think it’s more like, ‘No, you just have to work hard’.”
Cameron Knox
Allume Energy CEO
MOST energy company CEOs don’t head out to explain their business model to rental tenants in their own apartments, but Collingwood’s Cameron Knox isn’t most.
For a start, he’s 25 and his business, Allume Energy, is busily carving an entirely new way of producing and selling green energy to renters.
The concept is simple, according to Knox. Allume finances installation of the panels on the roof of the complex and then sells the power back to residents at half the retail rate.
“Apartment buildings have been out of the question for solar, pretty much globally, until now. We looked at that and saw an opportunity,” he says.
“Instead of them paying for the solar to be installed, we’d sell them the power.”
Allume has been overwhelmed with interest and has already installed panels on apartment buildings across Melbourne.
Knox studied engineering and French at the University of Melbourne before completing a masters in mechatronics “mostly because I didn’t really know what kind of engineering I wanted to be doing”.
His firm now has six employees and is looking to expand to the US.
“Hawaii is a really good next step for us,” he says.
“We’ll use that as a stepping stone into the rest of the US.”
The company has found success by asking for help and taking advice.
“Surround yourself with the right people,” he says.
“I think you need a mentor to lean on or an accelerator program. People love giving advice and helping.”
Shanae Collins
Elite skateboarder
SHANAE Collins gets her kicks “defying gravity”.
The 25-year-old Windsor skateboarder splits her days between the job that pays
the bills and the passion she hopes will take her to the Olympic Games.
“I just love the freedom of skateboarding and I love being part of a huge community for skateboarders,” Collins says.
“I enjoy defying gravity and doing things you didn’t think you could do.”
One of her goals is to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the sport
of skateboarding, and hopefully Collins, will make an Olympic debut.
The blue-haired skater’s days are full — waking about 3.30am to go to her job as a trainer at McDonald’s.
Around noon, she rides home, heads out for a skate, trains at the Victorian Institute of Sport and then practises with her punk band, Bad Batch.
The gruelling schedule takes its toll.
“I burn out quite a lot mentally because I go at 100 per cent the whole day,” Collins says.
“I make sacrifices every day.”
One of those sacrifices was moving away from her family in Queensland to Melbourne two years ago, to surround herself with the right people and be closer to sponsors, photographers, videographers and other awe-inspiring skaters.
“I’ve got so many friends that I skate with and heaps of people that are supporting me,” she says.
“I choose to be around those people who are going to benefit me and build me up. Everyone you come across is incredible.”
Collins can often be found at the St Kilda bowl and the Noble Park skate park.
“You get better if you push yourself and skate bigger and better things,” she says.
Eilish Gilligan
Singer-songwriter
SHE was mesmerised first by her grandmother’s piano, then by perfecting sheet music written hundreds of years ago.
But it wasn’t until Eilish Gilligan, 25, started writing her own “weird pop” music in her mid-teens and playing at open mic nights that the musician found her voice.
“I started as a very little kid playing my grandmother’s huge white piano. I was fascinated by the sound and the weight of the keys under my fingers,” the Fitzroy North singer-songwriter says.
“I already loved music but I really found my place in music when I realised I could
use that to create my own music and express myself.”
Her first songs were “pretty bad” and the open mic nights she played at the pubs around Wattle Glen weren’t full of adoring fans, but those gigs gave Gilligan experiences she still draws upon.
“They were all really bad songs but they were good for what I needed them to do, which was build my confidence,” she says.
Now her music is on rotation at Triple J and she has sold-out shows across the country, as well as been invited to play at new music festival Big Sound in Brisbane.
“It’s pretty amazing and humbling seeing people sing my words back at me from the stage. That’s something that’s going to stay with me for a very long time,” she says.
The musician also works as a publicist, piano teacher and mentor in the youth
music program, YoWo.
“It is important to be a good role model within the industry.
“I love watching people grow.”
Prue Stent and Honey Long
Multidisciplinary artists
BUBBLEGUM hues, faceless figures and blue skies dominate the internationally acclaimed work of multidisciplinary artists Prue Stent and Honey Long.
The 25-year-old artistic partners met at the start of high school and what they thought of
as fun experimentations transformed into a career, with the help of the internet.
“We just evolved from hanging out and making things, playing, and it slowly evolved into an art practice,” Stent says. “I think having a very strong friendship is definitely the key.”
Long adds, “It’s really nice making art in a way where it’s just as much about the relationship as it is the end product.”
Their work across photography, performance, installation and sculpture has taken them around the world, working with big-name brands like Gucci and showing in galleries from New York to Berlin.
Instagram played a vital role and the internet enabled the duo to reach customers, collectors and admirers.
“People who aren’t usually in the art world have access to it and people who aren’t even interested in art feel like they can connect with it,” Stent says. “You’re able to be connected with so many more people than what I think you previously could be.”
Australia’s wild landscapes inform their work and the duo use striking natural forms throughout their images.
“We really love gum nuts and stuff like that and making costumes that are inspired by the landscape,” Long says.
The duo grew up in Sydney but moved to Brunswick East for its thriving artistic community.
Charlie Carrington
Chef/owner Atlas Dining
WATCHING yet another batch of reality TV contestants talk about their “dream” of cooking, and hearing about another tear-jerking “food journey”, it’s easy to forget there are
more traditional routes to working in a restaurant.
But then there are dreamers, and there are doers.
Charlie Carrington, 24, is most definitely the latter, though his path to opening Atlas Dining in Prahran was anything but traditional.
For few restaurateurs have opened their first restaurant at 22.
And few chefs are so sure of their calling, they left school at 15 to pursue it.
But Carrington knew his future lay in a kitchen, so he dedicated the next six years to learning from the best, at Vue de monde in Melbourne and famed Sydney restaurant Marque, along with stints at restaurants across the globe, from London to La Paz, Sao Paulo to San Francisco.
However, it was his time spent with chef Lennox Hastie at the acclaimed flame-powered Firedoor in Sydney that proved most formative for Atlas Dining, where Carrington also cooks exclusively over fire and coals.
The restaurant captures the attention of the easily bored Gen Y crowd — Carrington changes the entire cuisine every four months — but with the cooking skills that bring their parents back, too.
Having opened the restaurant in 2016 with the food of Vietnam, Atlas was reborn as an Israeli diner, with Korea, Mexico and Peru following suit. Now it’s the food of France, but Carrington is currently in Brazil eating the inspiration for Atlas’s next incarnation.
“I want to offer a restaurant that people want to come back to. And when they come back,
it’s a new experience,” Carrington says.
And come back they do. Ranked 61 in the delicious.100, its peripatetic founder has firmly placed Atlas on the Melbourne dining map.
Katrina Palmer
Refinery apprentice
KATRINA Palmer is always “switched on”.
She can’t afford not to be when she is dealing with gas, diesel, unleaded petrol and bitumen at the
Geelong Refinery.
The electrical and instrumentation apprentice measures and controls the movement, pressure and temperature of those volatile products.
“Instrumentation is a bit of a niche trade that not many people know about,” Palmer says.
“You always have to be alert and switched on.”
The 22-year-old had planned to go to university but saw a dual apprenticeship ad at Shell, now Viva Energy, in the paper.
Four years into the job, Palmer hopes to be a role model for other young women seeking a career in a male-dominated industry.
She says that she “wasn’t sure what it would be like working in a male-dominated industry but a lot of people have been supportive of me along the way”.
“I was interested in the field, so I thought I’d just give it a go,” Palmer says.
“I’d like to think there’d be some kids in high school who’d think my job is pretty interesting and I encourage them to try a trade if it interests them.
“I didn’t know of many strong, female role models in the field when I started, so hopefully I can be that person for any young ladies interested in similar career choices.”
Determined to make the path easier for others, Palmer is volunteering with Geelong Women in Trade to promote the industry to “lady tradies”.
The group is also raising money to build a home for a family in Cambodia.
Ahmed Hassan
Director of Youth Activating Youth
BORN and raised in a cultural melting pot, Ahmed Hassan grew up despairing at the
lost potential of troubled young people in his community.
He spent his first working year in the corporate world, but felt there was something missing that could only be found in the not-for-profit sector.
At 22, Hassan is now the director of Youth Activating Youth, an organisation that works with multicultural disadvantaged youth to help them re-engage with society and become role models for those around them.
Since its inception in 2015, the service has dealt with more than 3900 young people through programs that have moulded them into community leaders.
“I’ve seen numerous young people who had the potential to be doctors, athletes
or engineers drop out of school and society because they didn’t have the support
structures to continue,” Hassan says.
“I saw that and I thought, ‘We can’t have this … We need to close the gap’.”
The son of migrant parents from Somalia, Hassan graduated from Reservoir High School,
where more than 60 cultural groups were represented in a normal day.
The lessons learned from that schoolyard have informed his decisions as a member
of Victoria’s African Communities Taskforce and deputy chair of the Victorian African Communities Action Plan.
“One thing I have learned is wherever you go you can never leave the community,” he says. “There are always new and emerging communities coming and there are no two people with the same problems.
“We need to look at marginalised and disadvantaged youth from multicultural backgrounds and we need to invest in young people. My goal is to bring government, industry and community together to see what we can do.”
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