Once upon a time, there was a young woman who was named ‘The Koala’ by her younger siblings. The animal nicknames have long stuck, and although most people call her Laurie, her sister (The Giraffe) and her Dad still refer to her as Koala.
She grew up on the edge of Leith in Edinburgh, went to Aberdeen to become a Geography Teacher but graduated as a Health Scientist and has spent most of her life working with teenagers. Working with young people led her to go back to university part-time and get her diploma in Community Education (diploma achieved in 2015, but still not received).
When she’s not working you’ll find her blogging, volunteering with Girlguiding (which she writes about on her other blog The Girlguiding Life), listening to BBC 6 Music, watching her favourite shows on Netflix, using her kitchen worktop as a ballet barre, trying to learn several languages, strumming on her purple ukulele, pestering sports journalists to run more stories on gymnastics, updating wikipedia to include more articles on women, in a bookshop trying to not buy anymore books (and failing), hanging out with her friends at the beach, snapping photographs or hauled up in a café with a book & some cake.
She loves chocolate, cake, fresh summer fruits, singing, bouncing, chatting, laughing, music, film, theatre, dance, surfing, gymnastics, stand up comedy, books, beaches, sunshine, and learning languages.
She also supports several causes including raising awareness for organ donation, literacy, maternal and child health, childhood cancer research and youth work.
