.png)
By Maud Webster|Norwich, England
The Dream Big Princess project has been immense; it was in undeniably a life-changing experience. Each of the twenty other girls I had the privilege to participate in the programme with has such a intense motivation to change the world: they are incredibly intelligent, confident and I hope they’re aware of their importance in the world, and the huge impact they’re bound to have on the people around them. We were forever commenting how similar our mindsets are, despite all our completely different backgrounds and lives.
There were three phases.
Travelling to Washington, D.C. for the Girl Up Summit was my first time out of Europe, and my first time travelling completely alone, which was quite an experience in itself.
I had, what I’d thought was, the best three days of my life so far (spoiler: this was only just topped by the next trip!). The calibre of the speakers was incredibly inspiring and I found myself involved in such deep, thought provoking conversation with young women & men from all across the world. We were also able to participate in an incredible series of workshops from filmmakers from a range of companies, organized and co-ordinated by women from Disney & the brilliant production company we were going to work with on our films, Summerjax. Just thinking about the passion and excitement the professionals had about their jobs and the project itself gives me such motivation to pursue whatever I want to do.
The second part was the filming itself. I felt so nervous leading up to the week, however I was instantly settled by Lauren and Wimberly, our mentors from Summerjax. We got to explore the incredible location of Pinewood Studios, where an extraordinary range of films have been created and produced, gathering b-roll. The interview with Kathleen Kennedy was astounding; her presence is phenomenal and the advice she gave so confidently is hard to express in words. I was in awe. The crew were magnificent and the experience as a whole went so quickly and was so much fun.
Lastly, we were surprised in September to find out that we would be reuniting in NYC, to go on Good Morning America, at the launch of our video series on the international Day of the Girl.
Our group chat imploded with ecstatic messages and hugging and seeing and talking to everyone about how they’d been was such a spectacular moment. The internet allows us to be connected, however the special connection we received when all being back in the same room together was unforgettable.
After a day of exploring the city, and the Good Morning America interview (wow! what! I still can’t really believe it happened!), we hopped on a plane to Orlando. Disney World. What an out-of-this-world experience.
I’m still a bit in shock that I’ve had the honour to work on this unbelievable project, with such a stunning bunch of people, in incredible places. It’s grown my confidence immensely, and I’ve been equipped with an array of skills and experiences I’d never ever have thought I’d be able to be exposed to. If you’d told I’d have been in this position a year ago, I’d have laughed so hard.
Please, my biggest advice for finding and getting to work on opportunities like this is just to apply to everything. Get out of your comfort zone: you’ll never know where you will find yourself.
(And a massive thanks for the girls who also participated, everyone who supported us, Girl Up & Disney & Summerjax.)