It's an odd Wednesday that feels like a Monday after the longest Sunday that there ever was. I'm not massively patriotic or into the Royal Family at all but I must say thanks Lizzy for giving your loyal subjects two days off work. However, I think all this pomp and circumstance is a bit old hat, and slightly ridiculous considering what state our country is in right now. Anyway....ironically, for someone who is on maternity leave, I ended up working in some measure, firstly doing my usual review spot on the Singles Club on 1xtra (tune in Mondays at 9am, that's quality radio right there), and then on to the Radio 1 and 1xtra Academy at the Hackney Picturehouse to doing a spot of inspiring for the youth. This whole project was put together by a tiny team at the BBC (I see you Emma and Ngunan) who wanted to inspire and inform young people in Hackney and get them interested in a career, whether that be in journalism or film-making, website building or fashion. When I agreed to do it I thought to myself, yeah this'll be okay - it wasn't til I really realised what it was all about that I was like this is actually amazing. The Beeb got people like Leona Lewis, Noel Clarke and Plan B (and little old me) to share their wisdom with hungry young people that really want to hear it and that's such a great thing. I was on a panel with two amazing female journos (Akilah Russell and Kieran Yates) who I felt inspired by and took tips from too, as well as from our host DJ Nihal. It was great to interact with smart, intelligent young people with aspirations who really wanted to pick our brains and make something of their lives. These are the same kids who are labelled troublemakers or, worse still, an underclass because a few of them thought it was okay to loot a Foot Locker. How about we all stop writing off a whole generation? This is what we pay our license fee for people, not just for wrist-slitting episodes of EastEnders or now-I'm-freaked-out-by-bike-couriers installments of Luther, but for arming the next generation with the tools and knowledge they need to be whatever it is the dream of. And that is so important - especially at a time when they are being dumped on from a great height. It's great to be celebrating 60 years of the Queen on the throne but how about setting the stage for the people who are going to be around for the next 60 years. I think we've forgotten that they need some celebrating too.
PS. Check out my top 5 tips to get into journalism here! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00thk56
PPS. I hate the way I look in this video...
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