Hello! I was supposed to write this a few days ago but in true imposter syndrome style, something stopped me in my tracks. So here I am, on the morning of my birthday, sharing some thoughts with you lovely people.

My feelings of imposter syndrome have really made a home for themselves within my mind over the last few months, and it’s something that has made my anxiety even trickier to deal with. The feeling that you are undeserving of a commission or an opportunity or that you don’t belong in a certain space can be quite the debilitating feeling. Well, for me anyway. It’s meant I’ve talked myself out of cool opportunities or events because I feel like a massive fraud. Even with the publicising and writing of this book, I still can’t believe it’s actually happening and I regularly feel undeserving and inexperienced to be taking on such a task. But why? Why do I feel like I can’t (or shouldn’t) do all these things?

This is the question I’m trying to ask myself more and more these days. I’ve been a writer for over three years now and have worked hard to get to where I am today. In the early stages of my career, I was working most evenings and weekends (which I do not recommend because boundaries are important!) and writing as much as I can in order to carve a space and career for myself. Yes, I don’t have an educational background in journalism but I have good ideas and a passion for research and storytelling. So why do I feel like such a fraud when I’m more than qualified to be doing the job I’m doing? I think it’s a question of confidence and never really seeing someone who looks like me in journalism and writing when I was growing up. And so it feels as though my career is living on borrowed time. But it isn’t. And I’m trying to remind myself of that.

I’ve started saving nice emails and feedback from editors and writers about my work so I can look back and remember it all. I’ve never been one to journal or keep a diary but I’m also making an active effort to write down my thoughts, both when I feel like a fraud and when I feel great about a piece of work. Fellow writers often ask me about confidence and imposter syndrome and I guess I can’t really offer any answers on that front but I can say that it’s *hard* out here and we all need to treat ourselves with a bit more softness and kindness.