GUEST SPEAKER ALUMNI
2020 - MARINA PASSALARIS
Founder: Beautiful Minds
Beautiful Minds tackles the tough topics, bringing them to light so our youth feel empowered, educated and supported throughout their often-challenging journey of being a teenager.
Today, Marina and her team of 85 expert educators, deliver workshops to thousands of Australian teens and adults each year. She has received both national and international press for the success of her business and the impact she has on the community. This year, Marina was interviewed by The Washington Post, selected as a world leader in the youth space.
This year, Beautiful Minds educated 1.5 million school students through their school diary content. The Beautiful Minds content has the approval of the Australian Education Department with content being gifted to 3.5 million parents through an online school diary.
As of 2019, Beautiful Minds will be available worldwide through our series of online programs and regular events hosted in Australia and the US.
The FOGS committee would like to thank Marina for her contribution to our event during the very difficult 2020! Please watch her video on our Home page and visit the Beautiful Minds website via the Learn More link below.
2019 - REBECCA SPARROW
Over the past 25 years Rebecca has been a travel writer, a magazine editor, a newspaper columnist, a TV scriptwriter and a novelist. She is perhaps best-known as the author of three best-selling non-fiction books for teenage girls designed to help them navigate those tricky high school years. Those books include Find Your Tribe (and 9 other things I wish I'd known in high school); Find Your Feet (The 8 things I Wish I'd Known Before I Left High School) and the best-selling Ask Me Anything (heartfelt answers to 65 anonymous questions from teenage girls).
Aside from writing books Rebecca writes for Mamamia, plays agony aunt to teenage girls on the Ask Me Anything podcast and runs an online course called The Lighthouse Plan to help parents build deeper bonds with their daughters. Rebecca is an ambassador for The Pyjama Foundation, ReachOut Parents and #TeamGirls a joint initiative by Suncorp and Netball Australia. She is a mother to three kids.
The FOGS Committee would like to thank Bec for her inspiring talk at the 2019 event, great tips and advice from years of expertise in the field! Awesome! To find out more about Bec or to get in contact please visit her website via the Learn More link below.
2018 - MADONNA KING
Madonna King is an award-winning journalist, author and commentator. She has long been known as the voice of current affairs in Queensland, heading the top rating current affairs program on the ABC for six years, and winning several national ABC awards for her journalism. Madonna’s ninth book is called Fathers and Daughters and it follows her award winning book Being 14. She has also authored biographies of former federal treasurer Joe Hockey, and Australian of the Year and inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine, Ian Frazer.
Madonna writes a weekly column – That Thinking Feeling – for Fairfax, and appears also in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend magazine. Previously, she wrote a popular Saturday column for Brisbane’s
The Courier-Mail.
We'd like to thank Madonna for her valuable contribution to the 2018 event and encourage all FoG's to hit the Learn More link below and check out her books or to get in contact.