Profile

I live in Surrey with my three housemates; one of my housemates has two guinea pigs called Bella and Sissy (inspired by Harry Potter) and they live downstairs. My boyfriend lives in London, so I spend a lot of time there at the weekends. I really love London because there is so much to do and explore. My favourite colour is pink (I also like rose gold) so lots of the things I own are those colours. Everyone says I am really easy to buy presents for because I love pink so much! I also REALLY love cats. My cat lives with my parents in my family home, she is ginger and white and she is called Pixie. She is the fattest cat ever! She is so huge and my parents keep trying to put her on diets but she hunts so much in the night time they never work. She is very soft and cuddly, when she lies on my lap she wraps her arms around my tummy and rests her head on me so she really cuddles me – it’s so cute! I also love dancing and have been a dancer since I was 2. I have done ballet, tap, modern, street jazz, latin and ballroom since I was little. I like to try new dance styles too. I have done lots of competitions and keep all my trophies at my family home. I also love going on adventures! I like travelling and have been to lots of different countries. I went to the Caribbean for 6 weeks once and it was amazing. My boyfriend and I like travelling too, we went to Georgia last year (the country, not the state in America!) and it was so cool because not many people spoke English, so we felt like true explorers!

Fun facts about me: I can do a bridge (backward bend) and walk in it like a crab; when I was a baby I broke into the water buffalo cage at Colchester Zoo and chilled with them for a bit; I can speak a little bit of French; I am a direct descendent of King Henry the 8^th.

I am doing a PhD in Psychology. A PhD is the top qualification you can achieve from going to university. When you are doing a PhD, you choose a topic that you are really interested in and you do lots of research about it. The idea is that, at the end of your PhD, you will write a book with all your research in and (hopefully) it will be really interesting!

So, what’s my research about? I am interested in how children use the internet. I am especially interested in how children use social media sites (like Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, YouTube…). I like finding out about what children think about these sites, what they do on them and how they make them feel. There are lots of really great things about using social media, but there are some risky things too. So, I like to know about both sides and help children to use them safely and to do cool stuff on them too!

How do I do my research? To find out more about these things, I have been working with children all over England. I have used online questionnaires where children have answered questions about how they use social media. I have also interviewed children (and parents and teachers too). I especially like interviewing because I love a chat!

What do I like the most about my research? I love meeting new people and learning about their lives. I find my research really interesting, it’s always great to learn new things (even when you’re a grown-up!).

What do I like the least about my research? Sometimes it can be very tiring. I have had to travel all over the country to do my research, which is really fun, but sometimes I just want to lie in bed and be lazy!

I wake up early (around 6:00am) and go to the gym. I don’t like getting up early, but if I wake up later I feel like I’ve lost part of the day! I like going to the gym in the mornings because it helps me wake up and it also make me feel fit, healthy and ready to accomplish anything! I come home, have my breakfast and go to my office. I am normally in the office by 8:30am. I like chatting to my friends who work in my office (there’s quite a few of us), we always have really funny conversations! Then I spend my mornings doing coding. Coding is when you write letters, words and numbers which tell your computer how to do something. I use this to help me find out information about my research. Then I have lunch with my boyfriend and my friends (around 12:00pm). Following this, I work on some writing. When you’re a scientist, you work hard to write up your research so other people can read about it. There’s not much point in doing lots of hard work and then not show it to anyone, is there? It takes a long time to do this, though. So, I spend the rest of my day working on writing. If I am going to visit children, I will go and do this in the afternoon. I go to schools, meet the teachers and chat to children all afternoon (I much prefer these afternoons!). At the end of the day, I like to go for a walk with my boyfriend to stretch our legs and get some fresh air! Then we get some groceries and go home, make dinner and watching T.V. or read until we go to bed.