Profile

I am 25, and I live in a small town called Bolsover (it literally has a castle at the top of the hill). I live with my parents and my dog Peanut – he is a cockapoo, 18 months old and he is VERY naughty.

Psychology wasn’t always what I wanted to do in life. What I really wanted to do was become a professional dancer or at least go to university to study it, but my parents advised me to also have a “back up”, which I’m glad they did. But yes, I loved dancing (& still do), I used to attend a dance school where I did ballet, tap, freestyle, theatre, jazz, gymnastics and street dance. However, I soon realised that this was more of a hobby than a career option (for me, anyway). I loved Psychology at A Level so I decided to follow this passion instead & here I am studying a PhD in it.

Outside of my PhD and teaching, I love to read fiction books, eat yummy foods and go on long walks. I love spending time with my boyfriend, and visiting my friends that live all over the UK. I also spend a lot of my time chasing Peanut round the house after he’s picked up numerous socks and other things he shouldn’t have.

So I am currently studying for my PhD in psychology. I am in my final year which means I am doing A LOT of writing. My PhD is exploring appearance-related interactions on social media and how that impacts on teenagers’ body image. I also work on other projects which look at body image interventions in schools, and mental health evaluations in youth groups.

Alongside my PhD, I teach university psychology students all about statistics, infant and child development, and adolescent development. I love teaching!!

What I love about my job is that every day is different. It all depends on where I am with a specific project as to what job I will be doing. Some days I spend a lot of time writing up research projects, whereas others I am designing studies. I also could be recruiting and collecting participants, working on other projects or teaching undergraduate students.

At the moment, I work from home three days a week. On the other two days I have to get up at 5.30am to travel two hours into work. These are the days I teach so they are very different to the days where I can work on my PhD or other research-related projects.

I love my job and love how no two days are the same – it keeps me on my toes and helps me focus. One thing I always make sure I do though, no matter what the day, is I finish work at 5pm on the dot every single day. I think it’s incredibly important to have a good work-life balance so when 5pm hits I shut down my laptop or go and get the train where I do something I enjoy (e.g., read a book, listen to a podcast, eat some good food or go on a walk).