Celebrating International Women's Day with Heidi Bryant

Heidi - why did you decide to write children's books?

Since launching my first children's book in November 2018, many people have asked me why I did it... The 'raison d'être' of my books is this: to inspire children to learn new languages, discover amazing places and experience different cultures.

You worked in financial services before? Why the change? 

Well, all my life I've tried to be the best at what I do and since I was 5 years old have been super determined to do what I want to do and what I love doing. No-one is going to stop me - however hard some people have tried to slow me down or change my course. I spent 25 years working in finance and worked with some truly amazing and inspirational people and made many, many good friends. Sometimes, you just need to take a little break and exercise your brain even more by throwing yourself into the deep end and create yourself one of the biggest challenges ever... to succeed in one of the most competitive markets of all - children's books.

What were you like at school and what did you enjoy most?

At age 9, I discovered the grammar school that I wanted to go to and nothing was going to stop me achieving studying at that school. The school had everything, a beautiful school uniform, history, quirkiness, pedigree and above all languages. I worked super hard at school and at weekends carried out extra-curricular lessons to ensure that I would pass the selection test when I was 10.

French, German, Spanish and now Italian are all languages that I have studied, fell in love with and that sparked my grand enthusiasm for overseas travel, meeting new people and experiencing what the world has to offer. Now, I know that some people haven't been as fortunate as I have and I really wished I'd started learning languages much younger than 11 years old.

Who inspires you?

My mum and dad are two of the most amazing and inspirational people in my life. My mum always supports everything I do, she is such an amazing woman and fitting to be talking about her on International Women's Day. Of course, I have to mention my dad - who is super positive and would literally do anything to help me become successful - including dressing up as a cat!

I have to shout out to my French teacher at school; Madame Walsh - who really inspired me to learn French and then go onto learn other languages. She was also responsible for introducing me to one of my dearest friends Christelle - who is featured in my first book 'Vince Goes to Paris.'

What's next Heidi?

This is only part of my story and the journey is still ongoing. I'm looking to create a much larger series of books in 'The Adventures of Vince the Cat' range and to work with companies from all over the world to help me get the messages, language learning and incredible places to children who have a thirst for knowledge and cats, of course! I also hope to have another exciting announcement soon, so watch this space...