Confidence and Careers: A talk with Generation Tribes’ co-founder Charlotte Harding

Charlotte Harding is an NCTJ qualified journalist, who writes features for newspapers around Sussex and the etc. Magazine. She also co-founded the website Generation Tribe and is a trustee for a charity called The Literacy Hubs in Portsmouth.

Empoword Journalism’s Holly Hostettler-Davies spoke to Charlotte about how she got into journalism, her thoughts on young women and confidence, and more about her work for Generation Tribe.

Holly Hostettler-Davies: How did you get into journalism? Is it a career you always wanted to do?

Charlotte Harding: Yes, it is. I’ve wanted to be a journalist since I was about 12/13. At school, my English teacher suggested that it was something I could be good at.

I started to write as much as I could. I wrote for the local newspaper and got printed in a magazine called Cosmo Girl. Then throughout college and university, I wrote for the student newspapers.

After Uni, I didn’t go into journalism; I got another job at a publisher putting together science journals. I was made redundant from that, and with the redundancy money, I decided to go back and do an NCTJ diploma. At the end of my NCTJ Diploma, I got a job at a local newspaper called The West Sussex County Times, where I began my career.

HHD: As a features writer, you spend a lot of time writing about topics in depth. Do you think people read this and take something from it? Is that what motivates you to write features?

CH: Yes, I love human interest stories, and I love talking to people. For the etc. Magazine in Sussex, I have done loads of things. For example, I was a beekeeper for the day, but then I’ve also interviewed a husband whose wife died from cervical cancer at 25, and he wanted to raise awareness. So, you go from the really fun and playful feature to that kind of heart-breaking one.

I just want to do a good job, and want people to read about themselves and be happy about it. I want to share people’s stories, and I’m nosy, I just want to find out more. I think you have to be nosy to be a good journalist!

HHD: What have been the biggest challenges of your journalism career?

CH: I had a pretty rough start when I was a trainee. I had quite a hard news editor; he just pushed me a lot. You expect criticism as a trainee, it was just a lot, but it made me strive because I wanted to do better and prove that I could do it. Seven years later, I’m still a journalist and love what I’m doing and still striving to do better.

HHD: Do you think there is a gap in journalism for younger women, especially when it comes to pitching? Do you think this has been made worse in the current climate?

CH: Where I work in Sussex, we have quite a high number of female content editors, and I know female editors as well. I think the thing is with women, and it links to my work with Generation Tribe, is a confidence thing.

We don’t want to come across as too pushy. You don’t have to be pushy, but you need to put yourself forward and have the confidence in your ideas and your writing. You have to put confidence behind yourself because if you’re not confident in yourself, then others won’t be confident in you.

It’s a big stumbling block, and that’s why we launched Generation Tribe, to give women and girls confidence to follow different careers and show that there are other pathways into doing a job that you love.

HHD: You’ve mentioned Generation Tribe, which is a website you co-founded. Could you tell us a bit about what led you to start it and how it works?

CH: We launched it on the 4th May 2019, I launched it with my friend Bex Bastable, who is also a journalist. We saw that girls and women lacked self-esteem and confidence, and we were looking at social media filled with people like the Kardashians, where there’s a market for them, and we were thinking that as a 15-year-old girl looking at them, you’d be feeling left out.

We’re aimed at 15-25-year olds, and we just wanted to provide somewhere where girls could go and read interesting features about interesting jobs and interesting women that have stories to tell. We focus on career stories; we have police officers, a lot of scientists and stem subjects, we have fire officers and a lot of people who have started their own businesses.

We also have stories from people who have changed their career, to show that you can step away and you can change your mind. We wanted to inspire and empower women and girls to be what they want to be.

HHD: Are there any tips that you’d like to offer to aspiring journalists? Or just to young people in general about finding their paths in life?

CH: With journalists, I would say try and get as much work experience as you can. Work for different newspapers and magazines, because they have very different ways to write. Ask questions, and be proactive.

Journalists are very busy people. If you can get work experience go with something you can do yourself so if they are busy then you know you can work on your own ideas. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone! Have confidence in yourself and confidence in what you want to do. If you don’t know what you want to do, it’s not the end of the world. If you’re not sure, just do something you love! I would just say, follow your passion, and you’ll get there in the end!

If you want to see more of Generation Tribe’s amazing work and read some of the inspiring stories, check out her website here. You can also follow Charlotte’s Twitter account to check out her content and the amazing work she does.

Holly Hostettler-Davies
Tweet to @Hollyhd2002
Featured image courtesy of Charlotte Harding.