Why is it always mum who knows what day non-uniform day is?

Therese is the founder of Hey Ladybird — an AI powered app that turns school emails, WhatsApp messages and permission slips into an organised family calendar.

She built it because she was living the problem every single day.

In this episode we talk about the mental load and the invisible labour that falls disproportionately on mothers — from being the default school contact even in two parent households, to the way women's bandwidth quietly gets consumed by unpaid family admin instead of career growth.

In this episode:
→ The story behind Hey Ladybird and how it actually works
→ Why mums become the default parent for school and childcare admin even when that was never the plan
→ What the mental load is really costing women's careers
→ Founder lessons from building parenting tech and raising millions for charity
→ How to reframe criticism and use a backhanded compliment as fuel

For the mother who is holding all the information in her head right now and wondering why it always seems to be her.

Pre-mum me wore heels a lot because I tied a significant part of how I felt about myself to how dressed up I was.

Motherhood changed that. First out of necessity then out of choice.

Jumpsuits, trainers, and somewhere across 3 to 5 years of motherhood the casual dressing stopped feeling like a compromise and started feeling like exactly enough.

But there is more to it than just the clothes.

In this episode:
→ The jumpsuit era — optimising to get out of the house with two small children and how that accidentally started everything
→ Why living in a social media vacuum has been one of the most quietly powerful things for my confidence
→ What happens when you stop comparing and start actually liking yourself
→ Why confidence that is not dependent on what you are wearing is a different kind of confidence entirely
→ What I want my daughter to observe — it is good to look your best, but do not lose yourself in the process

It started out of necessity and somewhere in between I found a version of confidence I did not know I was missing.

Not every lesson that shapes you as a mother happens after you become one.

This episode is my top six experiences from before motherhood that I now recognise as the foundations of the mother I am today.

→ Solo travel
→ Quitting my job and navigating a career pivot
→ Solitude
→ Losing my mum at 9
→ Frugality with money

→ Heartbreak

Motherhood blows everything wide open. The rules change. The priorities shift. And suddenly you are back to basics in a way you never expected.

But you are not starting from scratch. You are anchored by everything you quietly lived before they arrived.

That is why these six experiences matter to me.