Empowering Young Women: Bronte’s Journey
Hey! I’m Bronte Edwards, and I’m the founder of The Girls Circle—a space all about empowering young women through connection, education, and real opportunities. I’ve spent years working closely with girls and young women, and I’m passionate about creating spaces where honest conversations can happen, where you feel seen, heard, and supported.
After going through heartbreak in my late twenties, I started thinking a lot about healthy relationships, boundaries and self-esteem. I realised there wasn’t much out there that was relatable or easy to access in a way that truly resonated with girls and women, especially around narcissistic abuse. I also discovered at 30 years old that I had Attention Deficit Disorder, part of the ADHD umbrella and as a millennial, this was something that was rarely discussed in education growing up. For years I struggled to figure out my working style. In school – I could never quite find the right balance and I masked by over-achieving and playing into my leadership strengths, which has allowed me to be able to passionately and effectively set up and lead The Girls Circle.. silver linings hey! But, I recognise this isn’t the case for everyone and there is so much that sits under the ADHD umbrella including the differing symptoms that will look and feel different to every single person, such as rejection sensitivity disorder, ADHD burn out, ADHD paralysis and hyper fixation to name a few… all of these symptoms can be really tricky to manage, especially in relationships, friendships and work/education! That is why I have set up the ADHD circle for women diagnosed and undiagnosed, a safe space for women aged 20 to 35 years old to simply share and support each other. Why that age range? Because I personally believe, that is the age range with the least support for women figuring out their neurodiversity in the work or education space. I went through hell and back figuring out what that looked like for me with very little support. We get into the grey area of ‘I should be doing this’ to the actuality of what ‘this looks like’, I am really passionate about supporting other young women through this. It is important to note that I have had some amazing examples of courageous and unapologetic women lead me and support me over the years.
I have also had an on-going battle with polysistic ovaries and endometriosis for 10+ years, which has truly spurred on my passion to stand up for and provide a vocal space around women’s sexual health and over all health. I began sharing my thoughts and resources online, and what started as a little platform on TikTok quickly grew—women and girls from all walks of life were connecting with my openness and perspective. In that space, I felt supported and not alone, in return, I was supporting others too. I quickly realised, how draining that can become. Being a sponge for trauma dumping is all fun and games until you are suffering burn-out from vicarious trauma. This, is where I began to plan and strategise and build up The Girls Circle as a movement and safe space that provides opportunities for young women and girls whilst created boundaries and a safe space for myself within that. I also figured out that I didn’t have to respond to every direct message to support and empower girls and women, that I could reach women and girls and inspire them through public speaking, online forums, in-person events and connecting and networking with women through many different avenues, including The Girls Circle podcast, sitting on all major platforms (I love a shameless plug! But if you haven’t, why aren’t you following the podcast hey?).
I am also extremely passionate about not only the youth justice system, but the justice system in general! You will often hear me speak about under-represented voices and journies of people that I have worked with or known (all anonymous by the way). It is super important to me that I mention my passion for justice in absolutely everything that I do, as often those voices are missed, misrepresented and judged. I am also extremely passionate about supporting care-experienced young people and care-leavers. Working with young people with care-experience has been a big part of my career to date, and the injustices that I have witnessed towards care-experienced young people and adults and young people in the justice system, has been and still is, diabolical. I will never stop advocating for them. Did you know that 1 in 3 care-leavers will receive a caution or conviction. And, roughly, 1 in 4 prisoners in the United Kingdom are care-experienced.
I’ve built The Girls Circle from the ground up, and it’s been a journey of self-discovery, imposter syndrome, heartbreak, maturing, community building, partnership, healing and standing in purpose and power. Here we have projects, podcasts, blogs, national talks—you name it. I’m committed to keeping things real, sharing my voice, but also lifting up the voices of the incredible girls and women in our community. My goal? To help young women understand their worth, own their power, and step confidently into their potential.
If you would like to work together or have any upcoming opportunities; we are always open to having a conversation! I offer a range of freelance workshops both in person and online, school assemblies and conference/public speaking talks that focus on building healthy relationships, female empowerment, and the power of advocacy and belief.
Please fill out the contact us form in the contact tab. Equally, email: info@thegirlscircle.com and myself or a member of the team will pick it up. We are a small busy team, so please be kind with response times ❤
