Up until the age of 13, girls are confident, and they feel like they can conquer the world. Then adolescence sets in, and girls lose their confidence. And 'Seventeen' is really about them taking an hour out of their month, unplugging, lying on their bed, and reading a magazine that believes in them.
At the age of 10, I had my first piece published in what was known as the 'Junior Post,' which was part of the 'Yorkshire Post,' and it was just for kids. I read it every week. And I got paid for it. So I thought... 'I can actually do this. I can get paid to write, and this is going to be fine.' I wrote several pieces for them.
It was quite jarring to go from newspapers to magazines, and the reason I did it was because I had my second son, and with my second child, I just thought, 'I can't travel at will,' which you really need to be able to do. And so I had a sort of slow realization that I could no longer do the job that I loved.