Hope is our strongest weapon...

A line from a fabulous performance poetry piece at the impressive start to the Women of the World (WoW) Festival in Perth.

It was a day for girls from schools across Perth and Kinross to come together for talks, workshops and mentoring.

It was a privilege - and a total joy - to be one of the mentors - spending the whole day talking to small groups of girls about leadership, gender and the issues that matter to them in their world.

It makes me so furious that the stereotype of young people is so negative when days like today show me just how compassionate, caring and determined our young people are. Every one of them talked about inequality, poverty and conflict as the things they want to tackle and see an end to.

They do indeed give me so much hope. What a WoW day indeed x