Local Girlguiding leader selected to represent her unit at the Juliette Lowe Seminar

Natalie Lawrence, 27, has been selected to represent Girlguiding at the Juliette Lowe Seminar, a distinguished international event involving members of guiding and Scouting from across the globe.

She has been a member of Girlguiding since she was five and has gone from strength to strength after joining the Rainbows as a youngster to becoming a Brownies, and then going on to being a young leader. Natalie has led both Brownie and Guide units around the country for over eight years.

Since moving to Portsmouth in 2020, she has re-established her own Brownie unit, 2nd Farlington Brownies, and works as a secondary school history teacher in East Hampshire.

The Juliette Lowe Seminar, which began in October 2022 and runs until June 2023, will welcome over 500 women between the ages of 18 to 30 to take part in a number of activities which are being run by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

She said: ‘I was really proud when I was first chosen and I was genuinely really excited to meet up with like-minded people because Girlguiding has been in my life forever and I am really proud to be one of the UK people to represent Girlguiding at something that spreads across the world and has already been so insightful and interesting to learn about different cultures around the world.’

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Natalie’s first chance to represent Girlguiding at an international meeting that happened on December 2 at the event’s opening ceremony. As part of the programme, she will travel to Pax Lodge, London, the world centre for Girlguiding in the UK, to meet the other nine UK representatives.

The seminar comes together with the participants to help design a leadership project that will reach over 100 girls in the local community over the next six months.

Natalie’s ultimate ambition is to be able to inject her love of running and outdoor activity into the project, and she is excited to participate in her very first international event with Girlguiding.

She added: ‘We are always pushing for more adult volunteers to help. We have got a waiting list of girls that want to join Girlguiding but we need the help.’