As a young girl, I was never a big reader even though my Dad would come home with boxes full of books for me. He would sigh and say, “I am the king of books, and my daughter doesn’t read”. This changed when I joined the family business and truly discovered the magic of stories in 2002 upon returning from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where I had studied Art. 

I never planned on joining the family business. I wanted to become a teacher, and I decided to spend a year helping the family whilst making applications for my teaching certificate. My dad made me start at the bottom, unpacking boxes of books (oh those childhood memories of boxes of books!), shelving them and even dusting the shelves. This was vital experience for me when I eventually took on the buying and merchandising for the stores. 

My passion is children’s books and I’ve enjoyed curating not only a range of books, toys and learning tools but also creating a designated space for kids to come and explore. I love seeing parents sitting comfortably and reading to their kids in our stores on a Saturday afternoon. Once I had my own daughter, I found a gap in the market for other kids products and started to source these and increase the product offering in our stores (mostly for myself 😊) but I'm glad to see this has worked and our customers have been really happy. 

As a buyer, I literally get to go shopping every day. I love visiting book, toy and gift fairs and being able to discover new products. And I love getting proof copies of new books before anyone else, I get so excited! But the thing I love most about what I do is interacting with customers in the stores. Hearing their feedback on what they like and would like to see more of gives me great satisfaction.