We talk about "brand" a lot here in the office, too much for my liking if I'm totally honest. Maybe because I don't think I have one, and I'm afraid that the way this industry is headed I probably need one to be able to put myself back out there, so to speak, at some stage.
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I'm rather proud that in the course of this career, one for the most part, somewhat ironically you might think, I've spent in the one place, that I've managed to do all sorts of things. Sport, news, lifestyle, I've edited magazines, produced race guides, written a lot about whatever took my fancy in a particular week. You can't define me.
But apparently that's what we need to be doing.
Even our daughters.
My colleague Bree Winchester wrote a story this week about a workshop coming to Canberra which encourages teens to consider their "online brand".
Now I'm sure Helen Roe - and Helen and I have corresponded over the years about teenagers and social media and her book Girl Tribes - has her heart in the right place. I don't doubt that for a minute. And I like the idea of empowering girls, giving them strategies for navigating a world that is totally different to the one their mothers grew up in. But to get them thinking about an "online brand" seems so counter productive.
I was watching America's Next Top Model this week - one of my guilty pleasures - and this episode just happened to be about brand. They asked the models - and this season's collection is about as catty as they get, but that's a different story for another day - to define their brand in a couple of words.
Model Chic, Fresh and Clean, 90s Grunge, Sexy Royalty, Gender Bender, Fem Rock, Youthful Sophistication. Oh please.
What would my answer have been? Flannelette Glam, Deliberately Comfortable, Confused, I'm out of Bed Isn't that Enough, Self Deprecating?
How can we define ourselves like that? How can we tell our daughters that is what they need to do?
There seems to be a lot of positives to the Be Youtiful workshop. (Perhaps the idea that poor spelling and grammar does not a catchy slogan make! Add Grammar Nazi to my list of definitions.) There'll be a lot about equipping them to show up as their best selves, and to have the clarity and confidence to make smarter decisions in life, a lot about focussing on their strengths and their self belief.
So let's not ask them to define themselves. Let's let them be indecisive and creative and explore all parts of their personalities they might not even know they possess just yet.
I want my daughter to be kind, to herself, to her family and friends. I want her to be authentic and honest. I want her to have a sense of humour. To be able to laugh at herself, to make others laugh. To stick up for herself and stick up for others when she senses injustice.
I don't want her defining herself by a brand. I don't want her to have a brand.
I want her to be her. It scares me now, that she's on this cusp of womanhood, when there is so much pressure to be this, to be that, to not be this or that.
Baby girl, just be yourself. And that self will change every day.
I've seen some of the most interesting women I know totally reinvent themselves. Women who were defined as mothers, wives, daughters, find their own true self. You've got years ahead of you for that.
Life will throw you many challenges that mean you'll be faced with that reinvention whether you like it or not. And believe me, there'll be times you'll doubt yourself because you're not who you thought you were anymore.
Just know that everyday the best you can be is you. And I hope that is something different every time you pull on a pair of Big W trackies, or paint your gorgeous nails with Chanel nail polish.
You are you. That's your brand. And it's mine too.
