September 10, 2025 • 16 mins
Welcome to She Built That, the podcast series where we discover incredible women and girls who didn't just dream big...they BUILT their futures!
In this episode, you'll hear from the incredible Katherine Bennell-Pegg, Australia's first-ever astronaut qualified under the Australian flag. Hear how Katherine went from being a young girl staring up at the starry night sky and dreaming of becoming an astronaut, to building her future and making it her reality. Tune in to find out how she took her dream and BUILT it into something out of this world!
This is a co-listening podcast for parents and kids to enjoy together.
She Built That was made in partnership with LEGO Girls.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hello future builders, and welcome to She Built That, the
podcast where we discover incredible women who didn't just dream big,
they built their futures. Each week we uncover the stories
of remarkable women who didn't just reach for their dreams,
they engineered, assembled, and.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Blasted off towards them.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm your host, Annalise Todd, Mamma MIA's lifestyle writer and
just for today, your mission control. But let's not launch
until you've had a little challenge. Can you guess which
out of this world builder we're featuring today? Adults in
the room, don't hold back.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
This is a competition, after all.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Number one, this Stella guest grew up gazing at the
Southern Hemisphere's stars, wondering not if, but how she might
visit them one day.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Clue number two.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
She's Australia's first locally trained female astronaut and has also
completed training with the European Space Agency.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Clue number three.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
She's passionate about helping girls and kids break through atmospheric
ceilings and has made it her mission to get more young.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Ossies excited about.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Science, engineering and building their own futures. Can you guess
who it is? So did you get it? If you
guessed Catherine Barnell peg, you're orbiting right on target. Today
we're talking about engineer an Ossie astronaut Catherine Bannell Peck,
(02:12):
who's building a launch pad for the next generation. So
buckle up for liftoff, because after this break, your voyage begins.
A rocket sits silent on the launch pad, steam swirling
(02:33):
in the pale morning light.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
But inside the.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Crew room, Catherine Barnell pegs half pounds louder than the
countdown clock, her hands tremble, drawing tight.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
The sleeves of her flight suit.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
This is it, the moment she spent a lifetime building towards.
But also the doubt sneaks in like gravity. Would she
make the cut? Would she prove she belonged up there
in that rare company of astronauts. Picture this a young
(03:15):
girl in Australia looking up at the night sky, dreaming
every single star could be a stepping stone, asking herself
what any nine year old on Sydney's Northern beaches would
think about.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know if black holes are invisible?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
How do we even know that they're not just intergalactic
vacuum cleaners sucking up all the lost socks in the universe?
And can I train my goldfish to be the first
fish astronaut if I build it a tiny lego fish helmet? Also,
how much benchi might would I need to survive up there?
Completely normal stuff. That was Catherine Barnell, peg endlessly curious
(03:55):
and always tinkering. She wasn't just asking why, she was
asking how do we get there? And Spira thought for
Mum and Dad, who had so much life admint on
their plate. They hadn't had time to consider if the
universe was expanding, but they watched Catherine in awe.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I used to like lying on the grass in my
backyard and in the northern beaches of Sydney where I
grew up, and I get bindies all over my shirt
most evenings, and I used to just look up at
the spectacular sky. And it was my mum that said
to me, you know, some of those lights, they're not
just fire away stars, some planets, whole worlds that we've
(04:32):
never had anyone see up close before. And as a
young kid, you're full of beautiful navity about the world,
and I just wanted to be one of the people
that gets to go plant my feet in that dirt
and look at those new horizons. For myself, I thought
that sounded like an incredible adventure.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Even as a kid, Catherine wasn't afraid of things that
looked impossible. While other kids collected dolls, Catherine collected space
fats and model rockets. She dragged her family into backyard launches,
those fizz pop bottle rockets that sometimes soared, sometimes spluttered.
But as she grew up, the world top space isn't
(05:11):
for girls like you. There were no Aussie girl astronauts,
no easy blueprints, just blank pages and a universe sized
what if? I asked Catherine how she stayed passionate when
the path ahead was so uncertain.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I just thought that going to space would be the
greatest adventure I could hope to have for my life.
So at school, all of our years asked to write
down three options for what we might like to be
when we grew up, and I just wrote astronaut and
left the other two blank, because for me, what else
is there that comparees absolutely nothing? I was fortunate that
(05:48):
my school and my parents. They didn't make fun of
me or anything for that. Instead, they said, we'll go
and figure out what that would actually take, probably hoping
i'd see a bit of sense and how unattainable that is.
And yes I did see it's unlikely, but it was
just really exciting for me, and I was full of
optimism about the future. But I did know at that
(06:08):
time Australia didn't even have a space agency, let alone
a pathway to being an astronaut, so I knew it
would be a hard and long road. I knew my
life would probably have to be overseas, and that's what
I thought it would be.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Undeterred, Catherine made her own plans. She stacked on knowledge
like mission patches, maths, science, engineering, each one marking another.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Step towards the stars.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Meanwhile, some grown ups are still struggling to press mute
on a video call. But no judgment here. You are
seen at school, Catherine's curiosity sometimes set her apart.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
While others worried about.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Being cool, Catherine dreamed about being capable.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Of course, there were setbacks.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hard equations, hard days, times when it felt like everyone
else moved ahead on a clear path while she was
always having to prove herself again and again and again,
but every failed attempt was a lesson. Every experiment gone
wrong was secretly another step right. Growing up, Catherine built
(07:21):
literally and figuratively. She joined any club that would let
her invent, experiment or create science bears, coding teams, even
a robotics group with only two other girls. I really
wanted to know what kept her showing up, especially when
others doubted her.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I did my year ten work experience with the CSIRO
at Parks Radio telescope the Dish about the same time
the movie came out the Dish.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I knew what the day year on.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Now Nata of sending there, that's fine, they're written the dish,
but how.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
About a bit of respect? Two Way Street.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wouldn't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We're a professional unit.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And I realized doing my week long work experience there
that these people that travel around the world and take
data looking at faraway stars and galaxy in big telescopes,
they're just normal people, and they're not superheroes, and they're
just people that work hard at their goals and do
(08:19):
something that they enjoy. And that made it seem far
more realistic.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
High school ended and Catherine didn't follow the crowd. She
blazed her own trail. She studied space engineering, diving into
a field where the odds were even higher and the
challenges tougher. But space isn't just science. It's never giving
up on yourself, even when nobody else can.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
See what you see.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
After years of building her skills, her confidence, her community,
Catherine's tenacity paid off. She became one of the very
first Australian women selected for astronaut training.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
This was her liftoff moment.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Bound for the European Space Agency, she trained in everything engineering, teamwork.
It's a bit like family camping, but with less arguing
over ten poles and more zero gravity. Catherine wasn't just
learning the science of space, but discovering the power inside
herself to lead and remember that challenging moment at the start,
(09:27):
the self doubt that never vanished entirely. Astronauts always live
with uncertainty. But every time Catherine zipped up her suit,
she was building more than just a career. She was
building a new path for anyone who'd ever looked up
and wondered if they could belong. Catherine explains what the
training was like and how she overcame the moments when
(09:49):
she wanted to give up.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
The training itself is incredible, and this training for us
was thirteen months, just over a year. And the main
destination for astronauts in space today is the International Space
Station and then in future to the Moon. So up
there with the scientists in the sky, the hands ears
of scientists on the ground doing every kind of science
you can imagine. I remember on the first day arriving
(10:13):
at the Astronauts Center with the five others in my class.
You know, it was made very clear to us that,
you know, our bodies are now guinea pigs the scientists.
We did space food lessons. We learned about nutrition. Now
in space you can eat many kinds of foods. It's
a lot better than it used to be. It used
to be tubes and cubes, and now it's more like
camping food. You just can't eat anything that creates crumbs
(10:37):
because it would float around to get new ears or
your mouth or your nose or some equipment. You also
can't have any drinks that are fizzy, because if you
think on Earth, there's an up and a down, and
in your stomach the liquids at the bottom and the
airs at the top and when you burp, the air
comes out the top. In space, there's no up or down,
so everything's mixed together, so if you burp, it gets messy,
(11:00):
So no fizzy drinks on orbit. The first lesson we
did was the toilet lesson how to use the space toilet,
and the answer is you use it carefully. It's quite
different from Earth. There's no seat because you don't need
to sit down. You're not heavy, there's no weight. You float,
but you have to aim properly and you have, you know,
a plastic bag that has to bag everything up. Your
(11:21):
number ones are recycles, so yesterday's coffee becomes tomorrow's coffee.
The number twos go are stored potentially for weeks to
months in a cargo area of the space station and
then are packed into a cargo vehicle and burned up
in the atmosphere. So if you look up and see
(11:42):
a shooting start, it might be not what you think.
I remember we did centrifuge training where they spun us
around and around and around at the end of a
long arm to go through the profile of launch and
re entry and when you're at the top of a
rocket going up the rocket has the backbits fall off
it in stages as the fuels you start and when
(12:04):
that happens, you're in zero G. Between the stages and
on the centrifuge they replicate it this so it would
feel like you're actually tumbling and you feel the force
through your chest. It's like you've got six of you
lying on your chest. We felt up to six or
so G, which is very heavy and it's quite hard
to breathe. You have to breathe in zips like to
(12:25):
make sure you can breathe through it. And afterwards, you know,
I had the biggest smile on my face. It was
like the best fairground right ever. But I was very,
very dizzy, and I like stood up, took a few
steps and walked right into a pole, which was really
embarrassing and it was on camera for all my class
to see.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
One small step in a training exercise, but one giant leap.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
For Australia, Catherine Barnell Peg is our country's first Femire.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Is a mother of who from Adelaide and Australia's astronaut
Katherine Banell Peg.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Today, Catherine Barnell Peg is a builder in the truest sense.
She's opened the launch pad for more Australian girls to
step into the future with STEM skills, with curiosity, with
courage to go when no one from here has gone before.
An improved program, particularly from the humble beginnings.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
We all saw on the dish.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And now she's inspiring the next wave of space builders,
speaking at schools, leading projects, proving you can design your
future even when everyone else is stuck on Earth.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Most people focus on the fat I'm a woman, rather
than the fact I'm the first to represent Australia, and
I think that demonstrates that there's a conversation worth having
there about that women and stand are in the minority.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
So what advice would Catherine give to girls who dream
beyond borders, stars or expectations.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
If any young person has a dream that they feel
strongly about, well that's fantastic. Having a dream to pursue
is an absolute joy. And if you think it's worthwhile
doing and you're willing to put any effort, you should
absolutely pursue that dream without hesitation. Even if you don't
think you fit the stereotype. No, that just means you
(14:10):
add a different kind of value and you belong there.
I think that for those that are not sure what
their dreams are yet. There's plenty of time to think
through what you might like to dream of, and I
would encourage you to think about what matters to you,
what's important to you, Think about what you want to
contribute in your life, what problems you want to help solve,
(14:33):
what you might like to discover, and then figure out
your own path on the way to get there. That's
more important, I think, than thinking about what you want
to be. Think about what you want to contribute. You know,
fifty five years ago or so humans were walking on
the moon. They couldn't have imagined the world we'd be
in today. They didn't have the Internet, let alone Instagram
or influences. They didn't have three D printers, let alone
(14:55):
post it notes. Fifty five years or so from now,
young people who are at school today will still be
in the workforce. We can't imagine that world, but we
can imagine what we want to contribute to it and
the kind of people we'd like to be as we
do so, so I think that's a good way to
frame things to be purpose driven. For those that might
want to be an astronaut or work in stem I'd
(15:17):
say work hard, at school because performance does matter, but
you don't have to be top of your class. You
just have to put in the effort and apply yourself.
And if you're applying yourself to something you enjoy, you'll
do better because the effort and the grit has a
higher purpose that pulls you through.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So next time you stare at the sky or try
something no one else is doing, remember Catherine Varnelle Peg.
She didn't just dream of space, she built the path
to get there. Building your future takes heart, hustle, and
a touch of stubbornness.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
You don't have to fit a mold.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
You just have to start stacking your talents little by
little until those dreams look possible. Your challenge this week
find something you care about and take a first step,
write about it, draw a picture. What part do you
want to know more about, or just talk to someone
about your biggest What if? Dreams are built from questions?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Go ask yours.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Today's episode was written by Tom Lyon, who also did
our sound design. Our executive producer is Courtney Ammenhauser. The
producer is Tina Mattloff, and I'm your host, Annalise Todd.
Thank you for listening to this season of She Built That.
We hope you've enjoyed our amazing stories. There could be
more to come watch this space. In the meantime, remember
(16:39):
incredible girls don't just dream, They build, happy building
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hello future builders, and welcome to She Built That, the
podcast where we discover incredible women who didn't just dream big,
they built their futures. Each week we uncover the stories
of remarkable women who didn't just reach for their dreams,
they engineered, assembled, and.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Blasted off towards them.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm your host, Annalise Todd, Mamma MIA's lifestyle writer and
just for today, your mission control. But let's not launch
until you've had a little challenge. Can you guess which
out of this world builder we're featuring today? Adults in
the room, don't hold back.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
This is a competition, after all.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Number one, this Stella guest grew up gazing at the
Southern Hemisphere's stars, wondering not if, but how she might
visit them one day.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Clue number two.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
She's Australia's first locally trained female astronaut and has also
completed training with the European Space Agency.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Clue number three.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
She's passionate about helping girls and kids break through atmospheric
ceilings and has made it her mission to get more young.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Ossies excited about.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Science, engineering and building their own futures. Can you guess
who it is? So did you get it? If you
guessed Catherine Barnell peg, you're orbiting right on target. Today
we're talking about engineer an Ossie astronaut Catherine Bannell Peck,
(02:12):
who's building a launch pad for the next generation. So
buckle up for liftoff, because after this break, your voyage begins.
A rocket sits silent on the launch pad, steam swirling
(02:33):
in the pale morning light.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
But inside the.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Crew room, Catherine Barnell pegs half pounds louder than the
countdown clock, her hands tremble, drawing tight.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
The sleeves of her flight suit.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
This is it, the moment she spent a lifetime building towards.
But also the doubt sneaks in like gravity. Would she
make the cut? Would she prove she belonged up there
in that rare company of astronauts. Picture this a young
(03:15):
girl in Australia looking up at the night sky, dreaming
every single star could be a stepping stone, asking herself
what any nine year old on Sydney's Northern beaches would
think about.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know if black holes are invisible?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
How do we even know that they're not just intergalactic
vacuum cleaners sucking up all the lost socks in the universe?
And can I train my goldfish to be the first
fish astronaut if I build it a tiny lego fish helmet? Also,
how much benchi might would I need to survive up there?
Completely normal stuff. That was Catherine Barnell, peg endlessly curious
(03:55):
and always tinkering. She wasn't just asking why, she was
asking how do we get there? And Spira thought for
Mum and Dad, who had so much life admint on
their plate. They hadn't had time to consider if the
universe was expanding, but they watched Catherine in awe.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I used to like lying on the grass in my
backyard and in the northern beaches of Sydney where I
grew up, and I get bindies all over my shirt
most evenings, and I used to just look up at
the spectacular sky. And it was my mum that said
to me, you know, some of those lights, they're not
just fire away stars, some planets, whole worlds that we've
(04:32):
never had anyone see up close before. And as a
young kid, you're full of beautiful navity about the world,
and I just wanted to be one of the people
that gets to go plant my feet in that dirt
and look at those new horizons. For myself, I thought
that sounded like an incredible adventure.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Even as a kid, Catherine wasn't afraid of things that
looked impossible. While other kids collected dolls, Catherine collected space
fats and model rockets. She dragged her family into backyard launches,
those fizz pop bottle rockets that sometimes soared, sometimes spluttered.
But as she grew up, the world top space isn't
(05:11):
for girls like you. There were no Aussie girl astronauts,
no easy blueprints, just blank pages and a universe sized
what if? I asked Catherine how she stayed passionate when
the path ahead was so uncertain.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I just thought that going to space would be the
greatest adventure I could hope to have for my life.
So at school, all of our years asked to write
down three options for what we might like to be
when we grew up, and I just wrote astronaut and
left the other two blank, because for me, what else
is there that comparees absolutely nothing? I was fortunate that
(05:48):
my school and my parents. They didn't make fun of
me or anything for that. Instead, they said, we'll go
and figure out what that would actually take, probably hoping
i'd see a bit of sense and how unattainable that is.
And yes I did see it's unlikely, but it was
just really exciting for me, and I was full of
optimism about the future. But I did know at that
(06:08):
time Australia didn't even have a space agency, let alone
a pathway to being an astronaut, so I knew it
would be a hard and long road. I knew my
life would probably have to be overseas, and that's what
I thought it would be.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Undeterred, Catherine made her own plans. She stacked on knowledge
like mission patches, maths, science, engineering, each one marking another.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Step towards the stars.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Meanwhile, some grown ups are still struggling to press mute
on a video call. But no judgment here. You are
seen at school, Catherine's curiosity sometimes set her apart.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
While others worried about.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Being cool, Catherine dreamed about being capable.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Of course, there were setbacks.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hard equations, hard days, times when it felt like everyone
else moved ahead on a clear path while she was
always having to prove herself again and again and again,
but every failed attempt was a lesson. Every experiment gone
wrong was secretly another step right. Growing up, Catherine built
(07:21):
literally and figuratively. She joined any club that would let
her invent, experiment or create science bears, coding teams, even
a robotics group with only two other girls. I really
wanted to know what kept her showing up, especially when
others doubted her.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I did my year ten work experience with the CSIRO
at Parks Radio telescope the Dish about the same time
the movie came out the Dish.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I knew what the day year on.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Now Nata of sending there, that's fine, they're written the dish,
but how.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
About a bit of respect? Two Way Street.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wouldn't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We're a professional unit.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And I realized doing my week long work experience there
that these people that travel around the world and take
data looking at faraway stars and galaxy in big telescopes,
they're just normal people, and they're not superheroes, and they're
just people that work hard at their goals and do
(08:19):
something that they enjoy. And that made it seem far
more realistic.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
High school ended and Catherine didn't follow the crowd. She
blazed her own trail. She studied space engineering, diving into
a field where the odds were even higher and the
challenges tougher. But space isn't just science. It's never giving
up on yourself, even when nobody else can.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
See what you see.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
After years of building her skills, her confidence, her community,
Catherine's tenacity paid off. She became one of the very
first Australian women selected for astronaut training.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
This was her liftoff moment.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Bound for the European Space Agency, she trained in everything engineering, teamwork.
It's a bit like family camping, but with less arguing
over ten poles and more zero gravity. Catherine wasn't just
learning the science of space, but discovering the power inside
herself to lead and remember that challenging moment at the start,
(09:27):
the self doubt that never vanished entirely. Astronauts always live
with uncertainty. But every time Catherine zipped up her suit,
she was building more than just a career. She was
building a new path for anyone who'd ever looked up
and wondered if they could belong. Catherine explains what the
training was like and how she overcame the moments when
(09:49):
she wanted to give up.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
The training itself is incredible, and this training for us
was thirteen months, just over a year. And the main
destination for astronauts in space today is the International Space
Station and then in future to the Moon. So up
there with the scientists in the sky, the hands ears
of scientists on the ground doing every kind of science
you can imagine. I remember on the first day arriving
(10:13):
at the Astronauts Center with the five others in my class.
You know, it was made very clear to us that,
you know, our bodies are now guinea pigs the scientists.
We did space food lessons. We learned about nutrition. Now
in space you can eat many kinds of foods. It's
a lot better than it used to be. It used
to be tubes and cubes, and now it's more like
camping food. You just can't eat anything that creates crumbs
(10:37):
because it would float around to get new ears or
your mouth or your nose or some equipment. You also
can't have any drinks that are fizzy, because if you
think on Earth, there's an up and a down, and
in your stomach the liquids at the bottom and the
airs at the top and when you burp, the air
comes out the top. In space, there's no up or down,
so everything's mixed together, so if you burp, it gets messy,
(11:00):
So no fizzy drinks on orbit. The first lesson we
did was the toilet lesson how to use the space toilet,
and the answer is you use it carefully. It's quite
different from Earth. There's no seat because you don't need
to sit down. You're not heavy, there's no weight. You float,
but you have to aim properly and you have, you know,
a plastic bag that has to bag everything up. Your
(11:21):
number ones are recycles, so yesterday's coffee becomes tomorrow's coffee.
The number twos go are stored potentially for weeks to
months in a cargo area of the space station and
then are packed into a cargo vehicle and burned up
in the atmosphere. So if you look up and see
(11:42):
a shooting start, it might be not what you think.
I remember we did centrifuge training where they spun us
around and around and around at the end of a
long arm to go through the profile of launch and
re entry and when you're at the top of a
rocket going up the rocket has the backbits fall off
it in stages as the fuels you start and when
(12:04):
that happens, you're in zero G. Between the stages and
on the centrifuge they replicate it this so it would
feel like you're actually tumbling and you feel the force
through your chest. It's like you've got six of you
lying on your chest. We felt up to six or
so G, which is very heavy and it's quite hard
to breathe. You have to breathe in zips like to
(12:25):
make sure you can breathe through it. And afterwards, you know,
I had the biggest smile on my face. It was
like the best fairground right ever. But I was very,
very dizzy, and I like stood up, took a few
steps and walked right into a pole, which was really
embarrassing and it was on camera for all my class
to see.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
One small step in a training exercise, but one giant leap.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
For Australia, Catherine Barnell Peg is our country's first Femire.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Is a mother of who from Adelaide and Australia's astronaut
Katherine Banell Peg.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Today, Catherine Barnell Peg is a builder in the truest sense.
She's opened the launch pad for more Australian girls to
step into the future with STEM skills, with curiosity, with
courage to go when no one from here has gone before.
An improved program, particularly from the humble beginnings.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
We all saw on the dish.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And now she's inspiring the next wave of space builders,
speaking at schools, leading projects, proving you can design your
future even when everyone else is stuck on Earth.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Most people focus on the fat I'm a woman, rather
than the fact I'm the first to represent Australia, and
I think that demonstrates that there's a conversation worth having
there about that women and stand are in the minority.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
So what advice would Catherine give to girls who dream
beyond borders, stars or expectations.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
If any young person has a dream that they feel
strongly about, well that's fantastic. Having a dream to pursue
is an absolute joy. And if you think it's worthwhile
doing and you're willing to put any effort, you should
absolutely pursue that dream without hesitation. Even if you don't
think you fit the stereotype. No, that just means you
(14:10):
add a different kind of value and you belong there.
I think that for those that are not sure what
their dreams are yet. There's plenty of time to think
through what you might like to dream of, and I
would encourage you to think about what matters to you,
what's important to you, Think about what you want to
contribute in your life, what problems you want to help solve,
(14:33):
what you might like to discover, and then figure out
your own path on the way to get there. That's
more important, I think, than thinking about what you want
to be. Think about what you want to contribute. You know,
fifty five years ago or so humans were walking on
the moon. They couldn't have imagined the world we'd be
in today. They didn't have the Internet, let alone Instagram
or influences. They didn't have three D printers, let alone
(14:55):
post it notes. Fifty five years or so from now,
young people who are at school today will still be
in the workforce. We can't imagine that world, but we
can imagine what we want to contribute to it and
the kind of people we'd like to be as we
do so, so I think that's a good way to
frame things to be purpose driven. For those that might
want to be an astronaut or work in stem I'd
(15:17):
say work hard, at school because performance does matter, but
you don't have to be top of your class. You
just have to put in the effort and apply yourself.
And if you're applying yourself to something you enjoy, you'll
do better because the effort and the grit has a
higher purpose that pulls you through.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So next time you stare at the sky or try
something no one else is doing, remember Catherine Varnelle Peg.
She didn't just dream of space, she built the path
to get there. Building your future takes heart, hustle, and
a touch of stubbornness.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
You don't have to fit a mold.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
You just have to start stacking your talents little by
little until those dreams look possible. Your challenge this week
find something you care about and take a first step,
write about it, draw a picture. What part do you
want to know more about, or just talk to someone
about your biggest What if? Dreams are built from questions?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Go ask yours.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Today's episode was written by Tom Lyon, who also did
our sound design. Our executive producer is Courtney Ammenhauser. The
producer is Tina Mattloff, and I'm your host, Annalise Todd.
Thank you for listening to this season of She Built That.
We hope you've enjoyed our amazing stories. There could be
more to come watch this space. In the meantime, remember
(16:39):
incredible girls don't just dream, They build, happy building
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