18/09/2026
I’m back from Sydney, still trying to get through the mountain of emails waiting for me, and I found this little gem sitting in there…
Actually - two little gems.
I’ve been named a finalist in two categories at the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business:
Maverick of the Year
and
Social Change Maker of the Year – Disability
And they feel like two sides of the same work.
Maverick of the Year reflects the part of me that keeps questioning the things we’ve been told are simply “how it’s done.”
Why should people have to adapt themselves to services, systems and environments that were never designed with them in mind?
Why should accessibility be something we add only after someone struggles?
Why should support require people to become easier, quieter, more predictable or less themselves?
I’m interested in what becomes possible when we stop forcing people to fit what isn’t working - and start building something that actually works for them.
And Social Change Maker of the Year – Disability reflects what happens when those questions become more than ideas.
They become organisations.
Services.
Technology.
Better access.
Books, tools and practitioner learning.
Different ways of thinking about disability, support, capacity and what it means for a person to remain the authority over their own life.
That work has become Neurodivergent Empowered, The Nest, Sparkly Aliens Inc. and FREE 2B ME.
I don’t want to spend my life simply pointing at systems that aren’t working.
I want to build the alternatives.
So finding out I’m an international finalist for both Maverick of the Year and Social Change Maker of the Year – Disability feels pretty bloody special.
Sadly, for the third year in a row, we won’t be attending the awards in person in the US, because it is not safe for us to do so.
That part is genuinely disappointing.
But the recognition still means a lot, and I’m incredibly proud of the work these nominations represent.
Apparently refusing to accept “that’s just how it’s done” has its moments. 😆
{You can imagine little Tan driving everyone crazy with, "But whyyyyyyyy?"} 🤣🤣🤣
Less fixing. More living.
