A Bit About Me

I’m writing this blog to connect with new mums like you. Mums who lie awake at night, our smart phones under the duvet, Googling our way through all the baffling idiosyncrasies of babyhood. Amongst all the how-many-weeks-is-he/she-nows out there inspecting you up and down, there is also thankfully a huge amount of mutual support, advice and encouragement. I’m here to add my constructive drop to the ocean. 

My name is Natalie Rees, I’m in my early 30s and over the past 6 short years (the older you get, the quicker they fly), I have come to call Bradford my home. Originally from a small town in Tipperary, Ireland, I moved to Bradford on a career break in 2006 to study and to do community outreach work. But in the words of Robert Frost: ‘Knowing how way leads on to way…’ I never made it back. Before the switch to copywriting, I had been working as a primary teacher up to that time and had just been promoted to Deputy head at the age of 25. It was a huge accomplishment for someone of my age. But having survived a house fire, which destroyed all of my earthly possessions, it really made me re-evaluate my outlook on life and what I wanted to do with it. I saw it as a way of existence ridding me of all the ‘stuff’ I had acquired, physically and emotionally, without having to cough up a 10 week smartly sum to my nearest New Age centre. I left the comfort and security of the known, packed my 15kg Ryanair baggage allowance and set off for Bradford. 

In 2009, I graduated from the University of Manchester with a Masters in Creative Writing in hand, married one of the reasons I planted my feet in Bradford, John, and our beautiful daughter Esmé was born on a snowy night in December 2011. I love to read, but I am admittedly a bit of a book snob. I generally stick to Faber and Penguin for my staple diet. You will often find me at Yorkshire poetry readings, bringing the average age and hair colour down by about 20 years. I also love walking in the countryside and forests and my latest addition to my ‘mild exercise’ regime has been a turquoise mountain bike (it was donated).  Three years’ ago I picked up the violin again, having learnt it for a year or two in my teens, with a goal to get to Grade 5. I proudly reached this tickable target last year. I think my skills will cap there. The theory gets too mathematical for my brain beyond that. Plus, my music producer husband says my sense of rhythm isn’t precise enough to take it further. But he is happy to spend many an evening tinkering around with folk songs on his guitar with me and I am happy enough with that.

Along with continuing to teach in primary schools across Bradford, I also became a freelance copywriter and steadily built up my client base over the past number of years. On maternity leave, I've decided that this is where I want to solely place my energies (it's been a long time coming), and I now work as a freelancer.

So that's the tip of the iceberg for now. Enjoy the blog!