3 Inspiring Women Tell Us About Their Interesting Careers

By 2017, I took the step to get my racing license. The timing was remarkable – 2018 was the year women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. The public attention I received wasn’t something I had expected. People were inspired, supportive and curious. I started getting messages asking how they could get into motorsports. That feedback made me realise that my journey wasn’t just about me anymore. I had a responsibility to help others find their way into the sport.

That’s where the idea for Theeba Motorsport was born. At first, I thought about creating a Saudi race team – bringing in local talent, training them and building something from the ground up. But I soon realised that before we could have a team, there needed to be more education and awareness about motorsports. So now, I focus on grassroots efforts, working with local federations, organising talks and creating opportunities for young drivers to get involved. The ultimate dream is to establish an academy where we can nurture talent and create a clear path into the sport.

I often get asked about the challenges I’ve faced as a woman in motorsports. The truth is, the racing world is tough for anyone, regardless of gender. I started later than most drivers, so my approach was always different. I was carving my own space in endurance racing, where experience and strategy play a bigger role. That said, there have been moments where I’ve had to prove myself. Racing is competitive, and you have to assert your presence on the track. I don’t let my gender define my place in the sport. I focus on my performance. I let my actions speak louder than words. If someone doubts me, I see it as motivation rather than discouragement.

The support system around me has been invaluable. Racing is not an individual pursuit – it’s a team effort. I have mentors, teammates and a community that has helped me navigate this world. That’s why I want to create similar opportunities for the next generation. When people look at my journey on social media, they might think it all happened overnight. But the reality is that it took years of learning, adapting and taking small steps toward a bigger goal. Motorsports wasn’t a childhood dream – it was something I discovered along the way. Now, my goal is to help others find their path into it, too. The sport is growing in Saudi Arabia, and the future is bright. I’m proud to be part of this movement, and I can’t wait to see where it leads next.

International Women’s Day holds a special significance for me. It’s a reminder of how far we’ve come and how much more there is to achieve. Motorsport, like many industries, has traditionally been male-dominated, but we’re seeing more women step into the spotlight and break barriers. Representation matters, every time a young girl sees a woman behind the wheel of a race car it reinforces the idea that she, too, can pursue her passion – whatever it may be. My journey is just one example, and I hope it inspires others to chase their dreams, no matter how unconventional they seem. On this day, I celebrate not just my achievements but the progress of women everywhere who are pushing boundaries and redefining what’s possible.

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Born and raised on a remote island in Fiji, professional surfer Hannah Bennett is deeply connected to the ocean and her people. As a trailblazer in Pacific Island surfing, Hannah and her sisters were among the first women to represent Fiji on the international stage and she also made history as the first female president of the Fiji Surfing Association, using her platform to empower young athletes, particularly women, through mentorship, surf clinics and documentary storytelling. She currently runs Fiji Surf Girl Clinic, an empowering female community focused project which sees Hannah go into Fijian villages, asking for the blessing from the village Chief to take the girls away from their duties to have a day for themselves, learning to surf and about ocean stewardship and environmental awareness. 

My older sisters inspired me to take up surfing but I began to develop a passion for it when I started competing as a teenager. Competing at the  World Surfing Games alongside my older sister Kim and fiancé Victor are some of my greatest memories. But being the first Fijian female to compete in the world qualifying series and pave the way for younger generations is the thing I will forever be grateful to have the opportunity to do.

I don’t believe that just by being a woman, I deserve to be given anything. I do, however, believe that even as a woman, I have the right to be given equal opportunity to earn everything. I spent years competing against my male counterparts in local events because there was either not enough female competitors or simply not a division that represented us. I know my presence during these events didn’t feel like it made any difference at the time but now I realise my participation showed other girls what was possible, even to myself. Once that path was paved, there was no turning back. Establishing fair representation in local competitions inspired me to become a strong advocate for equal prize money and acknowledgement for female competitors which I’m proud to say has become the norm within our surfing community today.

I have been volunteering for the Fiji Surf Association for over a decade. My journey started as a development officer for youths in rural coastal communities. I have always been motivated by the younger generation and creating the kind of opportunities for them that I never had growing up. Introducing kids to their ocean environment through the art and sport of surfing is a beautiful experience for both the teacher and the student. I founded Fiji Girls Surf clinics for this exact purpose but also to help refuel my inspiration and remind me of my purpose as a leader and servant of my community. Our main goals are to continue to grow the sport in a diversified way that offers sustainable career pathways grounded in the ethics of good sportsmanship, ocean stewardship and importantly our heritage as Pacific Islanders. 

What people don’t understand is that I become highly motivated when I’m pushing boundaries. I enjoy rustling a few feathers, influencing a cultural shift or shattering another glass ceiling. Of course, it’s daunting and I rely heavily on my inner circle to help navigate these moments, but it fires me up and I’ve actually become quite comfortable in this role. I’m at a place now where I feel at ease, I feel like I’ve grown into my own potential and I’m confident in my capacity as a leader. What’s important to me as president is to lead with humility but also show unwavering tenacity towards the mission. I’m not afraid to push back, to speak up for others. I think it’s important to embrace criticism because when you’re doing something that’s never been done before, it’s part of the job and my only hope is that I set a precedent that ensures the women after me will be taken seriously, treated with respect and have a voice. 

My annual Fiji Surf Clinic continues to grow every year, and I enjoy getting creative with the different ways we craft that experience for the girls. A lot of it is about working with women-centric brands, like Rise Beyond The Reef & Salted Swimwear, which truly understand empowerment at its core and ensure all our local events have female divisions with equal prize money. Mentoring young women in our community to up-skill in official roles – like gaining accreditation as judges, coaches, beach marshals and even executive board members – is also part of our work. Real empowerment begins by equipping our female counterparts with the tools and education to make their own mark, pave a different path or create something unique to who they are.

Here in the Pacific, surfing is a way to reconnect to our ancestral practices and ocean environment. It has the ability to empower communities, promote ocean stewardship and preserve our cultural heritage. About 90% of Fijian communities live on the coast or shoreside and surfing is a pursuit that requires you to be in tune with the natural world. You have to know what the tides are doing, the geography of the reef, where the winds blow and all this knowledge has been embedded in us by our ancestors. Through surfing, we have the ability to navigate issues such as climate change and economic instability by reverting to our traditional ways of self-sufficiency and sustainability as realistic solutions. I’m currently involved in a documentary film capturing my vision and my journey as a Polynesian surfer and the people and places that inspire me along this path. I’ve really enjoyed the process of storytelling through film as a form of cultural preservation and I can’t wait to share this project with the world.

Competition is cool but community is cooler. My advice to other women and girls is to use your platform and skills to lift up your people and keep your environment clean. IWD to me is an ode to all the women before us and for all those yet to rise. I believe women have the power to accelerate action in a way that brings about real solutions through compassion, strength, community and tenacity. 

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Sexual assault survivors' rights, women’s rights and the fight against anti-Asian hate are interconnected. My advocacy spans these areas because justice must be intersectional. When attacks on the AANHPI community surged in 2021, I felt uniquely positioned to address this through Rise’s track record on sexual violence survivors' rights. Sexual violence disproportionately affects women, particularly women of colour and immigrants, and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes highlighted the intersectionality of these issues. By advocating for survivors' rights, while confronting racial, gendered and xenophobic violence, we can work toward a more just and equitable world, where all forms of oppression are addressed together.

You do not have to sacrifice your joy to pursue justice – you can always be multitudes. I like fashion and space and make-up, and in the process of fighting for my rights, I’ve found the people who uplift all of those parts of me, like e.l.f.; we worked together on an incredible short film called Show Your(s)e.l.f that follows my journey from my activism to space. Any woman looking for where to start should look for the people who want to help enable every part of you. 

Hope is a renewable resource. Despite ongoing challenges and to be honest, the chaos that we see daily, understanding the power of having hope and leveraging hope as a resource for change keeps me motivated. I see it in the amazing organisers who fought in the trenches with me for survivors’ rights, I see it in my beloved community of women astronauts. At Rise, we teach a concept called hopeanomics – the idea that grassroots organising stems from hope and that hope can scale to change the world.

My mum is a refugee from Vietnam – we came on boats and now we're on spaceships. All within one generation, which just goes to show the power that we have. And it’s so important to me to bring my community with me. So, I know that I might be the first, but I definitely want to make sure that I'm not the last. Just as I fought for my civil rights as a survivor so that no one would have to go through that again, when I fly, I want to show all the young Asian American women out there, especially the Vietnamese community, that they belong in the stars.

One of the initiatives I’m really excited about is passing a treaty for universal justice. We’re working with His Excellency President Bio of Sierra Leone to create the “Freetown Treaty” – a treaty that will ensure that rape and sexual violence are considered crimes universally, which means that no matter where they go or what borders they cross, rapists will not be able to escape accountability.

International Women’s Day is about the past, present and future of women. It is about honouring the women whose shoulders I stand on to reach the stars. It is about nurturing the women of today, whose brilliance, joy and passion fuel change for the future. And it’s about planting seeds for the next generation of women to flourish, thrive and make the world a better place.

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