Fourteen-year-old Tiana Stephen from St. Ignatius, Region Nine, firmly believes she can achieve anything, despite being told she is “just a girl.”
Her persistence has ignited her dream of becoming a mechanic.
This brilliant indigenous young lady is committed to breaking gender stereotypes and during an interview with the News Room, shared how she began learning the trade over the August holidays.
Her inspiration? Her father who learned the trade from his father as a young boy. She hopes to carry on this family tradition.
But it was her father who told her that it was not a job for a girl.
“At first when I asked him to work with him, he was like – ‘this work is for ladies or women’ and he said too, ‘cooking, cleaning and washing, that is for ladies’,” Tiana explained.
After her father said no, Tiana did her research to show her father that girls can do anything, and with some help from her grandmother, her father agreed to teach her.
“I watched many videos with girls doing the same thing men can do, anything a girl can do like what men can do even my grandmother told me that. She told me that a man could not feel the pain of labour, and that pain is more hard than men work.
“I kept bothering him [her father] with that question and he finally give in and he said okay let me give it a shot,” a very proud Tiana said.
For her, mechanics is not about ‘playing with tools’ but fixing things and that requires a skill, one which she aims to hone.
She also believes it is a win-win situation because “you get something to do in your yard, you don’t need to go out and look for work.”
When asked what she loves most about mechanics, Tiana replied: “It is getting to learn about fixing the parts of something, helping people out, because most people they come here and they need your help.”
She added: “I saw my dad was working and when I look at it really it is not all about playing with tools, it’s like you have to have the skills to do it and I see it as really interested, not just being around and watching but you’re learning something, a trade,” Tiana said.
When school reopens in September, Tiana already has a plan to manage learning mechanics with her studies.
“Every free time that I have I will ensure that I make time for that [mechanics].”
Tiana is one of three siblings and has a message for girls who are being told they cannot achieve anything.
“To all the young girls, for people that put negativity in them and tell them there is nothing they can do in this world, just know that anything in this world is possible.”
The post ‘Girls can do anything’ – Tiana Stephen, 14, aspires to become a mechanic appeared first on News Room Guyana.
