Melanie Perkins — The girl who created a unicorn

Fierce Girls

ABC listen

Kids & Family, Stories For Kids

4.4 • 930 Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever wanted to change the world? Melanie Perkins did — she just needed the right problem to solve. Then it hit her. She tutored university students in graphic design, and they all had the same complaint: the software was too complicated.

Melanie knew there must be an easier way. She thought everyone should be able to make beautiful, professional looking images. So, she cleared a space in her mum's living room and got to work. She perfected her pitch, flew to the other side of the world to Silicon Valley, faced a LOT of rejection until, finally, her billion-dollar company Canva was born.

Narrated by multi-award-winning STEM journalist and Wiradjuri woman Rae Johnston

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an ABC podcast.
0:05.2	Kaya, non-curl Millie Rose, non-wooditch cooling.
0:08.7	Hi, I'm Millie Rose, I'm a fierce girl.
0:11.6	We recognize Aboriginal and Torres Australian Islander
0:14.8	peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. We are grateful
0:20.4	for the continuing care of the lands, waterways and skies.
0:24.4	From here on Nongar country and from wherever you are listening.
0:28.6	We respect the elders of the past and present.
0:31.4	Yes. Go. of the past and present. This is the story of the girl power.
0:35.0	This is the story of the girl who created a unicorn.
0:42.0	Melanie Perkins.
0:44.0	Read by Warajuri Woman and STEM journalist Ray Johnston. Melanie Perkins clung to her board, waves lapping against its edges as she drifted further and further and further. She was surrounded by blue as far as the eye could see. The kite that was
1:12.1	supposed to fill with wind and carry her between islands lay deflated and useless beside her.
1:20.0	Remind me how I ended up here again, she asked herself floating in the middle of the
1:26.9	Caribbean Sea.
1:28.8	Melanie's mind drifted off with the current, all the way back to where her journey began, to the other side of the world in Western Australia.
1:41.0	That'll be five dollars please.
1:43.0	When Melanie was 14, she made scarves and sold them at markets in Perth.
1:49.0	It was fun, but scarves weren't exactly innovative.
1:55.8	Melanie hungered for something bigger and better,
2:00.2	something that would solve problems, something that would solve problems.
2:02.6	Something that would change the world.
	...

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