Hello and welcome to Women with Balls, where I Katie Walls speak to the day as trailblazers.

My guest today began her career working in finance, but soon after becoming a mother, she had a bold career change.

In 2000, she founded Mumsnet, arguably the most influential online forum in the UK.

Designed for parents, mainly mothers,

Mumsnet has 8 million visitors each month and 1.2 billion page views. A haven for women to learn,

comment and exchange views on issues from baby names to who they're voting for in the next election

to what's just driving them mad that day. Mumsnet users have grilled multiple political leaders,

first David Cameron, then Gordon Brown,

Ed Miliband, and most recently Boris Johnson in the last weeks of his promoship, so didn't go

particularly well. Celebrities have featured too. In the early years, my guest led her operations

a young mother in her spare bedroom. Now she runs it from Kentish Town with 75 staff. My guest today is Justine Roberts.

So Justin, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. To begin with, we ask, would you describe

yours as a happy childhood? Yes, I think it was a happy childhood. I just sort of remember being

quite bored a lot, especially on Sundays. I was the third child and my parents both worked and I think like,

you know, I have four children now and I'm definitely less attentive of the fourth than I was of

the first. So I think I had a lot of freedom and independence. But yeah, I remember being stuck in

Surrey with nothing to do a lot. That was my

biggest memory. You mentioned that you liked playing football growing up? Yeah, I was mad into sports

and actually I was kind of, I got into football, despite none of my family really being into

football at the age of seven and became, and that have been ever since a mad Liverpool

supported. So that was kind of, here I was this girl from Godalming. Obscernation, and became, and have been ever since, a mad Liverpool supporter.

So that was kind of, here I was, this girl from Godalming,

...