It gives high school aged students in regional, rural and remote communities a platform to share their inspiring stories.
While the feeling of winning is still surreal to Dottie, she said she is incredibly proud to have reached other young people going through similar experiences.
‘‘I’ve received so many messages from people in foster care who have thanked me for telling my story, and told me how they relate and look up to me,’’ she said.
‘‘That was my goal, to have an impact on kids that may be going through the same thing as me,’’ she said.
In her story, Dottie does not not shy away from telling the truth of how she was treated and perceived growing up.
She remembers being told ‘You'll be 16, on the streets, and pregnant’.
‘‘Yes, people really said that!,’’ Dottie shares in her Heywire story.
‘‘But I was going to prove them wrong.
‘‘In primary school I got good grades and was Dux. I worked even harder in high school.
‘‘I maintained straight As, did art projects, played music, captained the school soccer team, was a sporting house captain and coached juniors in debate.
‘‘But the title of being a ‘foster kid’ hung over my head wherever I went.
‘‘I kept working.
‘‘I measured my success by how much I could prove people wrong.’’
But constantly proving her worth to other people took its toll on Dottie, who developed anxiety and was forced to leave high school.
But she continued studying on her own terms.
‘‘It got to the point where I had to look at alternate pathways to uni. Was I a failure after all?,’’ her story reads.
‘‘I enrolled in TAFE. TAFE! Isn't that where kids who aren’t going anywhere in life end up?
‘‘You’d think someone who has been judged all their lives would be slow to make judgments of their own.
‘‘I thought I had let people down.
‘‘But I did not need to worry. TAFE has been amazing. Soon, I’ll have my certificate four — completing the equivalent of Years 11 and 12 in just one year.
‘‘I got an early offer to university, and I plan to study law and criminology.’’
As a winner in the Heywire competition, Dottie worked with ABC producers to put together an audio package based on her story.
It has been played across the nation and internationally.
And if the COVID environment permits, she will also attend the annual Heywire Summit in Canberra next year.
All 38 winners come together at the summit to work together on how to create change within their communities.
There is $100,000 in funding and grants available each year for the implementation of youth projects and ideas developed at the Summit.
Dottie said the platform the summit will give her to make a greater impact in her community is the reason she entered the competition in the first place.
‘‘Being in the same room with like-minded individuals, who have all these amazing stories and have done such great things, is what I’m looking forward to most,’’ she said.
‘‘Everyone will have a common goal of bettering their communities and creating change, so I’m excited to see what comes out of it.’’
Dottie will of course have a continued focus on reducing the stigma around children in the foster care system, and has some advice for other foster kids.
‘‘It sounds cheesy, but believe in yourself,’’ she said.
‘‘Don’t let people put you in a box — which they will try to.
‘‘It doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you go from there, and how hard you are willing to work to get where you want to go.’’
For more information about the Heywire competition, and to read Dottie’s full story, go to www.abc.net.au/heywire.
