“I don’t know how many years I’ve got on this earth but I want to experience as much as I can and make as much positive impact in the lives of the people that I meet while I’m here.”

I’m Mel and I founded MakeMoreMagic, a growing like-minded open community for those who enjoy trying new adventures.

The aim of this community is to bring women together to connect with the outdoors, each other and to try new things. I have always loved the outdoors and for a long time I felt that as a woman I was unable to find other people to enjoy this with. So far, I have organised day events and weekend retreats to come together and connect.

So, where did I get this idea from? Well, my childhood is full of fond memories of going to the Lake District with my family and camping, hiking, making dens, anything like that. I feel very privileged to have a supportive and motivating family behind me. From an early age, I was pretty good at most subjects in school. I had so many different dreams and aspirations and this left me unsure of what direction to steer my life in. While I was, and still am, very creative, upon leaving school I decided to go into academia.

After my A-Levels, I went to university to study Law, got a first-class Law degree and then went on to complete a master’s degree. After that, I chased a training contract to work as a solicitor but after a year or so it became apparent that this wasn’t at all something I wanted to do. The environment was unwelcoming for me as it was a very male dominated workplace. It was a hard decision to make as I had spent so much time and effort studying for this goal and now I was there, it wasn’t right for me. But, after leaving, I decided to go visit my friend in Australia and travel for a while. It was a positive step for me as it allowed me to have free time to think about what I wanted to do.

“I think everyone should be a feminist.”

When I came back I was recruited to work in financial consultancy, different to what I had trained for but still very much a corporate role. I ended up staying for six years. I have amazing memories of working there and it allowed me to fund other aspects of my life like buying a house, but the actual work itself didn’t feel like it was my purpose in life. I would struggle when people asked what my job title was because it just did not correlate with my personality and I didn’t identify with it at all. While it looked like I was crushing it in terms of a career, it just wasn’t what was right for me, it wasn’t how I had dreamed my life would turn out. I had to ask myself:

“Is this what little Mel would have wanted to do?”

This is where MakeMoreMagic was born.

I had been growing a social media following through my travels, hiking, cold water dipping, basically just being outdoors. I had been reaching out to people online and finding others who wanted to go for a walk. It had been great to realise there are other people, especially women, who enjoyed the outdoors and wanted to go hiking. I’ve met so many inspirational people this way, therefore, I wanted to create something where people can come and try new things. It’s always been part of me that I want to try so many things and I don’t want to just stick to one thing so I thought others may want that opportunity too. My plan from here is to grow the community and open an online shop but what I am going to do is remain flexible and open-minded; I am going to let my business grow organically to empower women to feel safe together in a world where some do not always have that privilege.

“Women are amazing.”