From a young age I had a real sense of the world of work. This is what vocational education gives you.
Steph McGovern
Drinks-wise, I stick to water, sometimes a Diet Coke.
I remember once at the end of a BBC job interview the manager said to me: 'I didn't realise people like you were clever.' I don't think he was being intentionally nasty. At that time in the BBC he was surrounded by clones of himself, give or take some facial hair and glasses.
Kids have some of the best ideas - bringing new eyes to old problems.
Growing up in Middlesbrough I was taught to be resilient and competitive. My teachers made us believe that just because kids were at private school up the road, it didn't mean they were better than us.
I was a journalist's dream case study; a gobby girl with an accent who was good at engineering.
Since becoming a BBC breakfast presenter I have been paid four-figure sums for doing hour-long speeches for associations and at awards dinners. That has been an eye-opener. I am surprised by how much people are willing to pay TV celebrities to do that kind of stuff.
It's inevitable that not everyone will like me, and that some will find me annoying. That's fine. All presenters deal with that. What's scary is the ignorance about what having a regional accent means, or indeed doesn't mean. It certainly doesn't equal ignorance.
You'll never see me on anything like 'MasterChef.' I'm just not interested.
You don't have to be the most amazing writer, you don't have to get top marks in your English GCSE, you just have to be someone who can tell a good story, and tell it right, and tell it well.
I think people tend to underestimate you when you have a Northern accent, for instance if you have to talk to the CEO of an international company. But then when I'm talking to someone in a factory, it's just like being with my mum's mates.
I've had tweets questioning whether I really did go to university because surely I would have lost my accent if I did; a letter suggesting, very politely, that I get correction therapy; and an email saying I should get back to my council estate and leave the serious work to the clever folk.
I remember early in my career people telling me I needed to change my accent, that I needed to sound more professional, more BBC perhaps, but I think if I wasn't from Middlesbrough I wouldn't have done as well as I have.
The most rewarding, insightful and challenging year of my life was my 'Year in Industry' working as a trainee engineer at Black & Decker, which involved studying part time at college.
Despite being a business journalist at the BBC for ten years, working behind the scenes on our high-profile news programmes, I was viewed by some in the organisation to be 'too common for telly.'
My first attempt at a business was a jumble sale which I ran at the end of my next door neighbour's drive. I used to rummage through her garage, looking for anything that I thought people might buy. I'd then set up a table and try to sell what I could to the people walking by.
I meet a lot of people with my BBC Breakfast job who have great businesses.
If someone chooses a vocational route, why do they not get the same respect in society as someone who just does a pure academic route?
If it's a healthy day, I'll head to the gym, then have a steak salad at the cafe next door.
I get up at 3:30 A. M. We're on air from 6 A. M., so if I'm in the studio, I'll have eggs at around 7 A. M. from the canteen - scrambled or poached, occasionally with a slice of brown toast.
I am not with child - I am with pot belly.
I just like to think of everyone as a happy family but in football that just doesn't exist.
I am not frugal - I'm quite a big spender - but not on credit.
I look at my bank account every day. I constantly think about what is going in and out, and I will always try to save money on something if I can.
I see myself as a bit of a capitalist really - I like enterprise and making money.
Business leaders regularly complain that young people don't leave school with the right skills. Encouraging young people to be entrepreneurs makes the connection between school and the world of work, teaching them about practical thinking, team-work, communication and financial literacy.
We concentrate too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on class. It's dead important to represent loads of different cultures. But what the BBC doesn't do enough of is thinking about getting people from more working-class backgrounds.
There are a lot of women who do a similar job to me who are paid a hell of a lot more... who are a lot posher than me.
There's a common problem: if a kid is not good at exams, they often think they are not skilled. Yet many of them do have the skills employers are looking for - but often we don't show them that, or teach them how to develop them, or celebrate them.
I, like many annoying pedants, will wince when someone says 'less' when they should have said 'fewer.' But my 'poor' sounds like poo-ah, not pore; and my 'grass' rhymes with mass, not farce. What's wrong with that?
I'm always on the go, which means my health has often been the thing that suffers.
With the 'Watchdog Army' we're putting viewers at the heart of the programme.
Given how dangerous it is for someone to consume something they are allergic to, you would think that companies would just make sure they print labels which have the allergy information on.
I meet so many business women who shy away from the limelight or hesitate to put themselves forward for promotion, despite the fact they are brilliant at their jobs.
I grew up in Teesside and it is really important to keep your regional accent because it is a big part of who you are.
When I come to schools like Norton Primary Academy and meet children who have their lives and careers before them, I hope in some small way that I can inspire them to do better by sharing my own story with them and telling them never to give up on their dreams.
Some of our best-known entrepreneurs started their business ventures when they were kids.
Young people have so many great ideas so I can't wait to hear what children from around the country have come up with. 'Pocket Money Pitch' will encourage them to believe in themselves and 'have a go.'
When I went on air and people heard my accent, they all said it was really nice to have a northern voice.
You can either sing or you can't. And I'm one of the can'ts.
Even my own auntie asked me once if I was pregnant after seeing me on the telly - that's just life on camera.
I am a young woman, with a regional accent, from a working class family, who has had a pretty standard education. So far, so ordinary. But in the places I've worked, one or more of these things would put me in the minority.
The problem in business isn't that women are overlooked because they are women, it's that most people subconsciously look to employ a mini-me. It's not a gender issue, it's about diversification full stop. It's hard to change that mindset and it hits women particularly hard because men historically have always been the recruiters.
I always felt I had to prove my intelligence.
I had people who said I was a brilliant producer but I wouldn't get on the news because I was too northern. But there was no way I was changing my accent - it is the key to my identity.
I have had people come up to me in the street - one woman actually told me she hated my accent, she can't believe I'm on the telly and my accent is so annoying. I ended up laughing because I thought, 'this person doesn't know me but she felt she could come up and slate my accent.'
I'm proud to be from the North-East.
Having once met Trump... Ah he's creepy, man.
