Yahna Fookes: What I learned going back to school as a parent
By Yahna Fookes, Digital Copywriter, Communicado
Between client deadlines, drop-offs, lunch-box duty and juggling the constant routine of my daughter’s extra-curricular activities, AWARD School reminded me that learning doesn’t end.
For me, creativity and motherhood have always been inextricably linked.
Early motherhood, a period of rumination where I was observing a lot. For the first time ever, I was suddenly spending less time doing and more time simply being. A time for endless inspiration, although it didn’t always permit me the space to really dissect and interpret it into creative work.
Fast forward seven years, with a big kid in tow, going back to AWARD School felt like returning to a part of myself that had been waiting. The permission and grace to be curious again and most importantly space to interrogate ideas.
Truth be told, I was nervous. I was the only mum in a sea of Gen Z creatives – my new found friends coining me a ‘teen mum’. My biggest champions.
So, if you’re a mum or parent wondering whether AWARD School is for you, here are a few of the surprises I discovered along the way.
1. Creativity isn’t a competition between generations.
We all brought something different to the table. My classmates brought an instinct for emerging platforms but I brought lived experience, a few more years of observing human behaviour. And the best ideas came when these different perspectives collided, not when they competed.
2. Being a mum makes you highly time proficient.
School holidays were a chance for AWARD students to switch off and catch up on briefs. But if you’re a parent, you’ll know it’s anything but a holiday. Rather, it’s all hands on deck.
From day one, I knew I couldn’t rely on last-minute scrambling. My goal was simple: stay on top of every brief, week by week, so that by the final review, I wasn’t racing to the finish line.
I still remember my tutors’ reaction when I presented a complete body of work at the final review. Having a full folio meant I received more cohesive feedback because we could look at the work as a whole, rather than individual pieces in isolation. Time constraints forced me to work more intentionally.
3. You are never too experienced to go back to school.
This one might sound cliché, but after more than a decade in advertising, and having a lovely job, I wondered whether AWARD School would really challenge me and my god it did. It’s really tough. Extremely humbling.
The pace, the standard of thinking and the sheer cognitive load make it all-consuming. You’re constantly interrogating ideas, questioning yourself and ‘on’ at all hours of the day. It’s mentally exhausting in the best possible way. My phone screen time even went down to less than 90 mins – how good is that.
4. Motherhood gives you the juiciest insights.
Some of my best ideas didn’t come from a brainstorm – they came from lived experience, my intuition. My TVC idea was based on a scene that played out in my actual birth. A Bluey brief dropped and I was like, “I know Bluey’.
We talk a lot about telling diverse stories in advertising, but the truth is they’ll always land harder when they’re told by the people who have lived them. Kids by nature are very curious beings. My daughter has taught me to pay attention to all the tiny things. Our house is constantly filled with noise, art, colours and imperfect chaos. She will always be my greatest creative feat and biggest inspiration. Looking back, AWARD School wasn’t about finding my creativity again, it was about recognising it had been there all along.
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth carving out the time away from family and work, I’d say yes – apply!
Yahna Fookes is a Senior Copywriter at Communicado. A recipient of the City of Melbourne Artist Grant and worked on the award-winning campaign Tough Conversations for Mercedes-Benz. She’s created work for brands including Thankyou, Harris Scarfe, BabyLove, The Memo, Melbourne Racing Club, The Dirt Company, Twinings, Glenfiddich, Priceline, Yalumba with plenty more.
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