Inspiration. It's a wonderful thing. It can come from anywhere and anyone and when it hits, you can become a machine. Many things inspire me. Many people too. Even certain smells can inspire me! For example, if I'm outside on a warm Spring day and I smell cut grass, for the next few hours I'm on my knees in the dirt pretending my black thumb has turned green, pulling out weeds (at least I think that was a weed?) and making promises to myself about watering and planting and mulching that I know I won't keep.

In my former life, the one where I was a child care worker and didn't spend my days surrounded by sex, I used to get a lot of inspiration from the kids I looked after. Their way of seeing the world was so fresh and innocent and would constantly surprise and enlighten me and, in the last few weeks, it's begun to happen again. Children from around the world are inspiring me. Showing up the adults that stick them in the “you're just a child” basket and giving insight into not only how they see the world, but also how we as adults can get it horribly and sometimes tragically wrong.

The first of these children was an twelve year old girl called Adora Svitak (she's fourteen now), a child prodigy from America who is already a published author and internationally renowned speaker. The piece I'm talking about is a video of her speaking at a TED conference. TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design and is an amazing forum where big thinkers and world changers can come together and express ideas and concepts on how to make the world a better place. It's truly awesome and if you haven't checked it out I suggest you do. The speech I am talking about is wonderful. Adora talks about the idea of “childish thinking” and how really, considering how open-minded and imaginative children are, that's not such a bad thing when it comes to changing the world. Of course, she says it way better than I so check out her fantastic talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html .

The next one is another young girl. Way younger than Adora is and who has become an inspiration to many without even trying. She isn't a child prodigy or anything like that. She's just a little girl with a strong opinion. Her name is Riley, she is three years old and, in a world where gender specific toys are unfortunately the norm, she has something to say about it. For example, when Lego recently announced they were bringing out a “girls” range of blocks I couldn't believe it. Since I was a child I've played with the “girls range” of Lego, and my daughter does now too. Funnily enough, though, it's just called “Lego” and we've done pretty well so far without pink bricks. No-one has put this frustration into words better than Riley does. Sure, it's not actually about Lego, but it was posted on YouTube in perfect timing with the toy company's announcement and says everything that needs to be said about marketing towards gender. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viQph2vuHgs

The third child who has inspired me is a thirteen year old girl (who I only know by her YouTube name, Astrorice) who speaks about something very close to my heart. Slut shaming. She makes a point under her video about her realising it's odd that a thirteen year old virgin has such an opinion, but to be honest I don't think her age or her sexual activity matters one bit. She expresses herself so articulately and so well that, despite the braces and “like whatever” nuances, she speaks more maturely than most grown-ups on the subject. Have a look at what she has to say here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXH2K7OC37s&feature=related and then post it and send it to as many people as you can. It's a message we all need to hear and a lesson so many people need to learn.

The thing about us adults is we're so caught up in being adults we seem to forget we're not the only ones on the planet. We forget that we were once children and teenagers with radical ideas, open minds and imaginations. We seem forget those times we were so frustrated because the grown-ups wouldn't listen to us, and we forget that these children, the ones we push aside because they couldn't possibly be as smart or as experienced and knowledgeable as us, not only have a unique and interesting way of looking at the world and solving problems, but are are also going to be the ones making the laws and decisions about us when we get older.

So the next time you have a big choice to make, or there's a topic you want some insight on, ask a child what they think and what they would do. And then listen. I mean really listen. You never know, you might end up learning something!