My friends organised a surprise dinner for me. After not seeing them for almost a month, it was so good to catch up. We didn’t really pick over all the details of the trip. There were a few questions and then we just got back to our usual gossip and laughter.
We didn’t really speak much about it at home, either, after the initial excitement of our return. These expeditions were not unusual in our house and were never a feature of conversation for more than a few days. We just picked up with our usual family routine.
I knew the experience had changed me, though, in ways I couldn’t really grasp yet at fourteen. I knew for sure that I wanted more adventure and I was conscious that, in another 12 months, we’d be heading north again, this time to Greenland.
This next expedition was going to be almost four times as far, meaning I had to be even more prepared. So, after a month’s break, it was back to the gym. Unfortunately, the break had been long enough for me to lose all the strength I’d built up in the year I’d spent training for the North Pole. My first session back was incredibly frustrating. We’d done a cross-country run at school the day before, so my legs were already tired, but I still thought I’d be able to smash out 10 rounds of 10 back squats like usual. Wrong! I only got to the sixth round before my legs started cramping up and I had to stop. I spent the rest of the session on the foam roller in tears, trying to ease some of the tightness. Much to my horror, I was going to have to start from scratch.
In the months that followed, I spent my time getting back into school, gradually increasing my training and being involved in the occasional media commitment. I also celebrated my fifteenth birthday!
I continued to be thrown outside my comfort zone and challenged by a few major new experiences that accelerated my journey of personal growth. The first was an invitation to deliver a TEDx talk in Melbourne. TED talks are based around ‘ideas worth spreading’ and are designed to inspire conversations and connections. When Dad asked me if it was something I wanted to do I knew my answer straight away and replied ‘Yes!’ He later told me that if they’d asked him, he would have needed a week to think about it and even then he may have said no out of fear.
I’d seen a few TED talks online before and loved them, but I really had no idea what I was in for. For starters, I wasn’t sure what I would want to talk about and I’d never really even spoken in public, other than at school assemblies – certainly not to a massive live audience and multiple cameras. But, just like skiing, I decided I wasn’t going to let my lack of experience stop me and I’d give it my best shot. This was going to be a very new and different kind of adventure.
TEDx offers all its speakers training in constructing their talks and learning to present them effectively. Jon Yeo, the convenor of TEDx Melbourne, organised weekly sessions with me where he taught me the ‘TED style’ of presenting and we brainstormed the big idea I wanted to share. I decided to focus my talk on shifting the focus of young women from how we appear, to the possibilities of what we can do. My journey to the North Pole really confirmed this message for me – polar expeditions are far from glamorous and I needed to focus all my energy into becoming physically strong in order to make it happen, rather than seeking to meet body-stereotypes portrayed on social media. I set about writing my speech and practising how I would present it.
The other exciting milestone on the horizon was the release of the 40-minute Nat Geo documentary Petter shot on our way to the North Pole. It was due to be released in August, but I was able to watch a rough cut at the offices of WTFN one night after school. I absolutely loved it, and it brought back some of the unreal memories we’d shared on the trip. On Thin Ice: Jade’s Polar Dream would be released later in the year. As part of the lead-up to the film’s release, I was invited to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington DC to attend their annual Explorers Symposium 2016. The National Geographic Society supports a number of people working in field-based science and conservation, and each year they bring all of them together for a few days to share their discoveries. Surprisingly, my brother and I were the only young people there and I was so inspired by the speakers on stage. My mind continued to expand with possibilities.
The whole time we were away in the USA, my forthcoming TEDx talk had been on my mind and I used whatever spare time I had to work on it. I practised a lot – maybe an hour every day for the two months in the lead-up. My talk only went for about 10 minutes, but I committed to hundreds of hours of preparation and practice beforehand. By the time the event arrived, I had become crazy bored with it.
Dad helped me prepare by acting as my test audience and critic. He told me that if I started feeling really anxious and nervous before my talk, I shouldn’t try to calm myself down. By far the easiest way to manage nerves is to shift those feelings to a mindset of excitement. The feelings of nervousness and excitement are closely linked, so it’s an easier switch to make than trying to calm down. Dad told me to just breathe deeply and smile – it worked.
There were 1300 people in the audience on the day. Most of my family and close friends were in the front row. I didn’t look in that direction, knowing that one of my friends might crack me up, but the stage lights were very bright so I couldn’t really make out any faces anyway. Occasionally the crowd would break into spontaneous applause after I said something and I just responded with multiple thank yous – a result of the nerves. But the talk was over before I knew it and it was so practised that the words just flowed out of my mouth.
I gave a few other smaller talks, but one of the other big ones I gave that year was at ImagiNATION (previously named National Young Leaders Day), organised by a group called Halogen who runs events for young Australian school leaders. Events were held in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for grade five and six student leaders from across each state, and I spoke to a combined audience of more than 12,000 kids and their teachers. Having these young people respond so positively to my own message of choosing bravery over perfection was incredibly rewarding.
After ImagiNATION, I had to say no to virtually all speaking requests so I could focus on my schoolwork and being a teenager. Becoming a professional public speaker isn’t one of my ambitions, but if an opportunity comes up to make a big impact with an audience I care about, I’ll try to make it happen.
Next, I packed my bags for another three weeks in the USA. The first part of the trip was with my school as part of a program touring the Ivy League colleges on the east coast. It really opened me up to the possibilities of education abroad in the future, and New York City is definitely now one of my favourite places in the world.
After the college tour, I said goodbye to my school friends at Los Angeles airport and, while they returned home, I met up with my aunt, who was living there at the time, and spent a couple of nights with her. As always, it was so much fun. I attended a preview screening of my North Pole movie, On Thin Ice, at SoHo House in West Hollywood. Again, it brought so many memories flooding back and got me super hyped for the trip to Greenland the following year. Plus, I also met some very inspiring people. Some of the members of the DiCaprio Foundation attended the screening – not Leo himself, unfortunately, but his mum, Irmelin Indenbirken and her partner, David Ward, were in the audience. The Foundation does lots of powerful work in conservation and I’m hoping I will have the opportunity to collaborate with them in the future.
When I got back to Australia, just before On Thin Ice was shown on National Geographic channels around the world, I was incredibly honoured to be named Young Adventurer of the Year 2016 by the Australian Geographic Society. On the night in Sydney, David Suzuki flew in from Canada to be the guest speaker. He is an incredible human who has dedicated his life to saving our planet from climate change. He gave an inspiring speech about recognising that all humans are one and we need to work together to make a difference. Honestly, I think I was more excited to speak to him later in the evening than when receiving the award itself.
It topped off an amazing year. But now, I had to focu
s my mind on the upcoming Greenland crossing and mentally prepare myself for what was going to be a much longer and tougher journey than the one to the North Pole. It was also going to be a really good test for the Antarctic trip we were planning to undertake six months after that. I was apprehensive and a lot of it would be new to me but still, I was ready to commit to the process and enjoy the second chapter of the journey.
THAT TEDX TALK
What if young women around the world were encouraged to be more rather than less? What if the focus shifted from how we appear to the possibilities of what we can do? As a young woman, I live in a world where I am constantly bombarded with messages to be less. To eat less. To wear less. To be skinnier. To shrink my ambitions to fit in. To wait for my Prince Charming to come and save me. Or to avoid activities that are ‘for boys’ because I’m not strong enough or as tough. These messages fuel my fears and insecurities and I’m then left wondering, all the time, whether I’m good enough or whether I should just play it safe so I don’t end up making myself look silly. But imagine if all the young women in a particular country took one step forward in terms of the level of belief of their own possibilities. How much brighter would the future of that country be? Now imagine if all the young women on this planet took that same step forward in their thinking as to what is possible for themselves. How much brighter would the future of our world be? Now that’s adventurous thinking. And, by the way, it’s so much more fun to try to be more rather than less.
In April this year, at the age of 14, I became the youngest person in history, male or female, to ski to the North Pole from anywhere outside the last degree. It was also the longest journey to the Pole by any woman on the planet for the past two years. I dragged a sled that was as heavy as me over a distance of 150 kilometres as measured from the Pole on skis in –30ºC temperatures. One hundred and fifty kilometres might not sound too bad until you understand the environment up there on the Arctic Ocean. We had to ski our way around or over compression zones where sea ice had collided to make ice rubble. Sometimes the ice rubble can become walls of ice metres high. We also had to find our way around open water leads where the sea ice had split. We would build a bridge out of our sleds or someone would have to swim across in an immersion suit while the rest of us were dragged across on a raft made from our sleds. We were travelling on sea ice so the ocean currents were constantly dragging us off course and we would often hear the ice crack beneath us and wonder whether we’d fall through into the freezing ocean below. We also crossed polar bear tracks and would stay awake in our tents listening for them. Not that we could sleep anyway, since there’s 24-hour daylight up there at this time of year. I’m not a skier either. I only learned to ski a year before on a three-day trip to New Zealand. There’s not much snow where I live, so I trained every day for virtually a year beforehand, including dragging tyres behind me, which is pretty close to the real thing. As you can imagine, the going was slow and hard. Apart from a few blisters, I lost the feeling in the tips of my fingers, which eventually came back after all the skin had died and peeled back. The worst part of all was I got frost nip on my upper thighs and bum from having to expose myself to the freezing cold and wind every time I went to the toilet. But I loved it. It was the best experience of my life so far, and I fell in love with this beautiful but fragile part of the planet. As much as I couldn’t wait to get home to see family and friends, I was sad to leave.
Next April, my plan is to ski 540 kilometres across Greenland, aged fifteen. Then, at the end of next year, ski 1170 kilometres from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole [at this stage we were planning to ski the traditional route]. By then I’ll be sixteen. If I can get there, apart from a few minor records, I’ll be the youngest person to ski to both Poles and to complete the Polar Hat-Trick.
So what have I learned in my brief life so far that might be worth sharing? I have learned that all those messages I receive daily to be less are wrong. I have learned that by expanding my dreams it has been impossible to think about shrinking. Instead of focusing on how we look, let’s focus on what our bodies and minds can do and discover the incredible possibilities that we are capable of and can contribute to this world. There is nothing wrong with trying to improve your physique. The problem is when people sacrifice their capability or their health for the sake of fitting in to some visual standard shaped by other people. Let’s make it about what you do rather than how you look. The funny thing about many popular social media fitness accounts is that they post pictures of themselves standing in front of a mirror doing nothing. That’s not inspiring. That’s just trying to make the rest of us feel bad. I think it’s much more inspiring to see photos and videos of people actually doing something.
So how do we change things? How do we shift our focus? For me, when I see other women go forward without fear I learn what is possible. There are some amazing examples of young women in history choosing to be more. But just as amazing to me are the girls who work part-time while studying to support their families. Girls who stand up for what they believe in. Girls who get up before dawn to train for the sport they love. Girls who stay up late studying hard to make the most of their education. Any girl who refuses to buy into the messaging to be less. If you are my parent, my relative, my teacher or my coach then I’m talking to you. Don’t be overprotective of me just because I am a girl. Encourage me to take risks in chasing dreams that are important to me, not you.
The sisterhood. Let’s celebrate the achievements of our girlfriends. Don’t cut them down. I’ve been amazed at the support I have received from my friends. But most important of all, we must start with ourselves. We are our own worst enemies. We need to get out of our own way and stop caring so much about what other people think. The truth is everybody else is worried about what everybody else thinks about them. We need to focus on what we want for ourselves in line with our own personal values, not those of our parents or our friends or the school we attend. Don’t do it for others; do it for you. To expand what we believe is possible we must have courage. We must be prepared and willing to fail. Don’t wait until you think you can do something perfectly, just get started. I had only really been skiing once in my life before and then I tried to ski to the North Pole, which is pretty funny when I stop and think about it. I also tried peeing standing up with a pee funnel in –20ºC temperatures and I failed terribly. I spent the rest of the day skiing in pants that were covered in my own frozen pee. Courage is not the absence of fear but the willingness to take action despite the presence of fear or self-doubt. Without bravery our lives remain small. So let’s all commit to take one step forward in our thinking and in our expectations as to what is possible for young women to achieve. Let’s constantly check ourselves that we are focusing on what we can do, not how we appear. All those small steps will soon add up and we will collectively expand what is possible for young women and, as a result, for the future of our world.
GREENLAND
CROSSING
EXPEDITION 2
Destination: Greenland, crossing of second largest ice cap in the world
Distance: 550 kilometres
Duration: 27 days, May-June 2017
Goal: Youngest woman in history to complete the crossing
Team: Me, Dad, guide Eric Philips, camerawoman Frederique Olivier, camera assistant Heath Jamieson
Big challenges: Getting to the start, unusually warm weather, sunstroke, dehydration, katabatic winds, wet blizzards, polar bears
Everyday challenges: No shower, minimal changes of clothes, dehydrated food, hunger, early-morning wake-ups and zero privacy
6
GREENLAND’S WARM WELCOME
After departing Melbourne, those familiar feelings had already set in by the time we had landed in transit in Dubai – while we were out on the ice, what would I be missing back home? My brother and Mum were the ones I’d missed most when we were in the North Pole, and I knew it would be the same over the coming weeks in Greenland.
I was
also going to miss my friends; staying in touch with what everyone was doing through social media was a big part of my everyday life. My North Pole expedition was the first time I had truly disconnected from the constant stimulation of the online world. It took a while to let go of that world and instead focus on the present, on the basic necessities of survival and on the beauty of my surroundings.
We landed in Denmark after 29 hours of travel from Melbourne and very little sleep. Almost immediately, I was embracing the change of scenery and the thrill of experiencing new things.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we met up with our camerawoman for this expedition, Frederique Olivier. We then headed straight to the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen to interview John Cappelen, the senior climatologist at DMI, for the new Nat Geo documentary – National Geographic jumped on board again for the final two chapters of my polar journey, producing a feature-length documentary due for release in 2018. John is responsible for recording and forecasting the weather in Greenland, which is part of the Danish realm.
He told us there were many DMI weather stations located across Greenland. The stations send back data at least once an hour to be collected and analysed by John’s team. The oldest data series dates back to 1784.
‘I can see it in my data every day,’ John told me. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind that global warming is a reality. No doubt at all. It’s a fact temperatures are rising in Greenland and they have been on the rise sharply in the last two decades.’ He also confirmed he believes the Arctic is warming faster than other parts of the planet – something I was about to find out for myself.
My Polar Dream Page 5