When I was younger my role models were cartoon space hare Bucky O鈥橦are, my grumpy teenage stepbrother and all five members of the Spice Girls.
Possibly not the most realistic things to aim for.
But, no matter how cartoonish or cranky your role models are, it鈥檚 important to have them.
It鈥檚 equally important though to have terrible ones 鈥� as I found out at the Empowering Women with Tech聽conference on Wednesday.
This might seem like the opposite of what a conference trying to empower women would set out to achieve, but there is an undeniable method to the madness.
The聽conference itself was part of the Leeds International Festival, which is in its inaugural year.
The tech strand was 鈥� impressively 鈥� pulled together in a matter of months. Even more impressively, 67 per cent of the speakers in the festival鈥檚 tech talks were female.
Many of these were speaking at the conference on Wednesday, and they鈥檙e all fantastic role models for any man or woman considering joining the industry.
There was the incredible Sue Black OBE 鈥� who went from a mum of three on benefits to a tech campaigner and social entrepreneur 鈥撀� and Warner Music鈥檚 VP of Digital Emmy Lovell, who got her first job in the industry by sending out a 鈥榖olshy鈥� letter to major music companies saying they 鈥榟ad to have her鈥�.
It worked.
The headline speaker was Lauren Laverne of BBC Radio 6 Music fame, who co-founded The Pool 鈥� an online platform for women 鈥榯oo busy to browse鈥�; which, let鈥檚 face it, is pretty much everyone.
Lauren talked about the importance of having 鈥榯errible鈥� role models as well as great ones.
Her point was that if all of your role models are incredible high flyers then you鈥檙e always going to feel inadequate.
鈥淲hen I鈥檓 nervous about something I鈥檝e got to do 鈥� professionally or personally 鈥� I think 鈥榳ho鈥檚 the worst person who鈥檚 managed this?鈥�
鈥淚f you think 鈥業鈥檝e got to become Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg鈥� that鈥檚 quite a tough brief. But if you think about some people who鈥檝e just muddled through suddenly things seem a bit more possible.
鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 hold ourselves to impossible standards that only three people in the universe can meet. We should ask 鈥榳hat鈥檚 good enough, what鈥檚 the best I can do?鈥� And maybe that鈥檚 OK.
鈥淪o give things a go, because if you aim for that you might land further on than you imagine.鈥�
The festival will hopefully help women thinking of entering the industry to do just that 鈥� give tech a go by showing that it鈥檚 possible to succeed no matter what their gender, background or industry.
It鈥檚 equally important to have role models of the opposite gender too. In light of this it was, in some ways, a shame that only about five out of three hundred audience members and one of the eight speakers at the conference were male.
There is a danger of shutting men out of the conversation but ultimately it鈥檚 still early days for women in tech and there do need to be at least some events aimed mostly at them.
So it looks like Lauren Laverne was right 鈥� make sure you have a real mix of role models, whether they鈥檙e male, female, or just plain terrible.