Young People These Days

Jay Carmichael is a writer and editor. His first novel, Ironbark, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016. His writing has been published by beyondblue and appeared widely in print and online, including in Overland, The Guardian, SBS, and The Telling Tree project.

Jay lives and works in Melbourne.

Nicole is known as a multi award winning social entrepreneur, but she prefers to be seen as an unstoppable messenger of love and human potential. Nicole is a fierce ambassador for mental health, innovation and connection after recovering from her own terrifying lived experience with anorexia nervosa through her teenage years.

Nicole has facilitated workshops and presentations with over a quarter of a million Australians, served as the Commonwealth's youngest National Mental Health Commissioner, was a Finalist for The Young Australian of the Year and won the Pride of Australia Medal in 2014, was listed by The Financial Review as one of Australia's top 100 Most Influential Women at 21. 

She is a skilled and experienced motivational speaker and facilitator, developing her own facilitation methods early on in her career, which continue to evolve.

Samuel Maguire is a Brisbane based author. Samuel was diagnosed with Bipolar Type 1 at 19 and often uses his experiences with it as inspiration for stories. 

His debut novel No Point in Stopping is a memoir about dabbling with magic to deal with mental illness and the places where imagination and real life blur.

At 16 Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the world. She was named Young Australian of the Year 2011 and in 2012 received an Order of Australia Medal. 

Jessica completed an MBA in 2017 and is a Youth Ambassador for The United Nations World Food Programme.

Indigo Blue is her first novel and second book.