Emily Hehir

Emily Hehir is a teacher of VCE English and Legal Studies. She is an ex-lawyer, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications)/Law (Honours) from the University of Melbourne in 2011 before commencing at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. She completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) at the University of Melbourne in 2013 and is currently completing her Master of Teaching. Emily also completed a Diploma of Modern Languages (Japanese) whilst at the University of Melbourne, where she built upon Japanese language skills she first developed whilst on a 12 month Rotary International Youth Exchange to Japan in 2002.

One of Emily's passions is preventative mental health, particularly for young women, in order to cultivate the personal resilience to navigate the demands of our society. On this front she convened a forum at whilst at Melbourne Law School titled 'Lawyering without the Pain: A culture of perfectionism and how to resist it'; consulted on a faculty-wide student wellbeing study and initiated mindfulness classes for students of Melbourne Law School. She also produced and hosted Melbourne's first two TEDxWomen events in December 2011 and December 2012 at The Wheeler Centre with the theme 'Self-Determination' and 'An Honest Conversation' respectively.

In December 2011, Emily created the change.org petition to pressure advertisers to withdraw advertising from the 'Kyle and Jackie O Show' (2day and FOXFM) following offensive comments by Kyle on air directed at a female journalist. The petition resulted in an estimated $10 million dollar loss of advertising funds from the show; attracted significant press coverage and caused a shift in the power dynamics of activists in the social media space.

Talk with Emily about yoga, mindfulness, media literacy, feminism, education, law, growing up regionally in Australia, Japan, TEDxWomen, eating disorder recovery and/or great coffee.