My daughter, Rosa Gillespie, age 5

Paul Gillespie shares why he celebrated his daughter through our online Celebrate Her campaign.

I jumped at the chance of contributing to the Celebrate Her online campaign, as not only did it gave me a chance to support a great cause, but also to celebrate the gift of my precious daughter, Rosa.

When I grew up, I always wondered what life would have been like if my mother’s firstborn, a little girl called Mary, had lived. She was a stillborn and was whisked away before my mother even had a chance to hold her and say goodbye, as was the practice then. My mother was never able to grieve for her.

I come from a family of boys. And, in fact, out of my eight nieces and nephews there is only one girl - so when Rosa was born, she was a huge surprise.

Rosa arrived 17 months after her big brother, Luca, and we were all just so excited. She’s now five, in Year 1 and loves everything pink, fluffy and pretty. Yet beneath the girlie veneer, she is one tough cookie. She singlehandedly turns the big boys in the playground to rubble with a lash of her tongue or a self-styled ninja move.

We chose her name after Rosa Parks, the activist whose actions sparked the civil rights movement in America. We want her to stand up for what she believes. And so far, she stands her own ground and knows her own mind.

The thing I love about watching her grow up is the confidence she has in herself. I hope it never changes. 

I asked her yesterday: “Why are you so beautiful?” and she thought for a moment, tossed her knotty blonde hair and said, “I don’t know.' And then she really considered the question, gave me one of her Dad-you-are-so-stupid looks and said, “Dad, I just am”.

To celebrate a woman or girl in your life, visit our online garden.