Thank heaven for little girls

In a world that churns out JonBenet Ramsay wannabes faster than you can say “MOTHERRRRR, where’s my tiara?!!!” it is so refreshing to meet a gorgeous young girl who’d rather ride her horses and chase rats around the barn than play with make-up and go to the mall. So it’s here in the Atherton Tablelands, on a little dairy farm bursting with love and promise and natural beauty, that Annie and Molly learn one of the most valuable lessons they’ll learn on this year-long adventure.

I can tell them till I’m blue in the face that being outdoors and having fun is all they really need right now. I can tell them that they can be girls ‑ fun, happy, smart, fit and, yes, pretty girls ‑ and still do kid things and goof around and stay young and give no thought to hairstyle or body image or outfits.

But I leave it to the wonderful Rebecca, the farmer’s only daughter, who is literally the COOLEST 10-year-old I’ve ever met, to teach them these lessons just by being who she is and showing them how it’s done.

When we meet Rebecca she’s been feeding her horses and has come back down from the paddock on her 4WD motorbike.

She takes my girls under her wing immediately, and they spend the day chasing down rats (yes, that’s a rat in Molly’s hand) and milking cows and feeding ponies.

She is gorgeous, yes, but she is smart, funny, sporty, compassionate and friendly. There’s not a trace of attitude. If she was a grown-up she’d be something right out of McLeod’s Daughters, the beloved Australian TV series about strong women running an Aussie outback farm. In short, she’s a proper farm kid, complete with Wellington boots and mucky jeans, and she’s exactly the kind of kid I want my own girls to look up to, which they do. In fact, they are in awe, and this has been just the very best day.