At 24, Kiwi businesswoman Alexia Hilbertidou has an impressive CV. She was 16 when she founded and became CEO of her company, GirlBoss, an organisation empowering teenage girls in leadership, science, technology, engineering and maths.
Her work has seen her travel the world, rubbing shoulders with top female executives and world leaders, and she has been recognised with more than 30 international and national awards, including being named Westpac Woman of Influence in the Young Leader category.
The driving force for Alexia’s success is her mother Vicky Crawford, who raised her as a solo parent while juggling three jobs and full-time study at teacher’s college. They spent their early years sharing a room at the back of a hair salon.
“Through my mother, I really got to see the strength of women from a very young age,” says Alexia. “I had a great example.”
With mum Vicky.
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Alexia’s parents met while her mum was backpacking in the Greek island of Mykonos and her father was working as a bouncer at a nightclub. After giving birth in the Mediterranean, Vicky returned home to South Auckland to raise Alexia.
“My mother showed me that women can be protectors, survivors and have the ability to overcome any obstacle. My mother instilled within me a lifetime of respect and passion.
“I feel grateful to have witnessed my mother working hard to make ends meet. As a child, I would never ask for something in the supermarket or a toy in a store. She instilled in me that we are not defined by our circumstances and it encouraged me to blaze my own path.”
Alexia excelled at school, especially in maths, science and technology. She was often the only girl and Pacific Islander in these classes. This bothered her and at 16, she felt compelled to do something about it, so she started GirlBoss while still at high school.
“I was fuelled by feelings of isolation and questioned whether or not technology was the place for me. I asked myself: why do my female friends, who are so intelligent and capable, not have the confidence to step into these spaces? I started GirlBoss because I knew that something had to change.”
Accepting an award from the Queen.
Today, education programmes by GirlBoss, funded by corporate sponsorship and the government, are implemented in more than 100 schools across New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands. The organisation has a membership of more than 13,500 high school-aged students. Alexia also travels widely to promote her work and is a keynote speaker at events.
Alexia’s goal is to give young women the confidence to succeed as leaders in male-dominated industries, and have the belief within themselves to one day become CEOs.
“At first, I questioned: who am I, at only 16, to be that person to step up and try to solve something like gender inequality? I didn’t realise how much it would grow and that it would end up being my full-time job.”
For a while, Alexia wanted to be a vet and even considered law. But her organisation grew so much, she decided to manage and be the CEO of GirlBoss after she left school, managing a small team and more than 30 volunteers.
Alexia’s crusade for gender quality was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II, when she was awarded a Queen’s Young Leader’s award for services to the Commonwealth at 18 and received the medal from Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace in 2018.
She also got to study at Cambridge University, and meet and work with football star David Beckham, then-Prime Minister Theresa May and Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. In fact, Alexia has met up with the Sussexes twice more since leaving the UK. They have both expressed their support for her work in gender equality, especially the duchess.
Alexia meets the Sussexes
“By the time I met them the third time, they remembered and knew of my work,” tells Alexia. “Meghan told me it was an issue close to her heart and that we need to keep fighting for gender equality.”
Through her work, Alexia has reached for the stars, so it’s appropriate she went on a mission with US space agency Nasa in 2017.
She’s one of the youngest people to be chosen on a Nasa initiative, travelling to almost 14,000 metres over the Southern Ocean. She was selected because of her commitment to empowering young women in technology.
On her NASA mission.
“Going into space is at the forefront of possibility,” she enthuses. “It was amazing to work with the team at Nasa, who are extremely passionate. You can’t work at Nasa without it being a childhood dream.”
And now she is a “Beyond Greatness Champion”, one of the local inspirational women from Aotearoa and Australia selected to help promote the Fifa Women’s World Cup, co-hosted in both nations.
Although she’s made her mark in business and social enterprise, not sport, Alexia is honoured to be involved. She’s taking this opportunity to continue to inspire young women to achieve in the classroom – or on the football field.
“I want to emphasise that you don’t need to wait for someone to tell you that you are good enough,” she says. “The truth is, women are capable of doing amazing things.”
