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Hello, I'm Dashiani Navanaigam and welcome to the conversation from the BBC World Service, the programme which brings together two exceptional women from around the world to share their personal stories and insights with each other and us.
Now, before we begin, a question.
What does the feminist writer, poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde have in common with with the former Baywatch actor and model Pamela Anderson and the English nurse and social reformer Florence Nightingale?
Well, they might seem like an incongruous grouping, but these three women all began writing diaries as young girls and remain seasoned diarists in later life, a trait they share with both my guests today and myself.
So what purpose does keeping a diary as a teenager serve?
I'm joined by Ifedeo Ogoro, a Nigerian entrepreneur and who began writing a diary at the age of 11, documenting her life as a young girl in the Shogonle neighbourhood of lagos.
Later in 2015, EFE started an anonymous online diary called Diary of a Niger Girl.
And joining me in the studio is British comedian Sophie Duker, who is currently touring with her stand up show But Daddy, I Love her.
Inspired by joint therapy sessions with her father, Sophie started writing an online diary at the age of 14, capturing matters of emotional significance, like her parents divorce and her father's move from the uk interwoven with the everyday highs and lows of being a British teenager.
Ife and Sophie, a very warm welcome to you both.
Hello.
Hello.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for having us.
Ife and Sophie.
Now, look, I don't know a lot of people personally who started a diary as a young girl and wrote consistently, but this is definitely something that the three of us share in common.
And I can still remember the day I started my diary and it was quite an innocuous beginning.
So I'd seen Bridget Jones diary, the film, three times in the cinema back in 2001, and I was so enamored by it that I went out, got myself a lined notebook and I started writing.