Episode 13 When I’m 25

This episode from the Listen to Us Project captures a powerful conversation about confidence, identity, and growing up.

Romy shares her dream of becoming a dancer and a model. She speaks with clarity about why confidence matters and how it shows up in her life. You hear how she stands up for herself, how she thinks about being seen, and how she connects confidence to performance, especially through dance. Lyrical dance, in her words, gives her space to express herself and create her own movement.

The conversation also reflects on her time in the project. She talks about teamwork, shared experiences, and the value of doing things together rather than alone. Moments like drama activities, kindness exercises, and creative play stand out as highlights. These are not small memories. They show how children learn through participation, connection, and reflection.

Romy closes with a clear message. Be confident in yourself. Be kind to others. Do not let people put you down. It is simple, but it carries weight.

This episode shows what happens when children are given space to speak, reflect, and lead.

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This project is supported through the Daphne-CHILD programme, a European initiative led by Eurochild and Terre des Hommes and funded by the European Union through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme. The programme supports grassroots organisations across nine European countries that work to prevent violence against children, while ensuring that children themselves participate in shaping solutions.

The campaign will culminate in an advocacy seminar on 15 May 2026 in Dublin, bringing together educators, policymakers, youth organisations and child protection professionals to discuss the key messages emerging from the project and explore how children’s perspectives can better inform policy and practice.

For more information, visit https://listentous.ie.

About the Daphne-CHILD programme
The Daphne-CHILD programme (2024–2027) is a European initiative led by Eurochild and Terre des Hommes and funded by the European Union through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme. It supports grassroots organisations across Europe working to prevent violence against children and strengthen child protection systems through meaningful child participation. More: https://daphne.childhub.org.

Thank you for listening and please leave us a review on Apple or Spotify as it will help the children's voices and messages echo out into the world. We are on Instagram @caspr.ie  

Transcript

We are the Listen to Us Project from Casper and today, Romy, I want to ask you, what do you want (0:07) to be when you grow up? I'm a dancer. I love it. Why do you want to be a model and a dancer? Because (0:12) being a model makes you confident. That's cool but you're pretty confident already though, are you? (0:17) Yeah. What does being confident look like? It looks good. Looks good. How do you, do you speak (0:24) up for yourself when you're confident? It's a tough question. When somebody said something to (0:30) me on scale and I said something back. Very good. And when you're a dancer, does that happen a lot? (0:37) Do you think you'd have to be very confident as a dancer? Yeah. Okay. And you're a good dancer (0:41) already, aren't you? I've seen you dancing, you're deadly. Do you love dancing? What is your favourite (0:45) style of dance? Lyrical. Oh, very nice. Yeah, that's lovely music and everything, isn't it, (0:51) lyrical? It's like slow. Yeah, it's like you improvise, put all your own moves on it and (0:58) everything. Love that. And tell me, so this is our last day. Yeah. What did you like about coming up (1:04) to us here to do this project? When we all were like together and we did things together and we (1:12) weren't like doing stuff on our own. Yeah. We did like teamwork. That was great, wasn't it? It was (1:17) really cool being part of the group. What was the funnest bit? You love the drama, don't you? Yeah. (1:24) And the day that we did the kindness, remember when you had to do kindness? Oh, and the day we (1:28) did the cakes, when the cake was the wrong. That was very good. And you and Taylor did it. Was it (1:34) you and Taylor who did it? Yeah. Tell us what you did. Remind everybody what you did. And we talked (1:38) about kindness and just like never be mean to people because one day it could be you, that is. (1:46) And you were doing the whole nail salon thing then. Do you remember when she kept getting the (1:50) nails wrong and you had to ask her to do them again? That was really good. That was brilliant. (1:56) So if you had to say, if somebody came along and said, right, what did you learn from this (2:00) experience? Which is a very grown up question, I know, but I think you can handle it. (2:05) Just be confident in ourself and be kind. Yeah. And teamwork. You learned loads about teamwork, (2:12) didn't you? Yeah. So I think it has been brilliant. We have loved having you, Romy. (2:17) I would say to everybody who watches this space, because she is going to be a dancer extraordinaire (2:21) and a model. And what's your favourite show? What do you watch? Dance Moms on Top. Dance Moms. (2:31) OK, that's where we're headed with this. Yeah. Romy is headed there. But you will be, (2:37) if you were a dance mom, because I've seen dance moms and they're pretty hard on the kids. (2:40) If you were a dance mom, what would your message be to kids? (2:44) Always be confident in yourself. Never let people put you down because you're always a good dancer. (2:49) Deadly. Love it. We'll end there, Romy. It's been a pleasure having you into the podcast (2:53) and hopefully we'll see you again soon.