Leading with Purpose
Since graduating from Palm Beach Currumbin State High, Ashlee Thomas has taken a bold and inspiring path. Her journey has been anything but conventional — transitioning from the fast-paced world of broadcast journalism to becoming a leading voice in mental health and eating disorder advocacy. As co-founder of The Secret Burden, Ashlee now works full-time in the non-profit sector, using her lived experience, creative talent, and leadership to support young people and families across the Gold Coast and Northern NSW.
Through public speaking, education programs, media advocacy, and community events, Ashlee is reshaping how mental health and body image are approached. Her story is one of resilience, purpose, and transformation — a powerful example of what’s possible when you follow your instincts, embrace your voice, and commit to making a difference.
In this edition of The Next Chapter, we revisit Ashlee’s time at PBC, reflect on her journey since leaving school, and share her advice for current students navigating their own paths forward.
Career.
Since graduating from PBC I have been on a professional and personal venture that has led me to people, places and opportunities I never thought possible as a leader in the mental health and eating disorder space.
I left PBC to study a Bachelor of Communication where I found myself pursuing the initial dream to be a broadcast journalist. I was lucky enough to have the dream come true working for print, digital and Channel Seven broadcast news in my early twenties. Like many young people trying to figure it out, I pivoted quite quickly. After getting the degree and landing the dream job, I realised my purpose lied elsewhere, so I handed in the mic and metropolitan newsroom and took a leap of faith into the unknown at 21. That leap led me to become the co-founder of The Secret Burden, the now leading non-profit in the Northern NSW and Gold Coast region, providing one-on-one individual and family support to those directly and indirectly affected by eating disorders, body image, and coinciding mental health conditions. I currently work full time in the charity as the face of our advocacy campaigns, the mentor for youth, the leading educator in body image and eating disorders, and the charity’s creative director.
I went on to produce and host my own podcast - making 2025 the shows 5th season. I’ve coordinated and held four successful charity golf days to over 500 people on the Gold Coast. I’ve presented wellbeing and emotional regulation workshops to AIS athletes and led women’s workshops and mental health seminars for youth across Sydney, Canberra and the Northern NSW and the Gold Coast. Although, my career highlights thus far would have to be where my personal and professional life crossed to make what I call magic. Self-publishing my first book and memoir (Surviving the Jungle) at 22 was definitely a highlight, while also writing and producing my first short film and seeing it come to life as I travelled across Australia presenting it, was another dream, but appearing on guest panels as an educated voice across national and international TV, that was a whole other part of my story I never expected, but continues to be the highlight.
School Experience.
If I’m being honest my schooling experience was difficult. I felt like an outsider. No matter where I looked, I felt like who I was didn’t fit. I was part of the Netball and Drama Excellence program which both were big parts of my identity as a young person. I fell quite ill during my time at PBC after the pressure of not feeling like I was “pretty enough”, “good enough”, and battling my own demons from certain experiences in my childhood, plus the navigation of the new body ideals social media encouraged, I developed an eating disorder. Unfortunately, my eating disorder diagnosis became a big part of my schooling experience and forced me to leave PBC in Grade 10 to seek medical treatment. I later returned to complete the final two terms of Year 11 before officially leaving. School was hard for me. I felt invisible, misunderstood and was prone to carrying the weight of the schooling world on my shoulders to prove I could be
someone. However, not until going through therapy for a late PTSD diagnosis, I realised the shy little creative arts and netball excellence student had a neurodivergent brain – a superpower!, she was never aware of.
Although my time at PBC was short-lived than the typical high school experience, my fondest memories were stepping into the theatre and being able to fully be myself. The theatre stage meant the mask could come down and the person I was outside the door was left there. I also had a love to be out on the oval, maybe it was the in-bred “Reds” culture that made me feel part of something special, but the teacher vs student game days and the netty vs touch girl comps brought out the community and competitive fun I loved.
If there is any advice I would give my high school self it would be to breathe! You’re not going to have all the answers right now, you’re not supposed to. Don’t mould yourself to try and fit, create yourself to try and lead. Know popularity is a fallacy, and chasing perfection won’t get you what you’re missing. Dream big. Believe you have what you need. Back yourself. Have fun. Use your voice. Follow what feels right. Stay true, authentic, and always have courage. You will fail, it will hurt, but have the courage to keep turning up and you will go far…trust me.
Advice & Reflections
My advice to any students leaving school or trying to figure out where to go next, nothing I achieved in my career eventuated without doing the work. Your dreams and goals can be a reality, but you have to make it happen. You can manifest and hope for an outcome, but you must be the one to do the work. I have “failed” and “pivoted” more times than success has found me, but I never stopped getting up and giving it a go. Follow what feels right for you now, and if that changes in six months or a year or 15 years’ time, that’s okay. It’s okay to change the course, but make sure you’re on your course, not the persons next to you - follow the dreams you have. Believe in yourself, knowing it may be a lonely journey (as it definitely was for me), but you will be okay, it’s not going to happen overnight, but life is a quest and it’s about the journey, don’t rush to the podium … you’ve got time. Enjoy it.
Be bold. Be brave. Be you.
Ash
https://www.thesecretburden.org.au/
