Haters always say I’m too pretty to be a bricklayer but I LOVE my new gig – I sacked off posh uni-degree to do it
A FEMALE bricklayer has revealed how she has battled against gender stereotypes to work in the industry she loves as people tell her she's too pretty to do it.
Emily Leach followed her dream of becoming a bricklayer but was pushed back when she started to hear comments that it was the wrong place for a woman to work.
The 25-year-old from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, told how people questioned her career choice due to her glam looks but she didn't let that stop her.
She said: "People say I'm too pretty to be a bricklayer or they say I'm the best looking bricklayer they've ever seen which is not really a compliment seen as though bricklayer stereotypes are grizzly men!"
Emily told how she has loved the idea of being a bricklayer ever since she was a little girl but she left it behind to study to be a vet at University.
But after graduating, she decided to ditch a career full of sick animals and instead followed her dream of brick and mortar.
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She applied for an apprenticeship on the Bellway website (a property developer and home building company) and after three or four interviews she was in.
The bricklayer explained that she was worried she wouldn't be taken seriously as a woman in the industry but her strong will pushed her forward.
She revealed that people were taken back by her career choice due to her being so glam outside of work and enjoying typically girly things.
She told that on-site she rarely experiences sexism but online she gets hit with hundreds of comments about her gender.
However, Emily doesn't let the comments get to her as she says she's living her dream, she's successful and she's happy.
She said: "I always had an interest since I was really young, but obviously, as we all know, there's literally no females in the industry.
"I'm super girly, but obviously, I always look a bit rough because of work.
"I just thought, I need to be happy. I need to do a job that I enjoy. So I applied for the apprenticeship and here we are!
"It's really hard work but I absolutely love it. I would never be able to get up and do what I do if I didn't love it.
"I do feel like people think it's going to be like grizzly men who are just wolf-whistling all the time and hate women, but they're not all like that.
"But I know if I always put 110 per cent in, then everything will be okay, and then they can't say anything bad to me.
"I get a lot of comments online telling me I'm not strong enough to do the job, or that I should go back to the kitchen and make a sandwich.
"But you've got to have thick skin with things like this, if the people who leave those comments want to have a go then hats off to them."
