Hannah Ferguson Lights a Fire at She Leads: A New Era of Feminist Leadership in Canberra

It was a keynote that began not with a polished opener or polished face, but a punchline about lost luggage and lost sleep. And yet, from her first words, Hannah Ferguson had the room leaning in.

Speaking to a ballroom filled with changemakers at YWCA Canberra’s SheLeads Conference, the founder and CEO of Cheek Media brought more than commentary, she brought candour. In a keynote titled with no name but laced with conviction, Ferguson peeled back the curtain on power, politics, and the personal toll of pursuing social change in a country still catching up to its feminist potential.

What followed was a masterclass in modern leadership: unfiltered, introspective, and bracingly relevant.

From Orange to Outspoken

Hannah Ferguson didn’t arrive in Canberra with a perfectly curated speech or even her luggage. Having made a cross-country dash from WA, via a midnight flight and 4am wake-up, she stepped onto stage without makeup, without notes, and without her favourite underwear, she joked.

But what she brought instead was a fierce clarity of purpose.

Growing up in Orange, New South Wales, Ferguson described feeling like an outsider even before she became one in a law school classroom full of privilege.

“All of the people I was sitting with were elite, privately educated white students,” she said. “They were going to be the ones making decisions that affect the most vulnerable and that didn’t sit right with me.”

So, she pivoted.

Despite completing her law degree, Ferguson turned her back on the corporate ladder and began experimenting, working in unions, charities, and legal services. But none of those spaces scratched the itch she felt to radically change how we have political conversations in Australia. That calling finally crystallised into Cheek Media, the online platform she co-founded in 2020.

Cheek quickly became a rising force, offering accessible, sharp, and unapologetically feminist commentary on Australian politics and culture. In the month leading up to the 2025 federal election, the platform reached four million Australians.

“Thank you, Scott Morrison,” she quipped, in reference to the former Prime Minister whose term, she says, helped catalyse her rise.

What Leadership Really Looks Like

But Ferguson wasn’t there to rattle off achievements. The heart of her keynote lay in five hard-won leadership lessons, truths forged not in boardrooms, but in burnout, backlash, and the uncomfortable growth of building something new.

1. Professionalism Doesn’t Mean Being Hard
   “Kindness isn’t a failure of leadership,” she declared. Critiquing the “girlboss” era of the 2010s, she rejected the idea that power must be performed through rigidity. Vulnerability, softness, and sharing openly with your team? That’s what has made her more effective, not less.

2. Control is a Trap
   As a self-proclaimed type-A eldest daughter, Ferguson knows the seduction of control all too well. But in business and leadership, she argued, the need to control perception and outcomes can quietly become manipulative. “People-pleasing, if it’s about managing how you’re seen, is still a form of control,” she said. The antidote? Delegation, asking for help, and letting people do things differently.

3. New Feels Wrong. Do It Anyway
   Ferguson urged the audience to embrace the discomfort of innovation. “You’ve got six to twelve months before you start saying, ‘That’s just how it’s done here,’” she warned. Whether it’s breaking outdated workplace processes or redefining what media can be, newness often feels wrong, but it’s a necessary rebellion.

4. Don’t Just Walk Through the Door, Break the Wall
   In one of her more provocative reflections, Ferguson called out an uncomfortable truth: some of her toughest bosses have been white women. “There can be a sense of, ‘I struggled, so you should too,’” she said. Her challenge to the room was clear, don’t replicate that legacy. Open doors wider, not tighter. Her own team now includes two 22-year-olds still at university, and she says she learns from them every day.

5. Trying is Winning
   In a powerful close, Ferguson shared her next bold move: running for the Senate in New South Wales as an independent. “Journalists have already told me I’m going to lose,” she said. “But losing isn’t the failure. Not trying is.” This was not a vanity campaign. It was a living example of what it means to choose purpose over outcome, values over applause.

Redefining Influence

With almost 200,000 followers and a voice that slices through the noise, it would be easy to label Ferguson an influencer and many have. She reclaims the term with pride, but redefines it, too.

“Influence is a responsibility,” she said. “How you wield it matters.” For her, that means meeting people where they are, even if they’re her conservative parents. It means making progressive media less elitist, more welcoming. And it means building a new public square where young Australians feel seen, safe, and smart enough to speak up.

In that spirit, Ferguson offered her own reflection practice: choosing three words to define each year. Last year’s words were trust, soft, and influence. This year, they’re fun, sharing, and scale.

A New Kind of Feminist Voice

In a political and media landscape too often dominated by recycled narratives, Ferguson’s voice feels electric. It’s not just what she says, it’s how she says it. Part stand-up, part strategist, part truth-teller, her keynote was a wake-up call to stop asking permission and start leading from wherever you are.

What made this keynote so resonant wasn’t just the ideas, it was the energy. The no-notes delivery. The candid self-deprecation. The honesty about fear, failure, and forging ahead anyway.

She didn’t ask the audience to be more like her. She asked them to be more like themselves, but louder.

In the words of one attendee: “She made me want to try something bold today. Even if I fail.”

That, perhaps, is the new feminist leadership legacy Hannah Ferguson is building, not a ladder to climb, but a landscape to transform.

SheLeads is an initiative by YWCA Canberra to elevate women and non-binary people in leadership through events, mentorship, and community. Learn more here: https://sheleads.org.au