I’m sure, dear #TeamCoco reader, that you’ve felt it too. That feeling when you wake up in the morning on a Saturday, to find no food in the fridge, that your debit card has just tipped too far into your overdraft so your magazine subscription bounced and to top it all off a lovely letter that may as well be in Ancient Greek from your buddies at HMRC has appeared on your doormat. Then your bestie What’s Apps you about the flat she just bought (um, who does that?) and invites you out for a celebratory drink which you would go for but you’ve been working such long hours recently that nothing is clean and your keys have been swallowed whole by your floordrobe.
I know for a fact that it’s not just me as our amazing girl boss interviewee today, Lottie, has founded a new platform to help people like me who are apparently adults but not entirely sure how we got there… enter The Adult Bible (www.theadultbible.co.uk) ; something I’m reverently referring to as the ‘Newsround’ explainer for grown-ups.
HOC: Lottie, firstly thank you for creating this platform! What made you come up with the idea?
Lottie: I came out of university feeling educated, but not filled with practical life skills – as I know is the case with a lot of people – there’s a lot I had to figure out for myself, like how to buy a house, register for council tax and take a gas meter reading, all of which I hadn’t really needed to know before university. I trawled the internet and asked my parents, but I’m a fairly impatient and independent person so I found this method both time-consuming and frustrating.
I’d already started to take note on things like stamp duty and how to host a dinner party (I’m a dinner party fanatic!), but I knew I wasn’t the only one who would be thinking about this….
When I spoke to friends and family they too said that there are a lot of things they didn’t get taught you at school. I felt determined to combat the issue by turning all of my findings into a bible, to help people with growing up. From this, The Adult Bible was born!
HOC: Technically we’re meant to be adults at 18 but so much stuff I need to know these days I did not learn in my formative years! Are there key topics that we just can’t deal with as twenty-somethings and upwards?
Lottie: I’d like to think there’s nothing we can’t deal with as young adults, however everyone’s situation is different. For example, some people will have experienced university and probably the process of renting a house with friends, meaning they’ll be better prepared if they need to go through this again once they leave, or later in life. Others get a job at 16, and have plenty of work experience but might still live at home with their parents.
There are also topics which I think very few people in their early twenties think of dealing with yet, like wills and understanding the importance of a pension. This is the very reason The Adult Bible exists – I want to address topics like this and provide everyone with the same information they need to best deal with growing up. There’s nothing we can’t do if we have easy access to information and put our minds to it!
HOC: I’m all about self-empowerment but sometimes I just can’t adult – I can deliver a presentation to a board of senior execs but can I get round to sorting out my contactless debit card that hasn’t been contactless for over a year…?! Let us in on something you just can’t get your adult brain around?
Lottie: Well despite researching for hours when I was writing about washing on the website I still have absolutely no idea how to wash my clothes in the machine, nor what any of the buttons on the machine actually are.. I just guess if I have to, but in our house normally my boyfriend does most the washing – he’s somewhat of a domestic god, thank goodness!
HOC: How do you run ‘The Adult Bible’, you mentioned you currently work full-time?
Lottie: I spend my evenings writing and researching, and a lot of lunch breaks on the phone. I’m very fortunate to have an investor so I have a small team to help me out with day-to-day tasks so that I can concentrate on growing the brand and exploring new opportunities.
HOC: We feel you, #TEAMCOCO is a squad of ‘slashies’ as well! What are your plans for ‘The Adult Bible’ going forwards?
Lottie: I’m super excited for the site to grow, I have huge plans for The Adult Bible. I think there’s a whole range of universal topics and responsibilities everyone should know about and understand, even if they’re not putting them into practice yet or ever! Topics like travel, applying for a job or even managing finances…
I’m currently talking to app developers because I’d love for The Adult Bible to be even more easily accessible, and we’re also in talks with another company to put on masterclasses with expert speakers in and around London, which will be fab. Plans for next year are even bigger; definitely watch this space!
My plan is to continue to create more pages and blogs which cater to everyone – we do encourage this over on the website, but I’d love more people to get in touch with any suggestions for what they’d like to see covered…
Let Lottie know what you can’t adult at over at @TheAdultBible (Insta, Twitter, FB) and www.theadultbible.co.uk