Author and presenter Yumi Stynes reflects on country upbringing at Dubbo keynote

"If you asked young Yumi what she wanted to be and what she thought was possible for her, she would never have answered 'to be on TV' or 'to be working as a broadcaster successful enough to support her family', that just wouldn't have been a thing," she told the crowd.

"Those things did not exist within any of my spheres of influence, not even in a distant sphere, and it was only for white people and only for city people."

Ms Stynes - presenter of successful ABC Radio podcast 'Ladies, We Need to Talk' and author of Ladies, We Need to Talk: Everything We're Not Saying About Bodies, Health, Sex & Relationships - was in Dubbo to give a keynote address at the western region Primary Principals Association conference.

"Knowing for a while that I've been coming here to speak to you, I've really been reflecting on what it's like to grow up in the country instead of in the city," she said.

"I've got some kids who have been born and raised in a mixture of Sydney and Melbourne - so I've got an active comparison between what I had and what they have."

"What I remember about being a country kid and going to school in the country are big skies, weekends in the bush because we were inland like Dubbo, building campfires, going sailing on a lake and canoeing on the river."

Ms Stynes grew up in the Victorian border town of Swan Hill, a town with a population of around 11,508 about halfway between Mildura and Shepparton. Her mother is Japanese and her father was a fifth generation Australian.

"I remember Indigenous kids, white kids and not much else - which I'm sure is really different now - but I remember standing out for being and looking Asian. And never seeing that represented as normal or the mainstream," she said.

Although things have changed now with the advent of the internet and prevalence of social media, Ms Stynes said when she was growing up there were much fewer spheres of influence for children in the country.

"If you had your family that was a pretty rock solid sphere, you had your friends, you had your school, you had maybe a sports team or ballet classes and you had the TV and books," she said.

"But in the city there seemed to be so many other circles of influence that you could choose to opt into."

"You had all those other things that country kids had... but you also had things like restaurant culture, great big art galleries, protest marches, great big rock festivals, graffiti art, random weird guys shouting into corners in alleyways and jobs where all the staff spoke a second language."

"There were so many different spheres where you can think 'maybe I belong in there' or 'that's definitely not for me'."

A self-described rebel growing up, Ms Stynes has gone on to have a two decade long career in broadcasting including as co-host of KIIS FM's 3PM Pick-Up radio show and a presenter on The Circle and Channel V Australia.

Speaking to the principals - who travelled from across western NSW to attend the conference - Ms Stynes noted the important role schools can play in opening up possibilities for young people in country towns.

"[There are a lot of young people] who feel participating is out of reach," she said.

"And I want to say to them, the people who believe in you and see your work and your ideas and your creativity and nurture that and help it grow, they're here too and they're within your circle of influence."

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