Introducing Lydia Hickey

Meet Lydia!

Affectionately known as 'Lou', Lydia—currently 11 and in Year 5—is our eldest child and, so far, our only daughter (which she is not at all happy about).

Like most girls her age, Lydia is a bit of a 'girly-girl', whose favourite colour is pink and loves all things unicorns. But she also has a tomboy streak, often seen digging in mud, climbing trees or crafting survival resources. She's a Green Belt in ITF Taekwondo, and is as much into Frozen as Tomb Raider. She has even started showing an interest in Warhammer 40,000 video games!

Lou made us so proud by double-grading from Yellow Belt to Green

Lydia can't pick a favourite school subject, but certainly has least favourites—maths and modern history. However, she is a huge fan of ancient history, particularly Mesoamerican (Aztec and Mayan) and Egyptian. She keenly follows the discoveries of archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Martinez at Taposiris in Egypt, and has a list of discoveries she wishes to make when she is older, including Themyscira—the legendary city of the Amazons, Noah's (actual) Ark, and the Pillars of the Sons of Seth.

Lou overseeing her own dig site

She is quite fond of learning cooking from her mum—so much that she dreams of one day owning a bakery!—and is often seen in the kitchen whipping up a batch of Vegemite-cheese scrolls for lunch. Some of her favourite things to cook include beef stroganoff, Italian, Mexican, and birthday cakes for her family. She is a big fan of spicy food—in fact, one of her nicknames is 'Lou—isiana Hot Sauce'.

Lou cooking up lunch

She also has her own garden where she grows purple vegetables for her family, inspired by her namesake Lydia, the seller of purple recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Lydia's favourite Bible story is Esther, because of her bravery in standing up for her people, which Lydia describes as "inspirational".

Like most of her family Lydia enjoys playing video games in her spare time. Some of her favourites are Minecraft, Subnautica and, of course... Tomb Raider. If she's not playing, she can be found using programs like Hopscotch and Tinker to create her own games, or mod other people's.