When I was 17, I thought the world was my oyster. By the time I hit 37, I felt like a well-worn piece of grit that stood little chance of becoming a pearl, no matter how hard I tried.
These days I look at my daughters and I think about how I can open up the world for them and give them all the chances I thought I had, but didn't.
Today marks three weeks until the general election. Everyone's talking about it being a cliffhanger, but I don't see it that way. To me it seems like a foregone conclusion – a forty-something white man in a suit will be in charge again.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against forty-something white men. I'm married to one, for a start. He's lovely. But I suspect that the reason all the polls are showing a general lack of enthusiasm for the ballot on May 7 may be that many others like me are finding it hard to muster enthusiasm to make a choice when it seems as though we're in for a disappointment, whoever wins.
Quite often I wish I had moved back to my native Scotland, so that I could vote for the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon and a woman's take on politics. Many women I know are considering voting Green because its female leader Natalie Bennett looks like she could also offer a different perspective.
When it comes down to it, I want to vote for someone who I think cares and understands my life. Right now I don't see anyone standing for parliament in my local community who fits that bill. Neither do a great many of my friends.
So we've decided to do something about it. This isn't another ‘if only’ article. This is a call to come with us and help us change things.
We're setting up The Women's Equality Party, and we want you. And the bloke sitting beside you. Because equality for women isn't just a women's issue. When women and girls fulfill their potential, men and boys do too. A system in which 78 percent of MPs are men, and there are more men called John leading FTSE 100 companies than there are women leading those companies, disadvantages men as well as women. They're only seeing half the world and they're only living in half of it. When both sexes can live and work side by side, the whole world opens up. (And there's your oyster, my lovely girls.)
There's a whole bunch of policies to achieve equality that I've yet to see make it on to any manifesto. So the Women's Equality Party is setting out to do something about them.
We want equal pay: an end to the grim reality that because you're a woman you're probably receiving less money from your boss at the end of every month than Kevin and Gary across the office.
We want equal parenting: the opportunity for your children's dad to spend more time with them – whether paternity leave, or just sports day and the nativity play, or that day when they're ill and someone needs to stay home - without being looked at weirdly and cut out of interesting projects at work.
We want equal career opportunities: so that while dads are with the kids more often, both mums and women without kids can pursue a career without bearing the burden of expectation that they're only going to take loads of time off should they get pregnant - and thus miss out on those promotions to Kevin and Gary across the office.
And while we're at it, how about an end to violence against woman? How about an end to the lazy classification of science, building and exploring as being ‘boys' stuff’? How about the creation of an education system that creates opportunities for all girls and boys along with an understanding of why this matters?
Because it does matter. These things aren't just ‘nice to have’. They are not things that we should just get around to once we've sorted out the deficit and the NHS. They are essential.
Take the economy. Numerous research papers have proven that companies whose staff is diverse in gender and race are more likely than those without that to expand market share and capture new markets. It's the kind of performance that any company emerging from our recent recession, and any Chancellor of the Exchequer, would surely want to see.
Take society. When women and men are set up in opposition neither side wins. Instead of grinding along feeling as though the other side doesn't understand or sympathise, we can live as partners and fulfil our true potential.
And take the world of politics. With equal numbers of women and men in parliament, both sexes can govern their country to the benefit of everyone.
We can bring about change by winning – support, votes and seats. Our focus is clear and our aim is to keep attracting votes from the other parties until they embrace and adopt our agenda of equality.
Interested? The Women's Equality Party's mission statement is listed in full on their Facebook page here and they are meeting to discuss the way forward on Saturday, 5.30pm until 8pm, at the Conway Hall. You can register to attend and bring all your own ideas here.