Anelia Varela

When her friends had pictures of ponies and Chesney Hawkes on their bedroom walls, Anelia had ads.

The classic Absolut campaign, Nike ads ripped from her brothers' tennis magazines and a random ad for a watch with a backlit face under the headline ‘Silly watch’. It thinks it's a lamp.

Admittedly there was also a wall covered in Queen posters.

By the time she was 20, Anelia had two advertising awards under her belt and was writing campaigns for the likes of Volvo and Barclays at Ogilvy in Durban.

Fifteen years, two countries and two brand agencies later, Anelia is a creative director at The Writer, the world's largest language consultancy. Based in New York, she's helping some of the world's biggest brands to realise the power of words to make them stand out, change how people see them, make and save them money and change their culture.