At an Inspiring Young Women Breakfast hosted by the National Council of Women Dunedin branch yesterday morning she told about 100 year 12 and 13 girls from secondary schools across Dunedin she did not even know what rallying was back then.
"When I was their age I was going to be a horse rider."
She said it was OK to not know where you were going to end up and there was no need to have it all worked out.
She did not get into the driver’s seat of a rally car until she was 22. Before that she was navigating for her sister, Monica Graham.
"Once I had a go in the driver’s seat I was hooked. That's all I wanted to do."
She encouraged the girls to give everything a go and to discover what they were good at on the way.
Gilmour and five other female speakers were each given 10 minutes to talk.
They all had different stories and had followed careers ranging from refrigeration engineer to paramedic.
Bestselling crime author Vanda Symon said she wanted to become a doctor but did not get into medicine and instead became a pharmacist.
She began writing only after having children.
