Junior Design Awards 2017 | Meet the Judging Panel

With the Junior Design Awards for 2017 now open {you can enter here} the very important job of narrowing down the 55 categories in this years #JDA's will be no mean feat - and, too big a job for one person alone!

Therefore, enter our exciting line-up of esteemed judges who are not only experts in their field, highly respected social influencers and of course, stylish parents themselves - but each one has been hand selected to ensure that Junior continues to showcase the best-of-the-best.

With awards categories for fashion, travel, books, toys, interiors & lifestyle and food & dining enlisting impartial and outsider opinion is the best possible way to ensure that the integrity of the Junior Design Awards remains - as they always have been - a luxury signed seal of style approval.

Judging will take place in late June overseen by the Junior editorial team with this highly-respected panel...

Pearl Lowe, designer and founder of Petite Pearl Lowe

After leaving school, Pearl chose music over fashion and was the lead singer of 90's indie band, Powder during which time she had a baby and three more to follow. As her children grew up, Pearl wanted to carve out a career for herself that would provide her with more time with her children, so she returned to her original passion for design.

Best known for her love of vintage interiors and fashion, Pearl has created her own unique design signature, which is both traditional yet brought up to date with elements that hint at glamour.

In 2001, she launched Pearl Lowe Interiors, selling lace curtains, cushions and bedspreads. Lace curtains led to designing lace dresses, which were sold at Liberty and independent boutiques. In 2009, Pearl designed a capsule range of dresses for the high street chain Peacocks (which sold out within 24 hours).

In 2013, Pearl launched her first interiors book ‘Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft’ which saw her bring her styling advice to a much wider audience and the following year also produced ‘Sweetness and Light’ a healthy eating recipe book with her eldest daughter, Daisy.

In October 2015, Pearl launched Petite Pearl Lowe, her luxury clothing and dress-up collection for girls aged 2 -10 years at Harrods, creating a new category in childrenswear.

In amongst all of this, Pearl runs a successful interiors design business and has worked on homes owned by a host of famous names, all wanting their own version of Pearl’s design philosophy. This year will see Pearl launch her debut wallpaper collection

Pearl lives in Frome, Somerset with her husband musician Danny Goffey, three children and her beloved dog, Angie.

Jo Tutchener-Sharp, founder of Scamp & Dude

Having previously worked in the fashion and beauty industry for 20 years managing PR campaigns for the likes of Tom Ford, Matthew Williamson, Dolce & Gabbana, Estee Lauder and The BRIT Awards. Jo set up my own PR agency aged 31 which represented brands such as Decleor, Topshop Make Up, NARS, Eve Lom and Christian Louboutin Beaute which she then sold in June 2015.

In October the same year, Jo suffered a life changing brain haemorrhage. It was then when she was in hospital recovering from her brain surgery at the beginning of 2016, desperately missing her kids, that she came up with the idea behind Scamp & Dude.

Jo lives in North London with her husband Rob and their two boys, Sonny, 5 and Jude, 2.

Tracey Samuel, founder of the bonnie mob

Fashion designer Tracey has a wealth of fashion business knowledge. As a Central St Martins graduate, Tracey started her career with many international designers, including over ten years as head of knitwear at Sonia Rykiel in Paris.

Tracey then went on to launch her debut label bonnie baby in 2005 after the birth of her daughter to acclaimed success. To celebrate the brand’s 10th birthday, she expanded the collection to include pieces for little ones up to age 7 re-branding as the the bonnie mob.

Tracey lives in Brighton with her family and children Alice-Bee, 11 and Rhys, 9

Zoë de Pass, founder of Dress like a Mum

Zoë is on a campaign to change the bad image of dressing like a mum through her blog and massively influential Instagram account - Zoë shares her daily outfits often with her 2 children in tow.

Launching in 2015 after frequently receiving comments such as 'you don't look or dress like a mum' or 'I can't believe you have 2 kids' she aims to dispel thebad rep and perception that mums can't dress, automatically lose their sense of style or their passion for fashion just because they've had a baby.

With over 8 years experience working as an Insights and Trend Researcher and Brand Consultant Zoë specialises in fashion, luxury and beauty and has been responsible for inspiring and informing major global brands understand Millennial parents.

She lives in London with her husband and 2 children.

Sarah Clark, is a Fashion Editor and Stylist & founder of Little Spree

After studying fashion journalism at the London College of Fashion, Sarah started her fashion career at various luxury magazines including Marie Claire, British Glamour and Red. Sarah now works as a freelance stylist and art director for a number of established commercial brands and is currently the Fashion Editor at Large at Stella, The Sunday Telegraph supplement.

In 2011, Sarah launched her hugely successful blog Little Spree as an essential resource for busy, fashion conscious mums as an insider’s guide to dressing your children in a stylish way without maxing your credit card. In 2013, born from constant requests and her revered eye, Mama Spree was added for mothers who also wanted to dress in a cool, but practical way avoiding anything 'mumsy’

Sarah lives in London with her boyfriend and their 7-year old twins, Tabitha and Marlowe.

Jenny Scott, founder of Mothers Meeting

Jenny is a leader, facilitator and the Mothership Captain of Mothers Meeting - an events communications agency that connects other mums. Her aim of rallying creative and interesting mothers from all over the globe to never quit on themselves is what sets her agency apart.

Since the launch of her 2014 book “How to be a Hip Mama Without Losing Your Cool” the Mothers Meeting network has grown from big to huge. Leading regular MM events with her cool and crisp energy, Jenny vows to maintain a non-fluff space for mums, making MM the antithesis of a yummy-mummy-club or stiff networking event.

Previous to this Jenny spent over 12 years working as an art director and designer for many global, high-profile brands, including fashion designer Gareth Pugh, Nike, and Coca Cola.

She lives in London with her son and daughter.

Gabrielle Spang, founder and owner of independent boutique Scandi Mini

Having moved from Sweden to the UK over 15 years ago former marketing consultant Gabrielle entered the world of fashion retail by launching her hugely successful online boutique, Scandi Mini in 2011

Born out of her desire to dress her own son in understated, cool clothing without fuss and gender stereotyping she went on a mission to prove there was a different way to dress children. With her savvy eye and impeccable Scandi sense-of-style she enlisted independent - and unknown - brands with a more minimalist approach to dressing.

Expanding into selling toys, homewares, gifts and accessories saw Gabrielle open her eagerly awaited first shop in West London in 2016.

Gabrielle lives with her family and 2 children Wilhelm, 8 and Cornelia, 4 in London.

Matt Farquharson, co-founder of Mother Pukka

Matt AKA Papa Pukka is one half of the phenomenal Mother Pukka brand, portal and blog. A website for people who happen to be parents, here Matt blogs and vlogs alongside his wife, Anna Whitehouse.

As a journalist and editor he has worked for The Independent, Grazia and Time Out before going on to be a copywriter and content strategist for brands including KLM, Mr & Mrs Smith, Tommy Hilfiger, Sony, Heineken, and L'Oreal.

Matt lives in East London with Anna, daughter Mae, 4 and a baby on the way!

Lisa Mehydene, founder of edit58

Former advertising director Lisa is a self-confessed interiors junkie, rug addict and avid traveller with an enviable eye for must-have pieces and the founder of online homewares emporium, edit58 and Atelier58 - a collection of scented candles.

Having built up relationships with craftspeople in Portugal, France, the US and one of her favourite places: Morocco - edit58 is a platform to share her irresistible finds, combined with her own unique design spin. This has helped it flourish into a cult success story - and a pandoras box of treasure that is no longer such a well-kept interiors secret.

Lisa is mother to 5 year old boy/girl twins and lives in south-west London.

Natalie Lee, founder of Style Me Sunday

Blogger, stylist, writer, mother, photographer, warrior woman... are just a few of the words Natalie would use to decribe herself. As a former midwife and lactation consultant Natalie has turned her successful passion for blogging into a full-time career, with her site Style Me Sunday.

Launched in 2012, her blog aims to inspire mums to celebrate their uniqueness, share their struggles, experiences and to show that there’s no such thing as perfect - and therefore, proving perfect is boring. Natalie shows off her enviable realness in un-retouched and candid fashion posts and on her widely followed social feeds with her 'fashion with feeling' message.

Natalie is married to her childhood sweetheart and lives in East London with her daughters aged 8 and 5.

Bonita Turner, Editor of Junior and founder of mamasvib

After studying at The Surrey Insitute (then the Epsom School of Art) Fashion Promotion & Journalism Bonita started her fashion career at Woman magazine and then as Fashion Editor at Now. With over 20 years experience in editorial Bonita went freelance in 2012 after the arrival of her daughter.

Needing something to fill the work void Bonita launched her blog mamasvib in 2013 as an outlet for her constant shopping ideas and went on to carve a freelance career working on various parenting titles, customer titles and project managing in-store seasonal catalogues. In February 2017, Bonita joined Immediate Media as Editor of Junior - the much-loved luxury children's title.

Bonita is overseeing the Junior Design Awards 2017 and its 20th year anniversary celebrations and is very much looking forward to judging them for the first time with a esteemed panel of like-minded people.

Bonita lives in Surrey with her husband Joe, her 4 year old daughter Marnie and her 2 cats: Pepper and Pinto.

For information on how to enter the Junior Design Awards 2017 go HERE

For FAQs go HERE

For a list of the updated 55 categories go HERE