"She can't be what she can't see" - How Queensland Mum and Ag Enthusiast Angela Kettle is Showing Kids that Women Wear the Boots Too
- jessdempster
- 11 minutes ago
- 5 min read
When Queensland mum and former beef industry worker Angela Kettle went looking for a book about female farmers to help teach her young daughter about the world of agriculture, she was shocked by the lack of options.
“I realised after I had my daughter that there was actually no agricultural books in Australia that were showcasing women as the leaders," she told FlowFM's Jessica Dempster during an interview on the Country Viewpoint.
"And I was like, hang on a minute. So many amazing women are doing amazing things in this industry.”
"Not only that, but our children are so disconnected from where their food comes from."
Motivated to help close this gap in children's literature, Ange decided to take matters into her own hands and Female Farm Tales was born - Australia's first picture book series celebrating the women who help feed and clothe the nation.
The first book in the series, Becky the Beef Farmer, was officially released last month to what Ange describes as an “amazing” reception, with wholesalers already placing second and third orders and another thousand copies recently sent to print.
“The reception has been amazing," Ange said. "We have already sold so many books."
“Pretty much every wholesaler who jumped on Becky for the first run has sold out. They’re on their second and third order, and I’ve just had to send to print another thousand copies.”
She said that it still feels surreal to have seen her project come to fruition, and that she's particularly touched by the amount of young girls already choosing to dress-up as Becky as part of Book Week 2026 - barely a month on from the book's release.
“I’m still pinching myself that it’s real and I have physical copies of a book that I’ve written in my hand. And then now on the back of Book Week, I’m getting all these photos of little girls dressed up as Becky. And the first one that came through, I genuinely had tears in my eyes because I was like, ‘How is this even real?’”
Despite not growing up in a farming family, Ange says living in a regional coastal town in far North Queensland meant that she was always on the periphery of the industry and loved the idea of being apart of it one day - spurred in part by her deep love of beloved Australian TV show McLeod's Daughters.
"I don't come from a family of farming or any kind of agriculture at all, but being in a (regional) coastal town we were always surrounded by it ... so we sort of knew about agriculture but were never really apart of it," she said.
"During high school I fell in love with horses and started riding, and also fell in love with McLeod's Daughters - as most girls of our generation did - and decided that's what I wanted to do as a career when I left school."
Going on to work on a cattle station in Richmond before traveling around the state working in cane farming, cotton farming and “basically every other industry of agriculture” she could, Ange said it's important that her children grow up understanding and appreciating the work farmers - both men and women - do to help feed and clothe the nation.
“Growing up in the way that I did and not having a background in farming, I saw firsthand how disconnected city people were from agriculture," she said.
“I remember calling my grandmother when I first went out on a cattle property and we were kind of cutting up a cow for 1080 baiting and she was like, ‘What? That’s crazy,’. She just had absolutely no idea of the kind of stuff farmers and workers get up to."
It's also important to her, having both a daughter and a son, that her kids grow up knowing that knowing that gender shouldn’t determine what someone can and can't do, and that women are an integral part of the agricultural industry too.
“For me, I only worked in agriculture because I saw McLeod’s Daughters," she laughed.
"I saw women running a farm and I was like, ‘That’s so cool. I want to go and do something like that.’ So I did."
She said Female Farm Tales is all about teaching kids - both boys and girls - about where their food and fibre comes from, as well as giving them a place to see female farmers, producers and leaders on every page.
“I think that representation for little girls is so important. And it’s also just as important for little boys because if they don’t see it, then they don’t feel like it exists," she said.
“When we’re trying to raise little boys that are respectful of women and understand that women can do just as much - if not better sometimes - as men, ... we need to be showing them from a very young age that this is normal,"
“It’s probably why it’s so important for me, so that my daughter grows up knowing that she can pretty much do whatever she wants.”
With Becky the Beef Farmer now out in the world, Ange is very keen to introduce readers to Becky's friends/industry mates - Scarlett the Sheep Shearer, Bianca the Beekeeper, Daisy the Dairy Farmer, and Whitney the Wheat Farmer - very soon.
"I've been thinking a lot about how cool it will be one day to be able to visit a library or shop and see Becky and all her friends together on display - all representing different parts of the ag industry - that would be so cool," she said.
"(Dreaming big) I would love to get these characters into the animation and other spaces as well - things like soft toys, proper costumes, more education material - really getting kids excited and informed about agriculture. I think that part of this mission is so important as well."
More information about Female Farm Tales, Becky the Beef Farmer, and her upcoming friends, can be found on Ange's website at femalefarmtales.com.
Ange's full chat with Jess on the Country Viewpoint as part of Book Week 2026 - can also be found in episode 218 of the Country Viewpoint podcast, that can be found under the podcast tab on FlowFM's website flowfm.com.au.
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