Anna Harrington

Stories Seldom Told

"And so, I was brought into this family, who already had two children. They were my parents' biological children, two boys, very white. So, it was very interesting, when we would go out as a family. I would be stood there with classically sort of Pakistani colouring, you know, I have jet black hair. I have amazingly dark eyes, with my brothers and my parents who are blond and blue eyes. And it was, you know, it was quite amusing, really, because I could see people looking at us as a family, and questions going through their heads and said to say, what's happened with the daughter, she looks a bit different."

Anna Harrington grew up in the '70s in a white, middle class area on the Pennines, an area juxtaposed to the multicultural population of Oldham. She is adopted and mixed race. She has both benefited from white privilege and experienced racism throughout her childhood. This has allowed her to viscerally recognise the effects of not fitting in and how the social environment influences behaviours. She now has her own business advising on how to enable employees to be productive and thrive through work.