Fresh coffee, familiar faces, new connections and that calm Borders pace we all love — Women on Top was back in the Scottish Borders, and it felt good!
Hosted at the beautiful SCHLOSS Roxburghe, we gathered women from the Borders and beyond for an honest, refreshing conversation about building community, growing visibility and trusting your instincts, even when the plan isn’t clear.
We heard from our two brilliant speakers with very different journeys, but a shared belief in doing things your own way: Trejayne, creator and self-taught glass artist specialising in flameworking, and Jess Elliott Dennison, food writer and founder of Elliott’s.
Two completely different worlds: glass and food, TikTok and cookbooks, rural studio life and global brand campaigns… yet both have built loyal communities by leaning into authenticity, not the algorithm.
Trejayne: “Keep opening doors for yourself.”
Trejayne’s story landed with a lot of people in the room, especially anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t fit the traditional mould. She spoke openly about being labelled a low performer at school, later discovering she had ADHD. It took her until adulthood to realise that academic labels didn’t reflect her creativity or potential and how finding glassblowing changed everything.
That “first door” for her was leaving hospitality, teaching herself online, and slowly building a life around craft. She described starting out in a tiny rented space, hunting secondhand equipment on eBay, and documenting her journey almost as a private record, until people started watching, commenting, and asking to buy her work.
Since 2021, she’s shared that creative journey online and inspired nearly two million followers! Her work has even taken her to Paris Fashion Week and to the Corning Museum of Glass on scholarship!
Her message was clear: curiosity, consistency and showing the process, not perfection, are what people connect with the most.
Jess: “My whole career, I have been winging it.”
Jess shared her incredible career path with us, how she started out doing a business degree while obsessing over food (and basically running supper clubs from her flat), then built early experience at Stoats, worked with Jamie Oliver’s team on products and global campaigns, and eventually moved into food styling, cookbooks, and running Elliott’s Café.
Now, Jess independently publishes her own cookbooks, and her work has been featured in VOGUE, The Guardian, House & Garden and The Independent.
One of the most reassuring moments of the morning came when she reminded us that social media is just one tool, not the whole strategy and that word of mouth, quality and trust still matter more than any algorithm.
A recurring theme throughout the conversation was authenticity. In a world of polished feeds and pressure to perform, both Jess and Trejayne encouraged us to show up as ourselves — messy, curious and imperfect. Whether it’s sharing the learning curve, taking breaks when needed, or trusting your gut over trends, the message was simple: people respond to honesty.
Trejayne also shared practical, realistic tips for growing on social media without burning out — from focusing on quality over quantity to leaning into longer-form, more conversational content. Jess balanced this with a reminder that visibility can come from many places: collaborations, press, community and doing your work well enough that people talk about it.
By the end of the morning, we left feeling lighter, braver, and more connected to each other, and to our own journeys.
A special thank you to our event sponsors, Thompsons
We were so pleased to have Thompsons Solicitors supporting this Women on Top morning in the Scottish Borders, and delighted to be joined by Laura Connor (left), who spoke at the event, alongside Grace Smith (right).
Thompsons are already supporting over 1,000 cases across the Borders, helping local families access the legal support they need. Their decision to support this event came from a genuine desire to be present, visible and connected within the community they work with every day.
Huge thanks to SCHLOSS Roxburghe hotel for their exceptional hospitality, and to our brilliant Borders Lead Claire Drynan (founder of Spark Dot Grow), we couldn’t do it without you.
We’ll definitely be back. Until then, keep connecting, collaborating and cheering each other on.
Missed this one? Keep an eye on upcoming egg events here.