Ruth Amos, Co-Creator of “Kids Invent Stuff” speaks to Rapid about her YouTube channel and challenging stereotypes
As part of our August focus on “Women in Welding”, we’re delighted to share our chat with Ruth Amos, co-creator of the amazing “Kids Invent Stuff” YouTube channel.
“You don’t look like an Engineer!” .......
Comments like this certainly didn’t stop Ruth Amos from missing out on the career she now loves, swerving a beckoning path into Law to instead follow her heart into the Engineering industry.
A passionate hobby welder, Ruth freely admits she was enthralled from a young age with the process of engineering and manufacturing, being drawn to working with all materials such as metal and wood as well as mechanical and electrical processes. Raw materials going in, products coming out; the concept of building things was enough to engage her creative mind and stick.
Since she was 16 years old Ruth has been around manufacturing, having started off designing and realising projects during her GCSE’s before inventing a ‘stair aid’, a concept Ruth developed from scratch, built, and ultimately brought to market. It was upon meeting fellow Engineer and designer, Shaun Brown, at the Big Bang Fair (UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair) that set the ball in motion to creating an online platform, and in 2016 they put together a test programme that would eventually become ‘Kids Invent Stuff.”
Aimed at primary school ages, “Kids Invent Stuff” is a YouTube channel (as seen on The One Show, BBC News Online and Tomorrows World Live) encouraging youngsters to engage with real engineering projects and submit ideas for inventions for the team to build and test on camera. As you can imagine it makes for brilliant viewing! Passionate about challenging stereotypes, one of Ruth’s most memorable projects was bringing to life 8 year old Courtney’s Mega Fun Grappling Hook Zipwire, perfect for Princesses who don’t need Princes to rescue them from the tower, they can make their escape themselves!
Now Ruth is determined to make sure other young people don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience engineering as a potential hobby or future career pathway, either through misplaced stereotypes or simply because the right signposts weren’t there at the right age. Regardless of gender, background or ability, engineering should be accessible to all and Ruth has created a fun and engaging platform through which to highlight this, encouraging young people to think “I can do that”, and give Engineering a try.
And what of welding?
“It’s like sewing with fire!” is Ruth’s enthusiastic response to my question “what is it that drew you to give welding a go?” After initially starting out with a welding helmet purchased off Amazon and a friend willing to lend out their plasma cutter, Ruth was introduced to Lincoln Electric who were keen to support ‘woman in welding’. The team at Lincoln generously provided weld training as well as kit consisting of Lincoln’s Speedtech 215 and 200 - the latter Ruth is particularly fond of as it fits perfectly in the back of her Ford Ka. Not only that, as well as offering both TIG and ARC welding, they are great machines to learn to weld on, too!
Lincoln Electric are also launching their brilliant WELD’her range of clothing and PPE, consisting of a welding helmet, jacket and gloves aimed at our lady welders. You can see these fantastic products in action in Ruth’s latest video!
Click here to watch Ruth in action as she welds a giant electric toothbrush!
The WELD’her range is available to shop online now on the Rapid website!
#kidsinventstuff
Leave a Comment