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In my time in F1, I never doubted I could be successful. I sadly never made it on to the starting grid of an F1 race, but during testing I completed a race distance.
I love reading fashion magazines, buying handbags, the usual things - but when you're in the moment and focusing on setting up the car, how you look is so irrelevant.
We have to stop this stereotype that for girls it's about being in pink and horse riding. We need to teach kids to think outside the box, to dare girls to be different.
You need to get female talent which is good enough to compete at the right level because no team is going to compromise on on-track performance just to tick a gender box.
It's very important to me to give something back - to pass on my know-how, to give all the lessons I learned onto the next generation so they don't make the same mistakes.
I was asked to do some studies to see if I was different. And I do have more male testosterone than the average woman does. Whether that makes me more aggressive, I don't know.
I loved the speed of go-karting, but didn't have a lot of natural talent. The first time I went out on the track I found it scary; other karts were flying past and bumping into me.
We need to get more women into sport, whether that's young girls in karting or off the track. The more we get into sport, the more you are going to get rising to the top of the sport.
We want to get more women into the sport, whether that be marshals, volunteers, engineers, female racing drivers. We want to open up the sport and show there's opportunities out there.
I realised at 13 or 14 when I said, OK, I wanted to be professional racing driver, there wasn't anyone to look up to that I could aspire to or get inspiration from. But that didn't stop me.
An all-women championship is giving up on the mission of eventually making girls compete on a high level and against the boys in Formula One. It is undermining what girls are able to achieve.
I'm not doing what I do to prove what a woman is capable of. I'm not doing what I do to make Formula E more diverse. I'm doing what I do to be successful. If that's inspirational, then great.
I was always very clear when I took some time out to start a family that I wanted to come back and get my teeth into something and of course I could not work for Toto or a competing manufacturer.
What many people don't realise is the first F1 test I was offered by Frank Williams and the team was a one-off. It was never planned that I would become part of the team or it would lead to more.
The reality is that family is on the cards in the future. But you know in motorsport if you take yourself off to have children, you won't come back, partly as you're quickly forgotten in this sport.
It is a hugely embarrassing situation to find myself in, I'm a professional driver and to be caught speeding and to have my licence taken away for speeding, it would have an effect on my reputation.
As a racing driver, you're representing a brand and your appearance is part of your job. But there's a fine line between being feminine and creating attention on yourself because of what you're wearing.
Do I care about what men say at the race track? No, not at all. I've always said I race for me, because I love racing. I don't race to prove a point about how well a woman can do against men on the track.
Coming to new environments, people look at you and think, 'what's this blonde lady doing, she thinks she can drive a racing car.' But you work hard, keep your head down and show that you're actually capable.
I started racing at club level, then the Scottish championship, then the British championship, then the European, then the Worlds. I went through all the various ranks. I spent a good ten years doing karting.
In Formula E, because it has that structure of being quite cost-controlled and partly standardised, it means a small team or big manufacturer, if you get it right you have a chance for success which is great.
My progression into F1 came to represent so much more than a racing driver simply trying to reach the pinnacle of the sport. It was also the hope that finally there may again be a female on the starting grid.
I think we all, as drivers, come to the table with a package. It's either your speed and raw talent, your sponsorship money, your nationality. For me, one of my unique selling points is my gender, without a doubt.
People will say I'm only where I am because of my husband or because the team might want to employ a woman, but you don't get to drive a Formula 1 car unless you're good enough, especially with a top team like Williams.
When I was driving the simulator, out of the three engineers I worked with one was a woman. So it was very difficult for me to turn around and tell people that I worked in a male-dominated environment, because it wasn't.
I never really thought about being a woman in a man's world. Then at the World Championships in 2000 I finished 15th. I was called on to the podium just for being a woman, and I realised things were going to be different.
Sir Stirling Moss, who said that women don't have the mental aptitude to take part in F1, is from a different generation. There's no reason why women can't rise to the top in F1. If you're not good enough you don't survive.
I think as much as people talk about Scotland as being a place where it's raining all the time it's a fantastic country. Considering it's such a small country you have to realise how successful it's been in the world of motor sport.
If I was to turn around now and say that motorsport should be segregated, then my whole career would have been for nothing. Every result that I have achieved on my own would stand for nothing, if I couldn't compete against male drivers.
One of the whole reasons for starting my initiative, Dare to be Different, is about getting more girls interested in motorsport and that's everywhere, not just driving on track but creating a network where they have the support around them.
It's all very well to talk about how it would be great to have a woman driver, a woman with sponsors and marketing, that's all great but to get into that drive you have to perform. That's what I realized early on when I got into Formula One.
I have the deepest admiration for Angela Palmer and her work so having my helmet as her subject has been a true honour for me. I think the sculpture is stunning and very striking, it's the most incredible combination of strength with fragility.
I was very lucky in that my parents supported my racing so much - they just said 'whatever you want to achieve, if you work hard enough you can achieve it.' They never, ever let me believe that, as a female, I couldn't compete in a man's world.
If there's 10,000 little boys racing around the world and there's only 10 girls, best case 100, the numbers are stacked massively against us. If you don't increase the talent pool of young girls, you're not going to get the best drivers at the top.
Nobody says Nico Rosberg is only in F1 because his dad was a famous racing driver who funded his karting career and helped him get into F1. It s a bit unfair just to focus on the fact that my husband is in F1 and it's the only reason I'm in an F1 car.
As a sports person, you are always aware that at some point your career is coming to an end and you have to do something else. I always knew it had to end one day, and I was very determined to make sure I wasn't going to be known as an ex-racing driver.
Ultimately, when you're out on track with your helmet on, nobody can see the driver. Nobody can judge you on what you look like if your hair is long or short, if you're black or you're white, if you're male or female. All that matters is your performance.
When a sport comes down to physical power, then it definitely needs to be split between men and women, but motor racing is a little bit like horse riding where we fight with the same tools. I believe that motor racing is a sport where women can take on men.
I think from a driving perspective, the great thing of being in a simulator a lot is that you can constantly work on areas. Of course it's not like being in a real car, and you always have to remember that, but it means there are all these things that you can work on.
Throughout my whole racing career, I was always asked about being a woman in a man's world. Interestingly when you are in that world, there's no reason for it to be a man's world, there are successful women and I didn't find there to be any barriers to stop me from being successful.
I'm not like other females. I'm obviously different because of the path I've taken. I'm just as aggressive as the guys when I get my helmet on. Plus F1 is not just about taking risks, but knowing when to take risks and when to back off. It's also about strategy and managing your tyres.
All the Formula 1 teams that Dare To Be Different has come into contact with - Ferrari, McLaren, Force India, Williams - they're all very proactive in supporting us. They allow us to contact their female staff members and they're very conscious of wanting to help increase their percentage of women in the industry.
When I did my first media interviews after I was announced as a team principal, the first question was, what qualifies you for the job? The second question was, did your husband place you in the role? And the third was, how are you going to do your job as a mother? I was speechless to think that we were not making any progress.
Many people talk about me entering the history books as the first female in 22 years and what a big moment it was. And I'm very flattered that I managed to do something historic, but in all honesty I was out there for me as a racing driver and to show everybody what Susie Wolff is capable of not to put my name in the history books.
I'm proud of my driver test. So many people were waiting for me to test and fail, so they could say that women would never be able to race in F1. I always view my time in F1 as before and after the test. Beforehand, I could sense everybody asking, 'What's she doing in the F1 paddock? Is she good enough?' After my test, that attitude changed.