Romany Wake returns to the Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards as an Executive Panel Judge
After being named the 2025 St Lukes Healthier Communities Award winner and 2025 Tasmanian Young Achiever of the Year, Romany returned to the program this year with a very different perspective.
For Romany Wake, stepping into the 2026 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards judging room was a full-circle moment.
Just a year earlier, Romany had been sitting on the other side of the program as a finalist, later taking home the St Lukes Healthier Communities Award before being named the 2025 Tasmanian Young Achiever of the Year. This year, she returned as an Executive Panel Judge, helping assess a new group of remarkable young Tasmanians and gaining an inside look at a process she said had once felt ‘secret and mysterious’.
Romany described the judging day as exciting, eye-opening and, at times, incredibly difficult. Not because the process was unclear, but because the standard of the nominees was so high.
“The challenging aspect was choosing only one young person to win the award,” she said. “There were so many amazing young people who were so deserving.”
For someone deeply involved in advocacy and community work, Romany was already familiar with some of the names and stories that came before the panel. That made the role even more meaningful, but it also required care and self-awareness.
She said there were moments where she had to consciously step back, listen closely to the perspectives in the room and refocus on the applications as a whole rather than what she may have known about someone personally. That, she said, was an important part of keeping the process fair and grounded.
Looking back on her own experience as a finalist, Romany remembers how overwhelming the awards journey could feel. She was initially named a semi-finalist in two categories, then found out she had become a finalist in one. Even then, she said, she struggled to imagine herself as a winner.
In fact, in the days before the Gala Presentation Dinner, she nearly talked herself out of attending altogether.
It took encouragement from those around her to get her through the nerves, and even on the night she resisted writing an acceptance speech because she felt so strongly that the other finalists were doing incredible work. Eventually, under some persistent advice from Ella, she typed a rushed speech into the notes app on her phone while dinner was being served.
That experience has stayed with her, especially now that she has seen the awards process from both sides.
Her message to this year’s finalists is simple: do not underestimate what it means to be in the room.
“Even if you don’t win your category, you are still a finalist,” Romany said. “You are still making such profound change in your industry and your sector and whatever you’re passionate about, you are making that difference.”
She said the Gala is about far more than the final announcement. It is a chance to hear stories that stay with you, reconnect with people, build new relationships and be surrounded by young people who are all making a genuine impact in different ways.
Romany knows the weight of that impact firsthand.
Through her advocacy, public speaking and work with government and community services, she has used her voice to push for greater awareness around domestic and family violence, while also helping shine a light on gaps in systems and support services for young people.
When she speaks at rallies and events, Romany draws carefully on her own experiences and on the story of her mum, always considering what is hers to share and what message is most needed for the audience in front of her. It is deeply personal work, but it is also practical advocacy, grounded in a desire to create safer systems and make others feel less alone.
That impact has already reached people. Romany said young people have approached her after speaking events and through social media to say her story helped them feel seen and reminded them that someone else understands what they are going through.
She has also been involved in advocacy that has contributed to real change. In one example, after raising concerns about victims continuing to receive prison letters they did not want, she said changes were made internally so those letters now require closer checks before being sent.
For Romany, that kind of change matters because it goes beyond one person’s story. It creates something that can help protect others as well.
Now, as the 2026 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards prepare to celebrate another outstanding group of finalists, Romany hopes they take in the moment, trust that they belong there and remember that being recognised is an achievement in itself.
“Everyone who is there deserves to be there 110%,” she said.
