_Our Young Gun series gets to know the academy youngsters kicking off their careers at the Sobha Realty Training Centre._
_Lois Hazell spoke to us recently about her experience on tour in Canada and the joys of playing for Arsenal._
I grew up in the New Forest and I've always lived in the same house with my mum, dad and older sister; we've never moved! My whole family is a tight unit, so I've always been close with my grandparents and my cousins as well.
I started playing football because of my sister, who is two years older than me. Whenever we used to play in the garden, she would just stick me in goal. I made it out eventually, so then it was her turn, but she got scared of the ball!
Away from being a goalkeeper in the garden, I started playing for a team called Pace when I was seven, before trialling at Southampton three times. There were massive difference when I made the transition from grassroots to academy football.
When you show up as a ten-year-old and get a huge backpack full of kit, it's a surreal feeling. From that moment on, football became my life.
After three years at Southampton, I moved to Chelsea's academy. I had a great first two seasons there, but the third year was hard. I think the knocks are definitely what make you a better player in the long run. In fact, those years have probably taught me more about myself than anything else in my life.
Being at an academy that young, it teaches you a lot of resilience and perseverance, which sets you up really well as you grow up and you're in more challenging situations.
When I got released from Chelsea last year, my mum was straight on the internet to find trials, but as soon as I trained with the Arsenal under-21s, I knew this was the place for me. I loved the intensity, the style of play, the facilities - everything. It just felt right.
I've only been at Arsenal since the summer, but it's been a great start. We all went to Canada on a pre-season tour, and that made everyone so close. The girls are all so nice, the coaches are so nice, so I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to a club.
What's very lovely is that I knew a couple of the girls from England camps. In fact, Bella Cowley, one of my best friends from Chelsea, came to Arsenal at the same time as me.
> "As soon as I trained with the Arsenal under-21s, I knew this was the place for me"
I love last-man defending and putting my body on the line to stop the opposition from scoring. I'm an aggressive full back, so I'll join the attack and make forward runs when I can. Even when I was a winger I always enjoyed defending, so at full back it's the best of both worlds.
It's a massive dream of mine to train with our first team squad and just the other day, Beth Mead came to our training session as she's working on her coaching badges. Beth has always been an idol for me, so it was wild for me to just be training and to look up and see her.
What makes Beth so great is that on the pitch she always makes a difference and as a person she seems to have a lot of care for everyone.
My main focus this season is staying really consistent for Arsenal. I would also really like to get back involved with the England squad because being in that environment really makes you concentrate on the key attributes of a footballer. All I want to do is become a better footballer.
My family has been a massive part of my motivation and making sure that I still love doing what I'm doing. I was talking to my mum recently about how I never would have imagined that I'd be playing for Arsenal when I was kicking a ball around the garden with my sister.
My young self would be very proud of where I am now, and that's the thing that keeps me going.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.