Libys McGuinness scoops Blue Peter badges (From Dorset Echo)

Libys McGuinness scoops Blue Peter badges

2:00pm Monday 31st December 2012 in News By Samantha Harman

A TALENTED young writer has put pen to paper to win a stash of Blue Peter badges.

Fourteen-year-old Libys McGuinness has collected four of the coveted awards for poems and reports she’s sent in to the BBC show.

Libys, from Weymouth, hopes to one day turn her after-school pastime in to a career.

The Wey Valley School pupil said: “I had to write a different thing for each badge.

“The blue one is for a story I wrote, the silver one was writing about a Blue Peter presenter and the last one I got was for writing a report on one of the shows.

“I write as much as I can. I wouldn’t say English is my best subject at school but out of school I love to write.”

Now her goal is collect all six of the badges – although getting the orange badge might mean being on the show.

She added: “I’m not allowed to get the badges after my 15th birthday, so I need to work on those in the next few months.

“The orange badge is for when you win a competition or if you’re on a show.”

Blue Peter badges allow the winners free entry to more than 200 UK attractions.

But Libys could use another one of her talents to feature on the show, as she is about to become a black belt in martial arts.

She said: “Apart from writing, martial arts are the main thing I do outside of school. Hopefully I’ll be a black belt soon.”