Why I gave Ruby, the heroine of my novel, a raspberry birthmark on her face

In writing my novel, The Aphorism Club, I wanted to explore a theme that has crushed generations of girls: the weight of perceived beauty standards.

I created my protagonist, Ruby Pearl Hart, to wear her "imperfection" - a prominent facial birthmark - not as a mark of shame, but as a badge of honour.

Ruby's journey begins in 1920s Melbourne, a time of supposed female emancipation. Those promises of freedom born during the suffragette movement began to lag when faced with the social reality of the era. What was promised in law failed in reality.

Young women like Ruby came to realise that society still held its social prejudices and sexist attitudes; freedom was apparently for the few and not the majority - and certainly not the poor.

For Ruby, the raspberry birthmark that stains her face is enough to engender a constant disregard for her wellbeing and unusual cruelty from her grandmother.

Despite discovering her gifts, the mark remains something of a wound that she struggles to overcome.

As she becomes a young woman, she is acutely aware of beauty and the doors it opens. She uses her birthmark as a reason to shrink and stay small as she sees the looks and taunts of others.

She does not meet the standards of the day - a problem hardly unique to her era, as generations of girls since have felt crushed by how imperfections can be used against them.

Drawing on my own Tasmanian origins was essential to finding Ruby's voice. The second part of her story moves to my hometown of Launceston.

I grew up here and always thought its enigmatic and beautiful landscape would be a great place to write about.

In particular, The Gorge and Duck Reach mesmerised me as a child; that mysterious and deeply dark basin simply had to have stories to tell.

Much of the research for this part of the book came from my own childhood exploration, my parents' stories, and fantastic images of the area in the 1930s I found in a photo book compiled by The Examiner.

But why The Aphorism Club? An aphorism is simply a short expression about a big idea; it reflects a universal truth or a morsel of wisdom.

Ruby seeks this wisdom to help her understand a bewildering world. When she finds a group of kindred spirits, she begins to sense the power that comes with knowledge, experience, and connection.

This reflects my own real-life Aphorism Club. When I began writing, a group of friends invited me to join them weekly to discuss our work and give a voice to the ideas rolling about inside our heads.

We enjoyed the beauty of language and supported fledgling authors to take their unspoken thoughts to the page.

My own club was less colourful than Ruby's, but those people remain a dearly loved cast of characters in my life.

Writing Ruby brought me a great sense of joy. Her tribulations felt important in a time when women still find their choices trampled. Ruby Hart might have lived in the 1920s, but her self-discovery is a beacon for women across all ages.

Her success comes from self-belief and silencing the inner critic. We all need to learn that the real challenge is not what others say about us, but how we maintain our dignity when confronted.

Like Ruby, we must win the battle that rages within our own hearts and repeat her favourite quotation from Jane Eyre: "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will".

Tracey Lee is the author of The Aphorism Club (Hembury, $32.99). A resident of the NSW South Coast, she spent 38 years as an English and behavioural science teacher working in Tasmania, Western Australia, Canberra and NSW. The fourth book in her Lily O'Hara Mystery Series is due to be published this year.