In 2007, the Women in Physics Group of the Institute of Physics initiated the Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the Year Award. The award seeks to recognise the outstanding achievements of women physicists who are embarking on a career in physics and to promote the career opportunities open to people with physics qualifications. The prize is awarded annually to a woman who is within three years of having completing her undergraduate degree in physics and who is either working as a physicist or is engaged in postgraduate study. As well as providing recognition of the winner's work through the prize money, the award also provides valuable networking opportunities. In four years there have been five winners (in 2010, there were joint winners) and here they offer their thoughts on what inspired them to go into a male-dominated world and what it is like to be a successful woman in physics, 100 years after Marie Curie. For teachers of the next generation of physicists, there are some interesting similarities and insights that enable a different perspective when considering the potential of current students.