Her path into football was not an easy one. There were no girls' teams in her area, so she started playing with boys at the age of five. Her 11-year-older brother was among them. The turning point came in her teenage years, when she joined Tranmere Rovers.
"I think I was about 15 or 16 when I realised that I was genuinely good at football. I knew I could play at a good level and represent my country," she said.
Women's football rarely featured in the media at the time, so Smith looked for inspiration mainly in the men's game.
"There was hardly any women's football on television back then, so I didn't have a female role model. I watched men's football and Ryan Giggs was my hero," Smith admitted.
"As a left winger, I loved dribbling and scoring goals, and nobody did it better than him. I was given a videotape of his highlights, and I used to train on the pitch between cones every day while watching it," she revealed.
At the end of the interview, she was asked to pick her ideal football five. Without hesitation, she chose Petr Cech in goal, with Rio Ferdinand in defence. Her biggest dilemma was choosing a midfielder.
"As an Everton fan, this isn't easy for me to say, but I have to pick Steven Gerrard. When I thought about it, I told myself that my family might not even let me come home. But he was an incredible player and a true leader," she explained, naming the former captain of Liverpool. Cristiano Ronaldo completed her ideal five in attack.
The full television version of this episode of the Big Pete documentary series will be available on CANAL+ Sport and the CANAL+ streaming service in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Poland, Myanmar, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Hungary, as well as on SuperSport in South Africa and Switzerland.