This eight-year-old girl who has shunned dolls houses and dresses - learning instead how to operate a ten tonne DIGGER. Aubrey Ayan started playing with motorbikes, toy guns and cars when she was just a few years old while dreaming of becoming a builder.

She now rides her bike home from school every day and joins her dad, Kim (corr) at the building site where he works in Ifugao province, the Philippines.

Footage of bare-footed Aubrey - whose legs can barely reach the pedals - expertly operating a backhoe excavator has made her an online hit. Aubrey said: ‘’It’s fun playing with the excavator. I can do it all day. I think I will be a good engineer when I grow up.''

Mum Ligaya Rose said that some people who saw her video of Aubrey operating the heavy construction equipment had complained that it was dangerous - or feared that it was ‘’child labour’'.

But Ligaya said that Aubrey was ‘’very confident’’ behind the wheels of the digger and that she attends school every day - coming top of the class and impressing teachers with her technical knowledge. She rushes home from school to jump on the wheel of the construction equipment, dazzling builders with her swift turns as she claws out piles of earth.

Ligaya said: ‘’Aubrey was never interested in girl things like dolls or baking cakes. She only wanted to do mountain biking, climb mountains and help her father on the farm. She loves helping him to fix motorbikes and now she has found a new toy, helping him at the construction site driving the backhoe. Aubrey wants to be an engineer when she grows up.''