Tell Her Story

The Tell Her story

After a swim workout in 2017, a woman approached me in the locker room and simply said, “You looked really strong out there. You can tell you are a swimmer.”

Before this moment, I would have never considered myself a swimmer. 

Honestly, I felt like a fraud, and my confidence was shaky at best. This sport was new to me, and everything about it felt hard. Some days it took everything in me just to show up. Yet, this woman saw something completely different. She saw confidence and strength and she saw a swimmer.

This one small moment of kindness changed my life and inspired me to start Tell Her. 

It helped me recognize and honor my progress, and it reminded me to give myself credit for how far I’ve come. I also realized the powerful ripple effect that occurs when women use their voices to lift each other up.

I posted about this moment on social media and it went viral, and ever since then I’ve been sharing its story and using the hashtag #tellher as a way to keep this conversation going. 

After that 2017 moment, I started writing love notes on pieces of paper and giving them to women whom I looked up to and women who were out there being brave and doing courageous things. Whenever I felt inspired by the actions of another woman, I made a point to #tellher. 

In November of 2017, I created my first Tell Her cards for our Rock Retreat Run event. It was incredible to see my words printed on these small 3×3 cards and in many ways, see the story of Tell Her come to life as a tangible product. I hoped they would be well received and sort of held my breath in anticipation of women’s reactions. 

The response was overwhelming. Women loved them and made a point to start collecting them throughout the weekend. Over the next few months ladies started handing them out to women in their lives. Then, because they were witnessing the power of these cards, they started asking how and when they could purchase more. WOW, women need more cards! 

In that moment, I knew I would someday create an entire collection. 

I wrote and shared more of these Tell Her cards over the next two years. I handed them out at events and my retreats, and I started sharing them on social media and asked women to start tagging other women who inspire them. 

About six months ago I decided it was time to finally act on this dream. I brought together an incredible team of women who have been quietly helping me create a vision, design and framework for how I bring Tell Her into the world. In meeting after meeting, I have been in absolute awe of them – they believe in Tell Her just as much as I do and this project is now a collective heartbeat for each of us.

– Mel Charbonneau

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