A week of fun in a beach house!

What an amazing bunch of girls we had the pleasure of hanging with earlier in the month!  Oh my goodness, they were just divine.  The sweetest, funniest, kindest, most beautiful girls came to join us from all over Australia for our week-long Personal Development course for girls aged 13 – 17.  And this time we went all out, hiring a beach house for the week!

The girls arrived a little nervous to start with but by the end there were tears…no one wanted to leave.  Here’s what some of the girls had to say about the week…

We had a team of awesome supporters throughout the week, including:

• 9 trained youth mentors supporting the girls throughout the week
• 5 guest teachers
• 2 photographers

They were all there to give 100% of their love and support to the 9 students who joined us.  The girls opened up about stuff they hadn’t shared before, learned about skincare, make up, manicures, strengths, values, job interview skills, healthy eating, yoga, mindful breathing, fitness, how to deal with friendship dramas and so much more.  It was a HUGE week and it’s one we’ll all remember for years to come.

Highlights included:

• learning how to find our own power within to face challenges and scary situations.
• learning how words are just words – if someone shouted the word ‘TREE’ at you, would you be offended?  Great tip from one of the girls – thanks Molly!
• we learned that we all have different personality types, different values and different strengths – and that’s OK.
• we learned that we all have our stories and things we’re dealing with but it’s our own CHOICE how we respond.
• we learned tips and tools for dealing with anxiety and stress.
• we set goals and came up with our own personal mantra.
• everyone shared heart-felt speeches at the graduation (there weren’t many dry eyes in the house!).
• we learned a bunch of life skills and ways to express ourselves authentically with the world.
• we chatted about social media, boys, periods, Harry Potter – you name it – nothing was off-limits!
• The photoshoot is always a highlight too – so much fun getting dressed up together, finding the confidence within to express yourself on camera and have your beauty captured by a skilled and nurturing photographer – it really is priceless!

We couldn’t have done it without our supporters and sponsors, who generously gave their time, products or a discount to our girls, including:

• Coconut Groove (fueled us all week with coconut water!)
• The Darling Tree (we played with the gorgeous Darling Tats every morning!)
• Everescents (we always love learning about organic hair care with you guys and love your products!)
• Sacred Self self-love cards and alchemical oils (the girls LOVED the Magic spray!)
• Kylie’s Professional Make Up (our favourite make up which the girls used for the photoshoot)
• Twenty8 Skincare (our absolute favourite skincare)
• Lemon Canary candles (a beautiful addition to our gift bags)
• Gutsy Girls Will Rule the World (we love the Gutsy Mantras and always love your mantra workshops Sharyn!)
• Breathe Project (your breath workshop was transformational Kat!)
• Madame Flavour (the yummiest teas!)
• TOM personal care products (our favourite pads and tampons)
• Loving Earth choccies (OMG so delicious and all raw and vegan!)
• Easy pH litmus paper (a fun way to test your alkaline/acid balance – get them at the local pharmacy!)
• Sharing Our Unique Lives  (Leah supported us for the entire week, as she always does – we couldn’t do this without her.  Leah runs weekly SOUL Sista sessions which some of our students go along to at Forest Glen)
• Hayley Turner Youth Mentor (Hayley was there for a few days during the week and her gentle presence was divine.  Hayley has some 2 days workshops for teen girls coming up on the Sunshine Coast soon)
• Kathleen Buckley, The Mindful Heart (Kathleen shared her nutrition knowledge with us and got us all playing in the kitchen!  We even ate kale!  Kathleen also runs yoga and mindfulness workshops on the Sunshine Coast)
• Sharyn Holmes, Gutsy Girls Will Rule the World  (Sharyn took us through a beautiful mantra creation workshop to bring everything we had learned throughout the week together into a positive, empowering statement!)
• Kat Tucker, The Breathe Project  (Kat taught us how to slow down and breathe mindfully.  The Breathe Project run programs in schools all around Australia)
• Emma Newby, Some Wild Darling  (Ohh what a gentle, beautiful, FUN photographer and mentor Emma is)
• Moriah Overell  (a past student if ours and another amazing photographer who captured the girls so beautifully)
• Sasha Fox, Vibrant Girls  (a vibrant youth mentor who joined us all the way from Northern NSW, Sasha is gorgeous!)
• Jo Dawe, Grateful for Me  (Jo supported our girls during the week and runs her own amazing programs for girls aged 8-12 in the Buderim area).
• Kat Harding Yoga  (Kat has us doing yoga on the beach at sunset…so blissful!  She also runs yoga retreats for women all over the world and stand up paddle yoga in Noosa during Summer).
• Amy Cronin  (Gorgeous, energetic Amy had us all moving for strong bodies!)
• Cafe Nurcha for delicious treats  (Ohh what delicious food we had throughout the week)

And of course we wouldn’t have a program filled with gorgeous girls without the parents.  Parents who flew from other cities and stayed nearby so that their daughter could come along.  Parents who drove an hour each morning and afternoon to drop off and pick up their daughter.  Parents who could see the value in a course like this.  These girls are incredibly lucky to have parents like you, investing in programs like this, supporting them to shine their brightest.  Thank you.

Amanda xx