Honest and approachable, Dannielle mixed humorous personal anecdotes with practical strategies in teaching messages focused on empowerment, body image and positive friendships. 

“I always argue ‘if you can capture their heart, their mind will follow’. So none of this can be delivered as a lecture, and none of this can be stern. It has to be joyful, it has to be funny, it has to be personal and it has to be real,” Dannielle explained.

“When it’s all of those things, you really can cause a huge shift. And the girls really get to connect with each other. And see each other in a new light and realise they are far more powerful together than as individuals.”

Inverell Country Women’s Association’s Kristy McLachlan, Jane Hunter and Pam McLeay were moved to tears as they watched the young women line up to hug Dannielle after the talk. The CWA hosted the workshops and a high tea focused on teaching parents on the weekend.

“We wanted to make a difference, and to see all these girls come and hug this woman that they’ve never met, means that they’ve got something out of it, they’ve got something for themselves that I hope will make a difference in their lives,” Kristy said.

“I see their faces and they started off so cautiously, and now they’re participating. I want them to feel powerful for themselves, and I think that they will.”

Jane said the idea to help young women develop resilience and a strong sense of identity in the face of modern pressures came about following an event honouring Dolly Everett, who committed suicide due to cyberbullying in January. She said the children began asking why they didn’t talk more about such issues. 

The CWA approached several schools and local organisations who helped bring the workshops to life. 

“Every school I spoke to, it was around resilience, friendship, body image,” Jane said.

“The community has been so supportive with this event. They’ve donated their time, they’ve donated their money,” Kristy said.

Dannielle acknowledged that peer groups are very important for teen girls, who very rarely receive positive conflict resolution advice.

“Popular culture doesn’t explicitly teach our girls how to make up from their fights in a respectful way, it teaches them to be high drama. And often the adults in their lives might not have those skills either,” she said.

“Often things will go wrong, that’s part of that natural cycle of adolescence, but if you don’t know what to do with that, it can become all consuming. So the girls responded really well to that, and had an opportunity to affirm each other as well develop some conflict resolution skills.”

The group also discussed body image, how we define beauty and what makes a person lovable or valuable. 

“We’re really encouraging the girls to look beyond seeing themselves just as bodies and to consider themselves as somebodies,” Dannielle said.