What?! Speak Up, I Can't Hear You!

Story time… because every “why” & “how” starts somewhere.

When I was younger, I was labeled the timid, shy kid. Soft-spoken. Go-with-the-flow. The kind of girl who had thoughts and opinions… but kept them tucked safely inside.

And let me tell you, this drove my grandmother nuts.

I spent a lot of my summers in Georgia with her, and she’d snap, “What?? I can’t hear you! Speak up!” I honestly thought she was mad at me most of the time. Looking back? She wasn’t angry and she could definitely hear me, but she was determined that I find my “voice”, my self-assurance. 

She’d make me walk to the far end of her three-acre property, she’d grab a speaker, and then ask me questions that I had to shout my answers back across the yard. At the time, I was convinced this was cruel and unusual punishment.

Turns out… it was training.

As I got older, and especially now, working with women and young people all the time… I see it clearly. Her unconventional methods mattered. They stuck. I may not be the girl who jumps on a stage with a microphone (my thoughts still run faster than my mouth), but I learned something far more important:

What I think matters.

What I feel is worth sharing.

I can be kind and confident.

I don’t have to be loud to be heard, but when I speak, I speak with purpose.

That lesson? It’s the beginning of the backbone of TDR.

This boutique was never just about clothes. It has always been about creating a space where women feel brave enough to take up room. Where getting dressed is less about hiding and more about showing up… exactly as you are. Where confidence doesn’t mean being the loudest in the room, but being sure enough to stand in your truth. That’s the transformation - confidence from the inside out.

I didn’t fully find my voice all at once. It came in pieces—through writing, through connection, through showing up day after day and, sometimes, even when I didn’t feel so sure. And now, through TDR, I get to help other women find theirs.

Sometimes confidence comes from a mirror.

Sometimes it comes from a moment.

And sometimes… it starts with someone simply reminding you:

Speak up. You matter.

And that, my friends, is the real reason TDR exists. 💥