What happens when you encourage a daughter?

What does happen when you encourage a daughter to search for her strengths and to move forward in that direction?

Some pretty incredible stuff.

In learning so much this past year about what makes me tick-wheels going ka-thunk, wanting to live a life that matters, telling my story-I realized that there was so much I could share with our young adult daughters to help them discover their strengths and talents.

So I did. Share. And Encourage. Because that is what I do.

We held multiple conversations over many weeks as I worked with my life and career coach, Joel Boggess, to figure out my strengths and talents, and then to determine how I could put them to use.

We bounced endless questions and ideas off one another.  The whole family filled out the Identifying Talents worksheet that is available at Joel’s free resources page here-a great exercise to discover what others see in you that you may not.

And we each began to view ourselves in a whole new light, full of tantalizing possibilities.

Leslie discovered that part of the intersection of her passion and strengths included her lifelong love affair with fashion, her remarkable ability to see, her desire to create, and her flair for the dramatic.

She decided that she should start sewing.

Not like me or her Nana started decades ago. With Sew Easy beginner patterns. And step-by-step lessons.

Oh, no.

She just jumped into her first big project: “I want a 1950s style dress for a costume and I can’t find one, so I’ll buy a size sixteen 1980s thrift store dress, and just cut out everything that doesn’t look like what I want, and sew up the rest to fit me.”

And we marveled as she deconstructed an old and unattractive garment about seven sizes too large for her, reconstructed it, played with it and pieced it, adding to it as needed, slowly getting to the place where what she saw in her mind would come to life under her fingers.

This girl-who has never had any formal training in sewing, tailoring, garment construction-crafted a lovely and adorable replica of the type of dress a 1950s housewife would wear. And it fit.

She has tackled several projects since, and she models her latest at the top of this post.

Do you see a 1980s white wedding dress with the big, pouffed sleeves, gigantic bow and ten foot long train?

She didn’t either.

She did take it apart.

She mulled. For a really long time.

And then . .

Decided to dye it. Who knew that only the lace trim would turn pink, the satin would hold just a hint of blush, and the beads and pearls would remain white?

Purchased about a bolt of cotton candy tulle, and whipped it into a delicious confection of poufyness that swished softly with each graceful step.

Took some more tulle, and-snip, snip- crafted sleeves that drape delicately

Located inexpensive bedroom slippers, dyed them as well, and dressed them up with silky ribbons.

And-Voila!-the ballet costume that was hidden beneath the voluminous folds of the outdated gown emerged with the grace and beauty of a Prima Ballerina.

Throughout this process, we continued to encourage her to reach,  to help her think about ways in which she will be able to use these talents to create a career that brings her great joy and satisfaction.

Our hope and belief, and hers, is that she has the capability and conviction to design the life she wants around work that she loves.

That is pretty wonderful and exciting stuff indeed.

How are you encouraging your children today?

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