4. How all women can inspire the young girls in their life, simply by sharing their own stories with Tanya Meessmann

Building Doors with Lauren Karan

In this episode of Building Doors, we are joined by Tanya Meessmann, the founder of Girl Shaped Flames and CEO of Uniq You. After a career travelling the globe and mentoring young professional women along the way, she returned to her home state with a commitment to developing the most confident, courageous and self-assured generations of girls Australia has ever seen. Through her original social enterprise, Girl Shaped Flames, she's worked with over 4,000 teenage girls, their parents and educators, facilitating powerful mentoring, inspiring events and transforming courses, specialising in confidence development for high school girls and courageous parenting.

Much like Lauren, Tanya is a big fan of building doors, with one of her most memorable being the desire to attend Bond University as a teenager. While her single-parent family couldn’t afford the fees, she got in via a scholarship thanks to guidance from a teacher.

In line with her work conducted through Girl Shaped Flames and her latest not-for-profit venture Uniq You, Tanya shares the story behind her motivation to empower girls.

While we all know how potentially damaging social media can be for all of us, Tanya and Lauren unpack how it uniquely affects teenage girls.

Tanya explains that the need to go virtual as a response to pandemic-related shutdowns is what inspired her latest venture, Uniq You. She believes that high school is the perfect time to help shape young women, particularly where perceived barriers can influence decisions that have lifelong consequences.

To address some of those barriers, Uniq You is a virtual platform that expands on previous mentorship programs to help scale the service, particularly in rural areas. Today, Uniq You now has over one hundred companies and partners with fifty schools.

To find out more about the First Five program click here.

You can contact Tanya Meesman on LinkedIn

About your host: Lauren Karan, director and founder of Karan and Co.

With over a decade of experience as a recruiter and development coach, Lauren Karan found that her priorities rapidly changed after the birth of her two children. In 2022 she founded Karan & Co flipping the outdated recruitment model with a focus on retention through career coaching and development.

Lauren believes that If opportunity doesn't knock, you have to build a door - and it's this same philosophy that inspired her to create the Building Doors podcast.

The Building Doors podcast is for anyone undergoing a transformation in their life. Regardless of whether you feel stuck in your current role, need some inspiration on what steps to take next, want to learn how to level up as a business owner or simply want to listen to the experiences of successful entrepreneurs and industry professionals, the Building Doors podcast is all about unlocking your potential.

To say hello, provide feedback, or express interest in a guest appearance on The Building Doors Podcast get in touch with us at [e-mail].

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