Author: lizanneboucher

A recent incident with my soon-to-be teenager has me questioning our societies expectation and assumption of what a 12 year old girls appearance should be. And as a mother of a 12 year old girl, encouraging and maintaining the self-confidence of my tween is proving to be more challenging than I anticipated.

The Incident

I recently shared a story on Instagram, about my 12 year old daughter Renée being called “he” during a family outing.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbTVIrRgVTR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The Aftermath

The comment left her feeling stunned, hurt, insulted, and wondering, “do I really look like a boy?”

As her mother, I knew we needed to sit down and have a discussion, before this drop has a negative ripple effect on her self-confidence.

My Approach

Me: “Do you think that girl was out-of-line to call you a boy?

Renée: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Think about it. Look at the other girls your age. What do most of them look like?”

Renée (still unsure where I’m going with this).

Me: “Don’t you find that most girls nowadays are working hard to look like digital filters?”

Renée (wide-eyed and jaw dropped): “YEEEESSSSS!”

Me: “So if most teenage girls are walking around, looking like their “filtered” version, and then someone like you comes along, again, can you blame that girl for assuming you’re a boy?”

Back Me Up

Lucky for me, the Web is filled with an abundance of articles, studies, and research confirming the reality of girls seeking changes to their appearance, specifically to look more like their filtered selfies and digitally-distorted images they consume on social media (an article by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America) to prove my point, making Renée feel much more confident about herself.

Or this article by MIT Technology Review, adding to my argument, with a young Sophia confessing, “twelve-year old girls having access to something that makes you not look like you’re 12? Like, that’s the coolest thing ever. You feel so pretty.”

I could honestly go on, and share NUMEROUS similar articles. The facts are there and the results aren’t great.

In The End

I applaud Renée for her self-confidence. To not cave into the trend of looking like the digital-distorted version of herself and for showing up as herself.

I love everything about her, inside and out, and I’m super proud of the person she is.

Let me start off by asking you a quick question: when you wake up in the morning, grab your phone, and open your social media app, how many times have you thought to yourself, “Gosh I can’t wait to be sold to today!”? I bet the answer is NEVER. So why would you market your brand with a typical pushy sales pitch? In a digital world bombarding us with ads at every scroll, swipe and search, your brand needs to stand out from the rest.

When it comes to marketing, storytelling is a powerful and underrated tactic to get in front of your audience and HAVE THEM LISTEN. Although creating a story is more time consuming, and requires more work and thought, here’s 3 reasons why you should be using storytelling to market your brand:

What exactly is storytelling?

Now that you understand the importance of storytelling in your marketing efforts, perhaps you now need a better understanding of what exactly storytelling is. Let me give you a quick example:

Let’s say I have a business selling lip balms. Which of these pitches are you more likely to act upon and click the [BUY NOW] button?

SALES PITCH:

Dry lips? Here’s a lip balm made to soothe the driest of lips, guaranteed! Made with 100% all-natural ingredients, like vitamin E and beeswax, this lip balm is sure to please.

STORY PITCH:

After struggling with dry lips for years, finding a good quality soothing lip balm seemed impossible. Even the all-natural lip balms often contain questionable ingredients. I came to the realization, that if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself! After months and years of perfecting the ultimate lip balm recipe, only using high quality, skin nourishing, all-natural ingredients you know and trust, like beeswax, vitamin E, cacao butter, shea butter, and honey, I finally created a lip balm that worked! Moisturizing and protecting, my search for the perfect lip balm was over. And I’m happy to share it with all of you.

See the difference? A sales pitch will leave your mind as quickly as it came in. A story pitch will compel and stick with you for a long time.

More storytelling examples

Here’s a wonderful storytelling example from Volvo. Note that it never mentions the brand during the ad, except at the very end, letting the story do all the talking:

Also applies to social media

We’ve all scrolled through our social media, seeing pictures of whatever our friends posted that day (like what they ate for dinner), and thought to ourselves “okay, that’s nice, but do I care?”. But what if the caption held a story to go along with that otherwise uninteresting picture?

Here’s a post I recently added to Instagram. I could’ve just posted a picture of my new tattoo with a simple “check out my new sleeve!” caption, but is that what my followers really want to see? Rather, I made it engaging and inspiring, by sharing my story.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lizanne Boucher (@dirtroadsanddaisies_lb)

Are you ready to dive in?

Have I convinced you? Have I shed a light on the importance and impact storytelling could have for your brand? Good!! Now it’s time to put that spark into action.

Good storytelling doesn’t just happen overnight. Like everything in this world, it takes time and practice. The Web is filled with a plethora of storytelling information; explaining the What, Why, Where, When, Who and How’s of it all, and expand your knowledge for better success.

Here’s a great article by The Next Ad, which explains Storytelling and Advertising – How To Bring The Two Together, further acknowledging my point and giving more great examples.

And this article, bringing you to the start with the basics, Aerogramme Writer’s Studio helps teach the fundamentals of writing a great successful story using The Story Spine.

Off you go!

Don’t let that imposter syndrome hold you back! Just start, and you’ll only get better overtime.

Oh! And don’t forget to have fun with it 🙂

As a family of five, the amount of masks needing to be washed on a weekly basis became VERY mundane in these last two years of our “new normal”. Let alone the panic that arose some mornings when hearing the words “Mom! I don’t have a clean mask!”; Unlike underwear, masks are not something you can just go without for a day. But with rules and restrictions quickly shifting and dissolving here in Alberta, I felt the need to tweet about the changes happening and the new questions I had…

What to do with all those masks?!

We’ve been living in this pandemic for two years, and clearly (as demonstrated by the Freedom Convoy, along with all its supporters), people are tired of the mandates, making our Alberta Premier start lifting restrictions. But now I can’t help but wonder, is this the end we’ve all been waiting for? If so, what in the world do I do with all of our masks? Between all five of us, we’ve probably got a hundred of them!

In my tweet, I share a few options I’m tossing around (and please, if you have any other ideas on what I can do with all our masks, I’d love for you to tweet a comment with your suggestion). My favourite option, being the easiest and most satisfying (really awakening our internal evil laugh) is… I don’t want to spoil it, but here’s a hint:

Unsure of which option to pick. Help!

Since I can’t decide for myself what to do with all our masks, I’m seeking for your input. I’ve thought of four different options and I’ve created a poll in my Twitter Thread to include you in the decision making. I’m hoping to hear from a few of you, in hopes it’ll guide me towards one of the options.

Easier said than done.

I’ve come to the realization that making a decision on what to do with these masks is easier said than done, and the decision making is evoking feelings and emotions within me I didn’t expect. Since I’m unable to know the future, keeping the masks is probably a good idea, should mandates ever return, but the thought of returning mandates sounds so depressing and exhausting. Although I’ve complied to most of these mandates the last two years, and with minimal complaints, I’m not sure it’s in me to go forward the same way.

“All I know is, this “new normal” cannot remain “the normal”. Not for mental health, not for the economy, not for the democracy, and many more reasons.”

So tell me, what I should do with all of our masks? Click-through to my Twitter Thread below, and let me know. I’d love nothing more than to hear all of your thoughts 🙂

Just washed a batch of masks again, which has been the #NewNormal for the past 2 years. I’m now sitting here, wondering, have I washed my last batch? #EXSM3989 pic.twitter.com/GGcq7bJeI4

— Lizanne Boucher (@boucheragwife) February 21, 2022

Written and illustrated by Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), and published in 1957, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a classic Christmas favourite, and a story that will live on for many more generations, I’m positive.

Although I’m sure most of you are familiar with this story; but if by chance you’ve never heard it, or if you’d like a quick recap, you can quickly have a listen to it here: Audio: How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

But what is it about this grouchy green Grinch that has captured our hearts for the last 65 years? Why do we love this story so much?

Well, as Ashley Fell says in her Ted Talk, Why Storytelling Is So Powerful In The Digital Era, “Good stories are inherently visual”, which is likely a large reason why this story is loved so much by children.

Good stories are inherently visual

Ashley Fell

The illustrations are fun, detailed, and capture the imaginations of children. Now, pair that with detailed and rhyming sentences, and you’ve got a story every child is guaranteed to love.

But great illustrations and rhyming sentences aren’t the only requirements for creating an engaging story. It helps!! But there’s definitely more entailed. What, you ask? Well, why don’t we ask Pixar, the professionals of storytelling? Luckily, Pixar was generous enough to share with us the 6 Rules of Great Storytelling. Now, let’s see how Dr. Seuss encompassed these 6 rules perfectly, in How The Grinch Stole Christmas:

1- Great stories are universal

We’ve all, at some point, gotten lost in the hustle and bustle of Christmas;

• The gift buying, making sure everyone is getting something special and making sure no one is forgotten.
• The one-month prep of Christmas baking; gotta be prepared! What if we get unexpected company? I need to bring something when we go visit!
• All the decorations that take a week to put up.

And with all of these tasks, expectations, and traditions, we often forget the true meaning of Christmas. A relatable issue, felt by many, making it universal. And Dr. Seuss is taking about exactly that.

2- Good stories have a clear structure and purpose

According to Aerogramme Writer’s Studio, using The Story Spine is a great tool for building a well-constructed story structure. As you can see in the following diagram, How The Grinch Stole Christmas follows the requirements of the Story Spine perfectly:

Once upon a time…	there was a grumpy Grinch.
Every day…	he’d be annoyed and frustrated with the Who’s and their Christmas celebrations and traditions.
But one day…	he set out a plan to ruin Christmas, by taking it all away!
Because of that…	he made a suit, sleigh, and reindeer to fool the Who’s into thinking he was Santa.
Because of that…	he snuck in their homes and took all their presents, decorations, and food.
Because of that…	he managed to bring it up the mountain where he planned to dump it.
Until finally…	when Christmas morning came, all the Who’s gathered for their traditional Christmas song. The Grinch, defeated, realized Christmas wasn’t about “things”.
And ever since then…	his heart grew three sizes, he returned all the items, and he realized Christmas wasn’t about the material items.

All in all, giving How The Grinch Stole Christmas clear structure and purpose.

3- Good stories give you a character to root for

Although seeming like the villain at first, the Grinch is the character we are rooting for in this story. How could anyone hate Christmas? Worst yet, how could anyone want to “find some way to stop Christmas from coming”?! We grasp onto hope that he’ll change; That someone or something will show him the goodness of Christmas; That someone or something will make him happy.

4- Great stories appeal to our deepest emotions

Is it safe to say, we feel for the Grinch? We see him sad, angry, annoyed, and lonely. Do we relate to the same feelings at times during busy holiday seasons, when the stress creeps in and starts to somehow outweigh the joy? Are you nodding to yourself as you’re reading these questions?

5- Great stories are surprising and unexpected

This story is full of unexpected surprises which is exactly what appealed to me when I first heard it as a child. My favourites were:

• The Grinch’s ability to take EVERYTHING from the Who’s homes, in an evening. The stockings, the presents, the Who’s feast, the tree, and even the log for their fire.
• Cindy-Lou catches the Grinch stealing (oh no! What’s gonna happen?!)
• The dog, Max, somehow successfully pulling that very full sleigh all the up Mount Crumpit.
• The Grinch’s heart growing three sizes (love that one!)
• The Grinch deciding to not only bring it all back to the Who’s, but to also join in the festivities 🙂 Who would’ve thought?

6- Good stories are simple. They are focused

Dr. Seuss definitely keeps this story simple and focused. Never veering off the path of the Grinch’s mission to “stop Christmas from coming”. Making this story pleasantly easy follow and understand.

There is no denying the brilliancy of Dr. Seuss’ storytelling. He wrote about hard topics in a manner in which children could understand. His serious, sensitive, important messages, composed with literature and illustrations having a deeper meaning that what appears on the surface. A story filled with so much connection, that we’ve enjoyed it for the past 65 years and counting.

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more!”