Carol's Story, From Feeling Stuck to Handstands at 59
In 2023, Her Smile held its inaugural High Tea and Fashion Show at The Abbey in Canberra. One hundred tickets, completely sold out. Families and friends travelled from as far north as Maroochydore in Queensland and as far south as Adelaide to Canberra to watch their women walk.
These were not models. They were mothers, grandmothers, and professionals, real Her Smile clients who had each done the quiet work of coming back to themselves.
I'm telling their stories, one woman, one week, in the order they walked. This is Carol Lamb's story, the fifth woman who walked.
Active, But Not Actually Changing
Before Carol found Her Smile, she wasn't sitting still. She was an active person, showing up, staying busy, doing what she thought she should be doing. But nothing was shifting. Her shape wasn't changing. Her definition wasn't improving. She looked fit and healthy from the outside, but she felt only okay, nowhere near the confidence she carries today.
Starting With How to Walk
Carol's first step with Adele wasn't a gym program. It was the Her Smile 10-Day Spring in Your Step walking challenge, a foundation-first approach that taught her how to walk properly, how to move well, and how to do it alongside a community of women all figuring it out at the same time.
Two Years of Weekly Sessions
After the challenge, Carol moved into weekly Zoom personal training sessions with Adele, and she's kept them up for two years since. In that time, she's progressed, strengthened, toned, and lost weight, but the bigger shift has been in how she sees herself.
Her fitness is now the best it has ever been. She can do 30 push-ups on her toes, not her knees, skip, box jump, and hold a handstand, none of which she could do before starting, and all of which have genuinely surprised the instructors at her own gym.
What Changed Beyond the Gym
Carol is 59, and people regularly tell her she doesn't look old enough to have a 31-year-old daughter. She no longer relies on her three daughters for opinions about what she wears, or wonders whether she's too old for something. She bought a bikini and wears it confidently at the beach, in front of her family.
She's never liked having her photo taken, but she said yes to being part of a photo shoot for Adele's rebranding anyway. She's since started modelling for an artist, something she never would have considered before.
Go Carol. We are so proud of you.
Carol was styled for the runway by the beautiful Saloon Design House in Braidwood, and walked out in front of one hundred people carrying every bit of the strength she'd built over two years of showing up.
Carol's story is one of eleven featured in The Women Who Walked, our celebration of the women who walked the 2023 Her Smile Runway.
