Made by Mom Gift Guide: With workshops and online course, Apex mom is helping girls get strong inside and out

I'll admit it: My 10-year-old daughter was pretty skeptical when I told her a couple of months ago that we were going to a morning-long program intended to make her strong inside and out.

Together, along with other moms and daughters in the room, my 10-year-old and I chatted about what made us strong on the inside and then had a blast as we attempted moves during Zumba and High Intensity Interval Training workouts and relaxed during a quiet yoga session.

Schall and her husband live in Apex with their four kids, ages 9, 12, 15 and 17. "I’m smack dab in the middle of teen-hood and I thoroughly enjoy it actually," she tells me. "The relationships we get to build with our kids as they mature, watch them evolve into their own selves and become mini-adults is pretty cool to experience. It's not always easy or fun, but nonetheless cool. I love watching the cycle of life."

Schall is a former health and physical education teacher, volleyball coach, strength and conditioning coach and fitness instructor. She's now a senior health coach for a local start-up company called EHOP (Employee Health Ownership Program), guiding clients and companies through personalized health coaching and a functional medicine-based year-long curriculum.

As a health teacher and athletic coach, I saw a gap in the amount of time we spend developing girls physical bodies vs. strengthening their emotional, spiritual and mental selves. We weren’t developing the whole person, and I felt we were missing impactful opportunities to raise up strong female leaders.

Our culture puts a lot of pressure on teens to perform, look and be perfect. We focus on excelling at sports, in performances and recitals by pouring hours into practices, teaching technique and skills, sending the message that those things are what matter in life. Don’t get me wrong: Those things are important, but I felt we were doing a disservice to our teen girls who need more guidance, encouragement and techniques for strengthening their minds and their hearts, along with their bodies.

In 2015, Inside-Out Strong was born as a means to bridge that gap…to strengthen teen girls hearts, minds and bodies while they were moldable and open to positive influence. It began as a training curriculum for teachers, coaches and other influencers, but has now grown to live workshops, online e-course and small group options. In 2017, we began the Mother + Daughter workshops to connect mothers to their daughters.

It began as a fundraising idea for a missions trip, but has evolved into a fun and meaningful event that we all look forward to. In our workshops we provide an opportunity for mothers and daughters to connect and strengthen their relationship through both physical movement and meaningful conversations. We are intentional with our short time together and hopeful that our “work-ins” for the heart and mind, facilitate deep discussions and foster more important conversations between a mother and her daughter in the months following our event.

In our workbooks, I always hope that our curriculum serves as a launching point for a girl to find herself, feel empowered and build foundational confidence to show up just as she is. I hope the questions, reflections and testimonials serve as a tool to build a teen girls up. I hope it opens up meaningful discussion between a girl and her Mom or another influencing woman leading her. I hope Inside-Out Strong fosters authentic hearts, positive minds and strong bodies in girls and women alike.