Dear Pole Princess Family,

To everyone that helped me create this dream – all the past students, employees, franchisees and contractors – this is for you. I thought a lot about recording this message as a video but every time I tried, I found myself overcome with emotional tears. Tears not of sadness, but of joy and pride and accomplishment. For I have chosen to remember only the good things about Pole Princess and anyone that was ever part of it.

What can I say… it’s been an incredible thirteen years. From one teeny room in Kew to the empire that it became and it’s all because of you. To everyone who ever walked through a Pole Princess door and trusted us to guide you through this amazing sport, to allow us to help you build your confidence and be part of a new-found hobby that brought you joy, I want to say thank you. You had so many other options, but you chose us, whether for a day, a month or a year or more, you chose us and for that I am truly grateful and honoured and feel oh so overwhelmingly blessed.

My only regret is that I didn’t get to know more of you better. I was so driven to grow Pole Princess that I lost sight of what was really important – you guys and the connection we had because of this sport. If I had my time again, Pole Princess would remain that one tiny room filled with joy, encouragement, friendships and support and would never grow beyond that. The tiny space in Kew which started out as one room with only 10 poles, where I taught most of you myself & was there every day, where I knew everyone by name and got to personally share many laughs as well as triumphs and (sometimes) tears together. Those are the times I cherish the most. But growth doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in happiness and I guess, we live, and we learn, and this has been a big lesson to me personally to be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it.

I want to address why I deleted many of you from my personal social media as I believe I owe you an explanation. I recently went through the greatest betrayal in my life which many students were aware of and I have to admit, I was hurt. I was hurt that so many people whose lives were positively impacted because I took the risk and created Pole Princess in the first place at a time when pole dancing was only known inside strip clubs, were now watching my pain on social media and not asking if I was ok. But now that I’ve overcome the pain, I see that it was all my fault. If I had have created my own relationships with you, then none of this would have ever happened. Instead, I tried so hard to create something that would bring you joy, and I couldn’t risk hearing it wasn’t good enough. And this, in part, lead me to make no connection at all. What was disguised as “shyness” my whole career was in reality major anxiety, but I didn’t realise this until my depression got so bad in May of 2019 that I had to get professional help. Anxiety may have cost me my business but it narrowly escaped costing me my life and for that I am so grateful. I’m grateful because I now know I am a resilient & determined person and if it weren’t for Pole Princess, I may never have discovered just how truly strong I am.

Regrets aside, what I’m truly grateful for is the fact that your biggest accomplishments have all been recorded and are available to relive the memories any time you want. Your memories of getting on stage and conquering fears will live on forever, or at least for as long as YouTube is around. And I know so many of you have videos of classes and routines that you loved that you can now keep as memories. So if the loss of Pole Princess brings you any sadness, remember you always have the memories and the friendships that were created because you were courageous enough to give us a chance.

For me personally, when I think of Pole Princess it will always bring a smile to my face and a huge sense of pride and my only hope for you, is that it does the same for you too. We achieved things together that others never would have even thought of – we made it rain on stage for MPDV and dropped rose petals from out of no where, we created massive productions where hundreds of you guys got to perform without the fear of being judged, we created competitions where competitors cheered each other on without any cattiness whatsoever, we served tens of thousands of women across Melbourne; and one thing I’m most humbled by is that so many of you created careers or gained customers as a result of Pole Princess. Clothing labels were created, costume designers, shoe designers, photographers, videographers, professional pole artists, other pole dance studios… the list goes on! Ideas came to you to turn your own passion into businesses or side businesses of your own and you were supported by other people you met through Pole Princess and that’s the kind of girl power and support that I’m choosing to remember.

I would love for you to share your positive stories of Pole Princess as a way to honour what we created as we say goodbye and hope that you will leave a goodbye message of your own below. This isn’t the time for negativity, let’s be grateful that we got to be a part of it whilst we had the chance.

Thank you for the amazing thirteen years and I hope you continue to dance and do what makes you happy, as we all deserve to be truly happy no matter what it takes.

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