A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Gina Bell

From tulle skirts that fly around the country to glitter-pen written words of wisdom, Gina Bell is nothing short of magical. She is a local women’s empowerment speaker, author and mother who sees the light in people—even when they can’t see it themselves.

“When there’s a big group of women together, it feels like a vibration. It feels like women celebrating their power and having the permission to take up space and be. There’s an energy that just radiates and has this lasting effect,” Bell said.

Bell’s career began at her children’s school, where she first worked as a volunteer coordinator before moving into nonprofit work across the Region. Over time, her passion for helping people find their light began to shape the work she does today. That eventually led her to writing her book, “Tears & Tulle,” a women’s empowerment picture book.

“It tells the story of a girl who has an invisible, magical rainbow tulle skirt that grows with her. The book serves as a metaphor for finding and celebrating your own color even when life is hard,” Bell said.

It was inspired after Bell’s own life, finding the beauty in the darkness. While she now speaks to crowds of hundreds, it took a long time to get there.

“I can remember sitting at a stoplight, back in my 20s, and thinking, ‘There’s nothing special about me. I’m just like everybody else; there’s nothing that makes me stand out.’ I look back at that girl, and she didn’t know for a long time. It was really hard. Somewhere along the line, and after a lot of therapy, that has changed,” she said.

Eight years ago, on a photoshoot, Bell paired a beautiful, colorful tulle skirt with a black tank top. It served as a metaphor of needing both the tears and the tulle to grow. It sparked a movement, and the skirt was shipped to 52 women around the country over 52 weeks. They took photoshoots of themselves wearing the skirt, with two conditions: it had to be paired with something black, and they had to write about their journey.

“We don’t need to wait for life’s perfect set of circumstances to show up and connect with the parts of ourselves that make us feel the most alive. I need reminders of how to take up space—how to be seen and feel like I’m good enough and that I should be there, taking up that space,” she said.

At many of her events, Bell takes time to read her book aloud. She asks attendees to participate in the dance moves alongside the main character in the book.

“The girl in the story does four moves with her tulle skirt. She skips, and pauses to remember something inside of her. Next she dances, which is about having fun. Then she swishes back and forth in her skirt, taking up space. Finally the girl, and the audience, twirl. The final motion is about taking everything she’s learned out into the world for others to learn,” Bell said.

“Skip! Dance! Swish! Twirl, and remember the spirit of that magical girl,” the audience chants together at her events.

She has spoken at numerous venues around the Region and Chicagoland area. Bell focuses on being brave even when it’s scary, especially then.

“Before I speak, there are often moments where I think, ‘Everyone’s going to hate me,’” she said. “My initial thought is, ‘I don’t belong here.’ The second thought is, ‘I should be taking up space in the world. This stuff’s important.’”

Bell has turned this into motivation to talk to other women about ‘friending their fear.’ She says that standing in your own power might make you feel uncomfortable, and that’s even more of a reason to do it.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t always learn how to fully stand in my power as a woman,” she said.

Bell spent some time in her youth as a model and had to take on both praise and rejection. She often found herself trusting that other people knew who she should be.

“I would take other people’s opinions and just absorb them. It took a bit of a toll,” Bell said. “I had no idea what I wanted to be. Nothing ever seemed to fit what I wanted to do. I had no idea who I was outside of being a mother. I just wanted to be like my mom and be the best mom I could be, which was hard as a teenager. I had no idea.”

Bell had her first daughter at 19 and four kids before she was 25. While she says her kids have been her greatest teachers in life, she also did a lot of growing up fast.

“I want to thank every single person that saw something in me before I could see it in myself. There were people that saw a light in me that I couldn’t see yet,” she said. “I am at a place in my life now where that light is easier to see. Hopefully I can be one of those people that helps other women to see it.”

Bell recently founded a new project that encompasses all of her other works called She Really Let Herself Go. The name is a fresh play on words from the tired expression that women often “let themselves go.” It is a place where women have the opportunity to connect, grow and explore what it means to really let go in today’s world. The project includes in-person gatherings, shared materials and opportunities for women to start their own circles rooted in the same message.

“I was tired of making myself small. I was breaking my own bones to fit into spaces that I didn’t even like,” she said.

Through She Really Let Herself Go, Bell encourages women to move away from competition and instead form circles of support. The project includes what she calls the “Bluebird S.O.N.G.” — self-love, owning our evolution, naming our strengths and gratitude — and prompts participants to reflect on both joyful and painful experiences.

“The phrase had been on my mind for a while. I like to take things that I heard growing up and change them to give them new meaning. People say that phrase a lot without really knowing the person or what they’ve been through,” Bell said.

When Bell was going through an old box in her parents’ basement, she had no idea it would end up eventually sparking a movement. She found a piece of her artwork from the fourth grade, and it was the lightbulb moment she didn’t know she needed.

“The artwork was really weird. It had this funky looking blue bird, and it was in this unfamiliar place that I had never seen before. I had created it from my imagination. It had bright pink heart plants. The bird was taking up all the space in the painting, and it was drinking from the heart plant,” Bell said.

She remembers feeling so proud of herself. It was the first time she was supported for bringing her color and creativity into the world.

“Looking at it in my 40s, I realized that the painting had a deeper meaning,” she said. “I felt like it was connected to that phrase I heard growing up: ‘She really let herself go.’”

She invites women to ‘really let themselves go,’ whatever that means to them.

“Maybe they’re taking themselves to lunch or going and buying flowers, or it could be about setting boundaries, saying no and doing something they really want to do instead,” she said.

The first annual luncheon was a success, with Bell selling out the venue. While she’s ecstatic that the event went well, she wants to remind women that the project has two parts. There’s the physical meeting, and also what it means as a woman to really let go in everyday life.

“As a woman in the world really trying to be myself, that freedom in my heart reminded me of the bird in the painting—both in an unfamiliar place. Being a woman in the world is really hard. Standing in my own power is uncomfortable for me and unfamiliar a lot of the time,” she said. “It’s important to do it anyway.”