Michelle Fetsch is the visionary behind the organization Women Enough, whose BARE Campaign is empowering women of all shapes and sizes to expose their bodies and life stories with the world. Michelle has been coaching, mentoring, and advocating for women for nearly fifteen years and is committed to supporting all women in being seen, heard and free.

Having spent years struggling with eating disorders, low self confidence and body image issues, Michelle founded Women Enough in 2010, a global support network committed to empowering women in realizing their personal and professional greatness. Women Enough believes a woman’s worth goes far beyond her beauty and is actively involved in spreading this message through media campaigns, events and local peer to peer support groups. Enjoy her exclusive Business Heroine interview…

BH: Tell us your story – How did Women Enough and the BARE campaign come about?

Michelle: Girls grow up exposed to photoshopped magazine ads and “reality” TV that promotes unrealistic and narrow ideals of women, causing us to develop unhealthy expectations, which drive down our confidence, self esteem and self expression.

As an adolescent girl I had posters of celebrities on my wall, consumed beauty magazines with advertisements of the ‘perfect woman’ –  through all of that consumption and conditioning, I believed I had to be someone other than me. I believed that my worth could be summed up into six letters – p r e t t y.

By the age of twelve I developed an eating disorder that lasted for seventeen years and in 2010 I was fed up and declared my commitment to empowering women in owning their worth – far beyond their beauty. The BARE Campaign exists to empower women in having a healthy body image and self esteem and to bridge the gap between perception and reality.

WE believe a woman’s worth goes far beyond her beauty and are committed to counteracting negative and narrow media messages that keep women from reaching their full potential. Women are meant to be more than beautiful!!!

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

BH: How are you helping women transform their relationships with, not just themselves, but also with their mothers and daughters?

Michelle: We work with women that are ready to claim ALL parts of themselves and live beyond the confines of who they think they ‘should’ be. We break apart and reframe their beliefs, their stories and, ultimately, their lives. By guiding women through the timeline of their lives, we get an in depth look at how their identity was formed and what habits, patterns, choices and beliefs they inherited from their mothers.

This allows women to not only make conscious choices around their own behaviors, but also heal their mother wounds by bringing empathy and forgiveness to the picture. For women that are mothers, the process supports them in creating more intentional and supportive relationships with their daughters. When we hold up the Mother Daughter Mirror it’s healing for generations.

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

BH: What does going BARE provide women?

Michelle: Going BARE provides women a safe space to LOOK at themselves – to REALLY look. They get to claim all parts of themselves and investigate. They shed the layers of shame, shadow and inauthenticity that keep them from becoming and living into their legacy.

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

BH: You have some celebrity involvement with the #BAREcampaign. Tell us about it!

Michelle: Well, I’m a relentless spokesperson and promoter, and I’ve been ‘courting’ Demi Moore and her daughters after seeing them at LAX in July. Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ daughter, Scout Willis, who is infamous for her somewhat rebellious support of feminist rights and values, is joining the campaign and going BARE.

Our goal is to have as many women as possible take a stand against big media and be part of this campaign. Revolutionizing our media takes ALL of us.

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

BH: What advice do you have for entrepreneurial women like you, who have overcome a personal struggle, and now want to use business as a tool to help others?

Michelle: Your pain and shame have a place in this world – it’s called YOUR PURPOSE. I deeply believe that only when we GO BARE, meaning only when we share the deepest and most vulnerable parts of ourselves, will we access the true freedom and self expression to live into our purpose.

I also believe that what we hide is directly connected to what we’re committed to. If you look at social ventures and cause based organizations (ie: AIDS Foundation, women’s shelters, rape and domestic violence organizations), they were founded by a person or group of people that are committed to helping others overcome the shame, pain and stigma of a certain set of circumstances.

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

What’s common is that the survivors or victims of trauma or certain situations will innately feel shame and pain and, because we as women are taught to put our best foot forward in life and only share what looks good, we don’t ‘come out’ and vulnerably share our struggles. We are afraid of the response, the backlash and the potential public humiliation.

Women Enough is a movement that’s focused on using the transformative power of storytelling to impact change. When a woman gets more vulnerable and shares her story, that’s when she’ll experience a shift in her own transformation.

{photo by Anastasia Kuba}

YOU Can Get Involved in the BARE Campaign!

Sign up for the mailing list at WomenEnough.com to receive details on how to:

1. Donate to the IndieGoGo campaign, which is raising money to revolutionize our media by bringing the BARE Campaign and experience to major cities across the USA and world.
2. Join the Official BARE Experience – a seven week virtual course that focuses on transforming our core conversations through the power of storytelling, coaching and collaging, and ends with a LIVE 2 Day Workshop and Photoshoot Experience.
3. Hire a photographer in your city and attend a BARE photo shoot party (guidelines on the website)

If you are interested in partnering with or getting involved with the BARE Campaign or Women Enough, you can also contact Michelle directly at

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Cover Heroines, November 2014 Issue