Our Story
Ever catch yourself about to hand down your own baggage to your kids? Yeah. Me too (big time).
We're the brand that sees both of you
Welcome to Sharing Kindness
And oh hello, cycle breaker. This is the anti-pretending club. I’m (so very) glad you’re here.
85,632+
Families in our corner
(purchased, following, or on the list)
1 M
Acts of kindness shared and counting
(next stop: 5M by 2030)
6,329
Times I've annoyed my husband and friends with wild ideas for making the world a bit kinder
Because did you hear? Affirmation cards and "good vibes only" had a falling out a while back. Something about one of them being real and the other being a fridge magnet.
We're done pretending. We want realness and enoughness. Always have.
Hej!
I'm Tess
Swedish born, Gold Coast (Australia) living, oncology nurse, mum of two and the woman who once found herself laying awake at 3am wondering:
How do I teach my kids to be confident if I don’t feel confident myself?
It was 2019. My girls were just 4 and 2. And I had completely lost myself to motherhood.
Far away from my family in Sweden, quietly carrying around this constant pressure to be "the perfect mum", I was crumbling on the inside.
People often described me as outgoing, happy, confident. But somehow I'd tangled my self-worth up with my achievements. If I did everything well, I'd be enough. Except I never felt like I was.
And deep down, I was terrified of passing down my own self-doubt to my children. Because the truth is:
Children don’t just listen to what we say. They absorb who we are.
At the same time, I had this growing frustration around Christmas. Every year felt bigger, louder and more focused on stuff. Chocolates every day leading up to Christmas… then more chocolates and presents on Christmas Day (like what the hell was I thinking last year!).
It just didn’t sit right with me anymore.
I wanted to teach my kids more about ‘being’ than ‘having’.
I wanted them to know the best parts of life aren’t things (or sweets). They're actually precious moments and the people you share them with.
On that sleepless night, the words "Sharing Kindness" came into my mind.
And as a slightly unhinged Swede, I remember grabbing my phone, opening Instagram and changing my account name right there in bed. No business plan. No strategy. Just this deep feeling that kindness mattered.
So with Christmas coming up, I quickly created a printable advent calendar. with 25 days of random acts of kindness instead of chocolate. A printable PDF (what a genius simple idea I thought… but I bet no one else will like it).
BUT 5,000 people downloaded it in 5 days.
Ohh. So it's not just me then…
That small idea became a physical product. Then another.
A movement begins.
A new worldly destination every year: Scandi forest, Aussie beach, New York, Paris, Canada, Japan. Because kindness doesn't stop at borders.
1 million acts of kindness later (we smashed our goal two years early) and we're still going. New target: 5 million by 2030.
I still remember sitting there thinking: how did this little idea become this?
But I think the answer is simple.
It's hard to make a difference by yourself.
Together, we can make a bigger one.
Here's the part I didn't expect
While the business grew, so did I.
Somewhere along the way, I realised I was preaching confidence more than I was living it. So I started therapy (to help me, to help them). Best decision ever. And somewhere in those sessions I realised something that changed everything.
I was learning alongside them.
So, I did what anyone with a science background would do. I ran a survey. 642 mums later, it confirmed what I already suspected.
Everyone else was carrying the same questions. How do I teach my kids something I haven't figured out for myself? Why do we pour so much love and encouragement into everybody else, and speak so terribly to ourselves?
I realised, mums need this just as much as kids do.
So, I asked myself what I actually needed.
The answer? To feel enough, just by being me.
But how?
Crystals. Affirmations. The two things that have always grounded me.
So we built that too. A calendar for women, a reminder to come home to yourself. Not just for Christmas. Any occasion, any season, any version of starting over.
Because kindness starts within.
And you can't teach what you haven't learned yourself. You can't pour from an empty cup (Believe me, I tried. For a long time.).
The chaos behind the magic
Over the years we’ve launched affirmation cards, gratitude journals, positive mindset games, artist collaborations and kindness products now loved by families all around the world.
But I'll be honest with you. There have been moments in this journey that nearly broke me.
Every single year there seems to be some new logistical disaster waiting for me.
A truck carrying our products disappeared and dumped packages into the middle of nowhere never to be seen again.
I once had to throw away 4,000 calendars because they were printed on the wrong paper and I refused to send out something I wasn't proud of.
And there have been many nights packing orders until 3am trying to make sure families received their calendars before December 1st.
But honestly? The packing until 3am, doesn't faze me.
Delayed deliveries? Still my kryptonite (1000%).
But I also woke up to a message from TODAY SHOW AMERICA that had gone to spam. Had 24 hours to FedEx products to their New York studio. Made it with about 45 minutes to spare for airtime (talk about the good kind of stress!).
I drove to Studio 10 so nervous I could barely speak. Got on anyway.
So here's the thing, running Sharing Kindness has stretched me creatively, emotionally, financially and personally.
However, I've learned that running a business with a purpose bigger than yourself means you'll do almost anything to keep it alive.
But it has also shown me something bigger than that.
People are craving a space where they can feel safe enough to just be human.
To just be themselves. That’s it.
WHAT SHARING KINDNESS MEANS NOW
What started as a way to teach my kids to be more confident became a way for me to learn the same thing. It's grown into something I never imagined on that sleepless night.
A movement. A community. And we're just getting started.
But here's the part of the story I really want to tell you.
Fast forward 7 years on (like how did it become 2026 already), my kids are now 12 and 10. And I can finally put my hand on my heart and say this.
It worked.
They are (the) receipts.
They hold the door open for strangers and say hello to people nobody else stops for. They bring me flowers from the garden when I'm having a bad day.
At Christmas, they genuinely believe the best gift is performing a random act of kindness (and a few presents too, wink wink).
Call it brainwashing for the better of the world. I'll take it.
But my idea didn’t just sound beautiful. It changed our family forever.
And I hope it can do the same for you too.
If you've found yourself here (and read this far), I'm guessing you're the kind of woman who wants more than a product. That's exactly what we're all about.
Come join us. We saved you a seat.
~ Tess
Still here? Meet Tess (after hours)
A few things you wouldn't know unless you asked.