Warm, practical and age-aware
Girls are offered useful language, small next steps and room to practise. They are never asked to perform a polished version of confidence and resilience or share private reflections to prove progress.
Meet Allison | Your Guide
Two decades of listening.
One clear mission.
Allison Stummer founded Empress Rising to help girls build real confidence in their voice and the resilience to meet life's messy, brilliant moments without shrinking themselves.
For more than 20 years, Allison has worked alongside young women through the moments that shape identity: friendship shifts, comparison, big feelings, loss, unexpected wins, first crushes and the quiet question of who they are becoming. She understands that the moments without easy answers matter, and so do the moments where something suddenly clicks and a girl realises, I am actually good at this.
This is not school. There are no tests, grades or correct answers to perform. Empress Rising is a practical, guided space where girls can learn useful language, try tools that make sense in real life, and build confidence and resilience in their own voice.
Allison's approach is psychology-informed, grounded in real conversations, and designed for the world girls are living in now: social media, comparison, curated perfection, shifting friendships and fast-moving technology.
She built this program because she was done watching brilliant girls shrink themselves to fit in, hand their power to people who had not earned it, or wait for permission to trust themselves. The work is to help each girl practise a stronger relationship with herself, now.
Your daughter can rise on her own terms. She can understand what matters to her, practise what helps, recover from difficult moments, and carry forward the tools that make her feel more like herself.
Grounded in experience
Experience and qualifications
Allison brings more than two decades of education experience together with formal study in teaching, health and physical education, and psychological science. Her work combines practical teaching experience with a thoughtful, psychology-informed approach to the questions girls face as they grow.
More than 20 years
Working in education with girls and young people.
Ongoing learning
Continuing postgraduate study in psychology
Completed qualifications
- Bachelor of Education
- RMIT University
- Graduate Diploma, Health & Physical Education
- RMIT University
- Graduate Diploma of Psychological Science
- Deakin University, 2025
- Graduate Diploma, Human Resources Management and Services
- Victoria University
Parent partnership with clear boundaries
Parents receive helpful programme context while journals, reflections, moods, and private tools remain with the student unless she chooses to share.
Growth with room to be herself
The focus is not becoming louder or more polished. It is building self-trust, connection, and practical confidence and resilience in her own voice.
A note to families
Confidence and resilience do not have to look loud to be real.
The work is to help girls notice what matters to them, practise a small skill, recover from difficult moments, and experience the confidence and resilience that can come from being heard and trusted.
Explore the Parent Knowledge Hub
Contact the Empress Rising team
A thoughtful question starts here.
This form is for parents, carers, schools and professional contacts. Please do not include private information about any young person. It is not a crisis or clinical support channel.