Originally Published in Little PINK Book
How Save The Girls founder Tami Lange turned a simple idea into a growing women-focused brand.
By Sydni Hein, Brand Content and Communications Lead, Save The Girls
On September 1, 2017, the day she turned 50, Tami Lange started a company.
On paper, the timing might have seemed unexpected. She had spent decades building a successful career in management, marketing, sales and product development, all while raising five children. At a point when many people start thinking about slowing down, Tami was ready to start something entirely new.
Today, Save The Girls has grown from a few sketches on a napkin into a brand women across the country rely on. It started the way many great businesses do: with a woman noticing a problem and refusing to accept that it couldn’t be solved. Along the way, Tami’s journey offers lessons any woman can borrow, whether she’s starting a business, making a career pivot or stepping into a bigger role.
Opportunity often hides inside everyday frustration
Tami’s idea didn’t come from a boardroom. It came from a chaotic stretch of family life. Within hours, two of her daughters lost their phones: one on a family outing at a state park, the other in the washing machine, still in a pair of jeans.
Days later, her sister-in-law joked that she never loses her phone, then pulled it out of her bra. Her sister-in-law was battling breast cancer, and seeing a phone carried directly against her body stayed with Tami. She went looking for a better way for women to keep their phones close, secure and easy to reach. She couldn’t find one.
The breakthrough came on a canoe trip, when she realized she could operate her phone through the clear plastic of a waterproof pouch. That night, unable to sleep, she sketched a design on napkins.
Tami’s story is a reminder that opportunity rarely announces itself. More often, it shows up as a small, everyday frustration that everyone has simply learned to live with. What set her apart was choosing to notice it and then asking why no one had solved it yet. Sometimes the answer is that no one has tried.
You’re more ready than you think
It would be easy to see Tami’s story as a sudden reinvention at 50. In reality, she wasn’t starting from zero. Every role she had held, every problem she had solved and every lesson she had learned came with her.
She also brought something that rarely appears on a résumé: years of managing the schedules, budgets and competing priorities of a family of seven.
What looked like a fresh start was really the next chapter of everything she had already learned. It’s a perspective many women could use, especially those who discount the skills they’ve gained through caregiving, raising a family, running a household or roles that never came with an impressive title. The experience you already have may be exactly what prepares you for what’s next.
Courage means acting before you feel ready
Tami didn’t wait for the perfect moment. She posted her concept on a global manufacturing marketplace, and by the next morning 17 factories had responded. Rather than trading emails for months, she flew overseas to review prototypes in person, getting done in weeks what could have taken months.
Within about six weeks of that family trip, she had prototypes, product photography, a website and a promotional video.
That momentum didn’t come from having every answer. It came from deciding that waiting would cost more than acting. Readiness is often something we grow into after we begin, not something we have to feel before we start.
Learning as you go
Tami brought years of business experience with her, but designing a product, sourcing materials and working with a factory were all new territory. There was no manual for turning a sketch on a napkin into something women could rely on every day, so she wrote her own as she went.
Rather than waiting until she felt like an expert, she learned by doing. Each new challenge was a chance to grow, and every mistake taught her something she couldn’t have learned any other way.
That willingness to be a beginner may have been one of her greatest strengths. Many women hold back from new opportunities because they feel they need to have it all figured out first. Tami didn’t. She gave herself permission not to know everything, to ask questions, to make mistakes and to get a little better each time. Being okay with learning as you go isn’t a sign that you’re unprepared. It’s often how the most meaningful growth happens. You don’t need every answer to begin. You just need the courage to start and the curiosity to keep learning.
Worry less, celebrate more
Building a business comes with no shortage of worries. Will the idea work? Will anyone buy it? Over time, Tami noticed something surprising: most of what she worried about never actually happened. As she puts it, “You worry about stuff that then doesn’t happen.”
It’s a simple lesson, and a freeing one. Worry drains the energy we need to move forward, pulling our attention toward what might go wrong instead of what’s going right. Tami found it far more useful to celebrate the smaller wins along the way. Big milestones can take years to reach, but small wins happen every day if we’re paying attention, and recognizing them builds confidence and keeps motivation alive. Spend less time bracing for what might go wrong, and more time celebrating what’s going right.
When women rise, they lift others too
Tami’s journey has always been rooted in purpose. Inspired by her sister-in-law’s fight against breast cancer, Save The Girls donates 10 percent of its profits to breast cancer research through a direct partnership with the American Cancer Society. To date, the company has contributed more than $160,000, and Tami sees that as only the beginning. Her story is proof that a business built to solve a problem can also be built to give back.
Perhaps the most powerful part of her story is how simply it began. Tami didn’t set out with a business plan. She saw a problem affecting women she loved, believed there had to be a better way and decided to build it herself. And she did it at 50. At a stage when many women are made to feel their chance for reinvention has passed, Tami proved that there’s no expiration date on ambition and no age limit on what a woman can build.
If you’ve noticed a problem no one seems to be solving, or you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to pursue a new idea, chase a dream you’ve set aside or take the leap you keep thinking about, consider this your sign. Whether you’re 25, 50 or beyond, the right time may not be when you feel ready. It may be when you decide to start.
About the Author
Sydni Hein is the Brand Content and Communications Lead at Save The Girls. She leads the brand’s public relations and manages its social media across every platform, creating content that brings the Save The Girls story, its mission and the women behind it to life for audiences nationwide
