screen captures of Shelley on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2008
Shelley's Charlie Girl image had a huge impact on women when it first came out. It came out in the midst of the women's movement and THE Charlie Girl's independent and fabulous lifestyle was something women aspired to at the time. The norm then was that women needed men in order to be fulfilled. Women needed to attract a man, marry a man, have kids with a man in order to be fulfilled. But Shelley's Charlie Girl didn't need a man. She was independent, was happy about it and was utterly fabulous and fulfilled on her own. She could go out alone at night (no escort? a big no-no at the time), drive herself anywhere and just own any room she entered. It was such a powerful message that even a young Oprah Winfrey aspired to become a Charlie Girl herself. So much so, that in 2008, she featured Shelley on her show and had a chat with her about being a Charlie Girl.
