Shelley was THE Charlie Girl
from 1976 to 1982
Shelley first became famous in the 1970s as THE Charlie Girl in those glamorous Revlon Charlie commercials and print ads. Charlie was introduced amid the 1970s resurgence of women's liberation (long after the women's suffrage movement decades past, during the 1920s.) Women were changing, gender roles were evolving. Women were entering the work force in droves and were beginning to get a taste of what it was like to be independent. The Revlon Charlie ads capitalized on this. The ideal woman of the 1970s was not anymore the subservient created by men for men. But the new ideal woman was a free, independent and confident person who was happy she was exactly that. And Shelley projected this image to perfection. She embodied the kind of woman women of the era aspired to become. And that is why Shelley's Charlie ads were so unforgettable, as many women around the world aspired to become the woman she projected in those ground-breaking and fabulous Charlie ads. By 1977, Charlie became the #1 fragrance in the world (the first American-made international bestseller) and Revlon sales figures passed the $1Billion mark. And Supermodel Shelley Hack THE Charlie Girl catapulted to icon.
Charlie Girl Shelley was recently written about
at glam.com as "The Face Of The Decade's
Most Iconic Fragrance"
Recently (last July 20, 2026), glam.com recognized Shelley as "The Face Of The Decade's Most Iconic Fragrance". The glam.com writeup said that "Hack became the prototypical "Charlie Girl," an independent, stylish woman who paved her own way." Shelley said, "The women's movement - it was really women in offices, one by one, handling that problem. And the Charlie Girl was handling the change in women's roles in a really positive way." Shelley cited her relatability as one of the factors her commercials and ads were a hit. Shelley told Playboy magazine in 1980, "I was talking with a guy at a radio station and he wanted to know why my Charlie perfume commercials for Revlon were so successful. I suggested we make it the call-in question. The women respondents said that this girl walking into a restaurant alone, looking chic, but not too chic, seemed like somebody they would like to know or to be. I was their idea of a modern, liberated but not threatening woman. The men thought I was someone they would like to go out with; again, modern, not brassy and someone who, if they met me, would talk to them." The glam.com writeup further said that although Shelley thought she "'wasn't so beautiful,' her stunning appearance and charming confidence enraptured a generation of women."
