Tennis Girl Nation | Grace Melrose
Charlotte, NC | Charlotte Brand Photography
In the summer of 2019, I met Grace Melrose. When we had this session, I didn't know what to expect, I had never spoken with her before, I didn't know what her company was nor what her goals were, and this wasn't due to either of our faults. All I can and will say is that we were blindly led together and because we are both awesome {yeah, I'll toot my own horn, lol}, we came out the other side of this meeting with some stunning portraits and a fellow entreuprenuer woman to follow along on each other's journeys {which will bring me to a year later in another post}, now let's get back to the REAL reason we initially met for this session... Tennis Girl Nation, an online tennis academy.
"Tennis Girl Nation is an academy for competitive tennis girls ages 8-18 (and their parents) who want to reach their full potential and play high school, college, or professional tennis. There is nothing like it in the tennis community!" She launched TGN because it was the solution that she needed when she was 15 years old. "I walked through the same struggles as these girls and I get to “go back” to my younger self and be the solution now!"
Grace has over 23 years in the tennis industry. During these years, she noticed a pattern in junior tennis that upset her: "girls with dreams to play high school, college, and pro tennis weren’t improving as quickly as they should have, and their window of opportunity was closing. These girls worked hard, their parents invested hundreds and thousands of dollars. And they were stuck." To help solve this problem, Grace created Tennis Girl Nation, an online community that is founded on the belief that you CAN reach your tennis goals, no matter how big they are. A community that not only empowers young women, but also their parents to help guide them.
