Mary's Cup of Tea

MEET MARY JELKOVSKY, FOUNDER OF MARY’S CUP OF TEA AND RETREATS BY MARY—SHE’S HELPING WOMEN FEEL CONFIDENT IN THEIR OWN SKIN AND LEARN TO LOVE THEMSELVES ONE REAL POST AND RETREAT AT A TIME.

Mary Jelkovsky has gone from difficult times to thriving—and it took an enormous amount of courage, strength and optimism to get to where she is today.

After struggling with an eating disorder as a result of competitive body fitness modeling for years, she created Mary’s Cup of Tea, a company that has established an empowering community where she shares her journey to loving herself and inspires others to do the same through self-love retreats, an inspiring and helpful podcast and creating an engaged online community.

Mary entered bikini competitions and achieved what many perceived as a ‘perfect’ body; however, what it took to have that ‘perfect’ body took its toll on Mary, physically and mentally. After hitting her self-described lowest point at her lowest weight upset on her kitchen floor over a tub of ice cream, box of cereal and jar of peanut butter, she wondered what was wrong with her and questioned why she was doing this—the short answer was nothing was wrong, and the long answer she discovered for herself. Her body was exhausted and needed some TLC.

At this major turning point in her life, she quit competitions, moved to Canada in 2016 and lived there for two years, which began her long journey of healing, exploration and growth.

She published her first blog post about her journey in January 2017 and has since connected and inspired thousands of women to love themselves, be confident in their bodies and that growth and healing is possible after enduring challenging times. Mary has given a TEDx talk and been featured in Teen Vogue, on Health.com and other media outlets where she’s shared her story and inspirational journey.

Mary’s social media posts range from personal anecdotes, inspiring and self-love encouragement, positive body image, forming healthy relationships with others and yourself and more. “I honestly just post what feels good to me. I get ideas for content all the time and I write them all in my iPhone Notes. I try to keep the folders in the Notes app organized by ‘Used Captions’ and ‘Unused Captions.’ In the unused captions, I write ideas whenever they come to me, so when I'm stuck on what to post, I go to that folder and it's filled with ideas.”

Her 259,000 Instagram followers comprise an engaged community Mary cultivated organically; her strategy for continuing to build and maintain her online community includes consistently posting everyday on Instagram, in addition to “sharing long, heartfelt captions. Letting people into my life by sharing more than just ‘on brand’ stuff. I always ask my audience for recommendations or advice, just like I would if we were friends,” Mary says.

In addition, Mary also created Retreats by Mary, which are held in various locations worldwide where participants and Mary form a sisterhood through workshops, sharing stories and forming lifelong connections to cultivate self-love and create confidence. Mary has hosted the retreats in Sedona, Bali and San Diego and will be hosting it in Costa Rica next year. Throughout the retreat, women participate in workshops that focus on healing body image struggles and building self-confidence, in addition to exploring each of the locations, eating delicious food and forming lifelong friendships.

Her podcast, Mary’s Cup of Tea, discusses topics from body image, self-care and creating healthy habits, to sharing parts of her journey with her eating disorder and interviewing leaders and experts about mental health, body image and how confidence impacts women’s daily lives.

“I don’t have a strict content strategy for my podcast. For my solo episodes, I record whatever feels real for me in the moment and as I talk, I try to weave in some advice. For podcast guests, if I see someone I'd like to interview, I just email them and ask them to come on the show. I prepare 3-4 questions, but mostly go with the flow like a real conversation.”

When it comes to building a brand for her website and on social media, Mary says she tries not to think about it too much. “It’s a lot easier to be consistent if you just be yourself,” Mary says.

“At the beginning I was driving myself crazy with trying to stay ‘on brand’ and trying to make everything brandable—now I realize that doesn’t matter.

“Just start somewhere and you’ll find what works for you. If you be yourself, you’ll become known for a certain thing. I’m known for my long captions and for the fact that I talk a lot,” Mary says with a laugh. “I used to hate that about myself and that I would ramble and make such long videos, but now I embrace it because it’s who I am. The girls in my online retreats come to Zoom meetings that are three hours long! And they love them! Same with my podcast episodes— people love my rambles, it’s just who I am!”

Mary says she hopes that from her podcast, social media presence and self love retreats, her community, “learns that they are so much more than a body, that their looks are the LEAST interesting thing about them, and they don't have to torture themselves for some unrealistic beauty standard. They are perfect exactly as they are.”

Next time you look in the mirror, be kind to yourself, and if you need a little inspiration and positivity, listen to one of Mary’s podcast episodes, watch her TEDx talk about body image and self-love or read more about her story on social media or her website.