Kerre Woodham: T and S specialise in TLC

Trinny and Susannah are experts at building women's confidence. Photo / Supplied

I've just finished another whirlwind tour of Westfield shopping centres with those style stun grenades, Trinny and Susannah.

I MC'd their last whistlestop visit here 18 months ago and I must admit I wondered whether it was a little too soon to bring them back given the mammoth crowds and publicity they received last time. I was wrong, and that's why I'm in journalism, not marketing.

The crowds were, if anything, bigger than 2008 and the response to the girls' no-nonsense advice on how to make the most of yourself was even more remarkable.

We were in one mall and a mother begged T and S to make over her teenage daughter so that her daughter would feel less self-conscious about her big boobs. She was in tears and her daughter was in tears, and they were truly desperate for some help.

Later, just after another show, a woman approached me and asked if I could please bring Susannah over. I told her that the girls had a car waiting and this gorgeous, blue-eyed, middle-aged woman burst into tears and told me she really needed to talk to Susannah.

I signalled to T and S's PA, who brought Susannah over and she led her backstage where she could talk to the woman in private. Turns out her husband has been putting her down for years, undermining her confidence and she feels worthless and wretched. This from a woman with a figure to die for.

The girls hauled her out of her shapeless garments, put her in a fitted dress that showed off her figure and told her to have a think about whether she wanted to live with an arse for the rest of her life. It was extraordinary.

So often a woman's sense of self-worth is tied up in how she feels she looks. Confidence can be eroded by the exhaustion of raising babies or dealing with law-breaking teenagers or suddenly finding yourself alone after 20 years of marriage. You feel worn down, you look worn down and your life becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I understood the appeal of the confessional television chat shows when I saw Trinny and Susannah in action. They picked women out, they built them up and they showed them there was another way to be, not just in the way they dressed but the way they lived.

The reason these women are so successful is that their shows are more than just frocks.

* www.kerrewoodham.com