At a public swimming pool in Hong Kong, Rachel Duffell watched a group of women learn to swim. She had come to interview the founder of Splash Foundation, and the impact of its work was unfolding around her as foreign domestic workers practised in the pool.
For Rachel, whose nearly two decades in publishing have taken her across culture, travel, lifestyle, food, and now leadership, it was a vivid reminder of why stories are best understood up close.
Watching the women learn a new skill while building a community together, Rachel realised what draws her to storytelling: being on the ground and listening as people share their experiences. She felt both the privilege of witnessing those stories firsthand and the responsibility of conveying them with care. Today, as Tatler Asia’s Regional Content Director for Leadership, she brings that belief to its Front & Female and Power & Purpose platforms.
Over the years, Rachel has learned to create space for stories to emerge through attentive listening. An interviewer may arrive prepared, but the story is ultimately shaped by who asks the questions, how they respond and how closely they listen. Deliberate and collaborative, Rachel embodies the values she champions; curiosity and patience. She takes the time to pause instead of rushing in to fill the silence.
If you can be someone who listens, then people will talk. And often that’s the way to get to people’s stories.
Rachel grew up in Asia, lived in Europe, then returned to Asia, first to Hong Kong and later to Singapore. Moving between places has been key to how easily she connects with women across different backgrounds and markets. That perspective became particularly valuable when she took over Tatler’s Front & Female platform. The awards launched in Hong Kong in 2022 to recognise women creating change for other women and girls.
As the city emerged from the pandemic, Rachel encountered people who had spent years doing important work without wider recognition. Again and again, she heard the same response: how could they have achieved so much while remaining largely unknown?
The women who inspire Rachel most are often those she encounters through the awards. Many experienced a problem firsthand and decided to become part of the solution, even when doing so took them beyond their original expertise. She has a particular soft spot for women working in areas that remain under-researched, underserved and underfunded. Those who decide to become the solution to make the world better, even if the solution is not yet in their sphere of expertise.
If you have a platform, you can share that platform, expand your reach, pay it forward and open the door to others.
The awards have since expanded to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and most recently Thailand. Rachel knew the idea had travelled when women began contacting her with the names of women they wanted to nominate in other markets. Rather than seeking attention for themselves, women were using the platform to bring attention to each other.
Rachel’s vantage point behind the camera, page and screen has reinforced her belief that women belong on both sides of storytelling, as subjects and as the editors and interviewers shaping the conversation. Some questions, she believes, emerge only when women are part of the exchange. That conviction has not always been easy to protect. Rachel describes media as a constant push and pull between commercial demands and editorial judgment, with battles over decisions that may not please everyone. Each time, she returns to the same argument: without integrity and authenticity, the work has no longevity.
The rise of artificial intelligence has made that line more important. As media organisations decide how far to embrace it, Rachel continues to defend listening, building a relationship with a source and practising the craft of writing. The parts of storytelling that depend on human connection and can’t be replaced. Remove those elements and something fundamental is lost, regardless of how efficiently the words are produced.
We need humans to tell human stories. In an age when technology is taking words from us, that’s more important to hold onto.
That belief also shapes Rachel’s advice to women still finding their voices. Honesty matters because someone else will almost certainly recognise part of their own experience in the story. If sharing it helps even one person, she believes that is reason enough to speak. Rachel agreed to take part in Her Mark partly because it placed her outside that comfort zone. After years of hearing women describe how growth began when they made themselves uncomfortable, she decided to follow their example.
Asked what her mark would look like, Rachel chose the stroke of a pen. For someone who has built a career with words, the gesture represents the possibility held in the act of writing. The power of words to make lives visible, shape how people are understood and influence what comes next alongside the responsibility to use words to make a difference.
The flourish of a pen-mark is a fitting symbol for how Rachel works. Every story involves a series of choices about what to notice, which questions to ask and how to represent what someone has shared. For Rachel, those choices mean amplifying the qualities like empathy, thoughtfulness and teamwork, that women bring to the table.
HerMark is a visual and narrative study of women shaping the marketing, advertising, and communications industry. Branding in Asia is publishing the ongoing series in partnership with HerMark.
Learn more at hermark.world and read the rest of the series here.
