The girl behind the sign

By Larry Baumann

We pass hundreds of signs every day. Some we obey without thinking — a stop sign at the corner, a red light that tells us to wait. Some we ignore, like a billboard flashing an ad we’ll forget by the next mile. But every now and then a sign surprises us.

That’s what happened at the corner of Rifle Range Road and the Isle of Palms Connector in Mount Pleasant, where 14-year-old Ella Alspaugh flashed a handmade poster at drivers and passersby that she thought would be a fun way to encourage others. Turns out the message on the sign was meant for her too.

Like many other teenagers starting their first year of high school, Ella found herself struggling to manage the weight of a new start. After attending Moultrie Middle School, she was zoned for Wando High School. But most of her friends would be attending Lucy Beckham High School. Suddenly she was without the comfort of her friend group. On top of that, she was navigating new hallways filled with significantly more students and tackling a tougher class schedule with a new set of teachers. It was all a bit overwhelming.

But Ella turned that anxiousness into action. She rummaged around the house and found some posterboard and a large marker and scribbled a message: “Don’t Give Up.”

“It was almost like something was telling me, go out and spread this message,” Ella recalled. “I feel like a little bit has to do with faith and just God telling me to put myself out there for a good reason.”

Putting herself out there meant standing at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Mount Pleasant. She worried people would stare, laugh, or wonder what she was doing out there by herself. Her mother, Brandy, was surprised too. “I was like, who does that? Especially at 14,” Brandy said. But when the first waves, honks, and words of thanks came, surprise quickly gave way to pride.

The response spread quickly online. The original post on Nextdoor came from Megan F., who wrote: “I didn’t know who it was for, but in that moment, I felt like it was for me.” Her message drew dozens of comments and hundreds of likes within hours. On Facebook, photos of Ella holding the sign were shared widely, with neighbors calling her “a bright spot” and “a difference maker in the world.” In total, thousands of people reacted, commented, or shared her story. It was far more than Ella ever imagined when she first carried her cardboard to the corner.

Not every reaction to Ella’s signs has been warm. She’s heard the occasional rude comment, sometimes from passing teens who don’t understand why she’s out there. But rather than shrink from the negativity, she shrugs it off with a simple reminder to herself: “At least I’m trying to spread positivity.” That perspective has carried into her school life too, where she says she feels more confident about reaching out, even inviting classmates to sit with her at lunch if they seemed alone.

The message on Ella’s sign changed in late August after tragedy struck. A fellow student died unexpectedly, a loss that shook both former classmates at Laing Middle School and those, like Ella, who were just beginning at Wando. He wasn’t just another classmate; he was Ella’s friend.

By then her cardboard poster, weathered by sun, sweat, and wind, was giving way. A local FastSigns store that had seen her story online offered to help, creating a sturdier poster with a new phrase that carried even more weight: “You Matter.” For Ella, the phrase was as much about her friend as it was for every driver, cyclist, and pedestrian passing by. “After his passing, I just wanted people to know they matter,” she explained. “Sometimes that’s all somebody needs to hear.”

The message resonated instantly. Parents told her later they pointed it out to their children as they drove through the intersection. One grandmother shared online that she made sure her grandson saw Ella’s sign on the very day word of his death broke. Others honked, waved, or rolled down their windows to echo the words back: “You matter too!”

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Ella admits she hadn’t anticipated how much meaning people would read into the cardboard she held aloft. At first, it was a way to calm her own anxieties about a new school year. But after her friend’s passing, the sign became something bigger: a tribute, a beacon, and a reminder she hoped no one else would forget.

Brandy, a single mother raising two daughters while building her career in real estate, says Ella’s actions have been both humbling and inspiring. She sees in her daughter a courage she didn’t always feel at the same age. “Even now, I don’t know that I would have the nerve to do it,” she said. “She’s stronger than she realizes.”

Ella, for her part, credits her mom for showing what it means to lead with kindness. She remembers watching Brandy offer help to strangers in need or lend a hand to neighbors. That example of everyday compassion, Ella says, helped her believe that even small gestures can make a difference.

The bond between the two has deepened as Ella’s signs have drawn attention. Brandy calls her daughter’s courage a source of inspiration in her own life. “It validates everything I’ve tried to instill — to be kind and good-hearted,” she said.

Barely a quarter of the way into her freshman year, Ella naturally doesn’t have her future mapped out. But the experience with her signs has already nudged her toward ideas she might not have considered otherwise. She’s thought about setting up a GoFundMe to support suicide prevention, inspired in part by the loss of her friend. Longer term, she says psychology or motivational speaking might be paths worth pursuing. “Seeing the reactions I get just made me realize how much of an impact words can have,” Ella said.

Her mom smiles at that ambition, noting how much confidence Ella has gained in just a few weeks. At school, she’s already stepped into small acts of leadership, from welcoming classmates to imagining what else her message could become. For Ella, the signs don’t appear to be just a phase a teenager is going through. You’ll still find her at the corner of Rifle Range and the IOP Connector after school. The signs have been just a starting point. They’re proof that encouragement, even in its simplest form, has the power to ripple outward.

And they encouraged her, too. What began as a way to lift up strangers on a street corner became a reminder she needed for herself: that she could handle the challenges of high school, that she mattered, and that even small words could make a big difference.

That’s why she prefers the focus stay on the message, not the messenger. Even now, Ella often lifts the sign high enough to block her face. She likes that it leaves a little mystery, a reminder that the message is what matters, not the person holding it. That perspective carries into how she imagines her future. Whether it’s a GoFundMe, a foundation for suicide prevention, a career in psychology, or motivational speaking, her focus is the same: finding ways to encourage and support others.

For now, she’s content to let the cardboard do the talking. But the girl behind the sign knows the words she chooses can make a difference. And she’s only just getting started.

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