The Hidden Symmetry of Let Them Theory
How “let me” completes the mantra in mirrored words
Ever since Mel Robbins popularized The Let Them Theory, people have tattooed, shared, and whispered Let them like a mantra. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook narrated by the author herself — it was like if she was talking directly to me — it felt personal, almost like a conversation.
The title says Let them theory — let people be who they are, let them make their choices.
But the more I listened, the more incomplete just “Let Them” feels. As Mel Robbins insists: let me always follows let them.
The message isn’t whole until you complete it with let me.
Let them is about acceptance.
Let me is about agency.
Together, they balance: respect for others and responsibility for self. Without let me, the phrase risks becoming passive, a surrender. With let me, it becomes empowerment.
A Mirror in Language
Here’s where it gets interesting. There is a way to write it so the symmetry between let them and let me isn’t only conceptual — it’s visual.
Place let me upside down beneath Let them:
Read the second line as the flipped reflection of let me. Notice how the endings em ↔ me mirror each other, and how let becomes its own reflection when inverted (L ↔ ˥, e ↔ ǝ, t ↔ ʇ). The result is an ambigram: a design where words reveal new meaning when flipped. The philosophy of “let them, let me” is embedded right in the shapes of the letters themselves.
A further twist comes from overlapping t + ʇ = tʇ, which distantly reminds both t and h. This makes the ambigram complete: shifting from let me [to] let them → and returning to let me, all in one continuous line.
Is it simple? Not really — it feels like a puzzle. But maybe that’s the point: sometimes letting them means first stepping over your own ego — the controlling me.
Why It Matters
It’s yin and yang – two halves of a whole.
I believe this symmetry deserves to be seen — and remembered. Whether through mirrored text, an ambigram design, or simply by repeating both phrases, it’s a more complete reminder: let others be who they are, and let yourself step into who you choose to be.
What we have here is not just The Let Them Theory, but a resurfacing of Stoic wisdom in its simplest form: accept the things I cannot change (let them), courage to change the things I can (let me), and wisdom to know the difference — seen now as two mirrored halves of the same truth.