Blog > Empowerment and Support Discussions for Girls

Posted October 29, 2021

There’s a lot of talk these days about the empowerment of girls and women: you see it on t-shirts and posters; you hear about empowerment through STEM classes and empowerment through organizations like the Girl Scouts and Girls on the Run. 

So what’s all the fuss about?  From the day our girls come into the world they are bombarded with blatant and subliminal messages of who they are supposed to be and how they are supposed to look. You can see it all around you: from the sexy Bratz and Monster High dolls covered in makeup, to the tv shows we watch and music that we listen to. As hard as we parents may try,  it’s getting more difficult  to shield our children from a world around them that doesn’t always have their best interests at heart. We may even be inadvertently sending our own messages inside the home. My mother dieted most of my childhood. Even though I loved her curves, it felt like it was the norm to monitor how much I ate.  I have an excellent mother, but what we needed was a conversation, and at the end of that conversation perhaps she would have realized she didn’t need to diet any more than I did. 

Posters and t-shirts that say “ You Go Girl” are all well and good, but we need to make sure we are keeping the conversation open with our young ladies. We need to continue to point out that the images on TV and social media that they see aren’t real. Point out the photoshop and the extensions.  Teach them that overly sexual behavior in music has damaging effects to one’s self esteem; and then show them what healthy and natural look like. 

It’s not enough to tell our young ladies “You are a Queen,” but we need to ask them “ How are you today?” We need them to check in not only with us but with themselves.  We need to help them build confidence through their skills. We must be open to letting them try and build on new skill sets. We need to show them that external sources of validation, such as boys, aren’t the key to long term happiness. Studies show that girls who participate in activities that allow and encourage them to express themselves and their knowledge have higher self-esteem.  We need to remind them to be wholly happy people as they define who they want to be. 

Through Girl Power I hope to not just address some of these issues but open up the conversation. I want girls to speak up for themselves about their feelings and express their strengths. I want them to strategize how to hone the skills they will build into their future. Most importantly I want them to  support each other and know that a victory for one of them is a victory for all.  Through Girl Power we will use crafts, games and some good eats to discuss important issues for our young ladies today such as self awareness, body positivity, peer support, and goal setting. 

Girl Power is on the 2nd Monday of every month (unless there is a date change). Find more information and registration on our website here.