To Get Her There: Girl Scouts' Campaign for Girls' Success

An amazing new campaign kicked-off today: To Get Her There. It's a massive effort by Girl Scouts to empower and encourage girls so that they succeed. A central idea is that when you help a girl, you help society overall; that leadership is a birthright of girls.

From their website:

• The problem: There's something seriously stopping girls from reaching their full potential. What's stopping girls today? Negative influences surround girls' lives, including peer pressure to not stand out, a lack of role models and mentors, unhealthy images in the media about beauty, and even bullying from their peers. If this current cycle of discouragement continues unchecked, millions of girls won't reach their full potential as leaders in our society.  It's time we create a supportive environment that helps pave her path to success. We all have a role to play to get her there.
• A solution: When girls succeed, so does society. We know that the greatness inside her hasn't gone away. It's just not being realized. This generation of girls deserves to lead tomorrow's boardrooms and courthouses and run our hospitals and technology start-ups. But she might not get there, unless we create the environment needed to support her. All of us have a role to play in helping girls achieve their full leadership potential. Get informed here, and then learn how you can participate, speak up, and invest in girls to create change.

I was most struck by this quote from Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez about what happens to girls in their tween years: "Why is it that a girls' desire to lead is strongest when she's 8 years old, but then diminishes by half when she is 16 years old?"

The To Get Her There website includes a video series about "Who got YOU there?" - interviews with several successful women about "Who helped you get to where you are today?" and "How can we support girls to reach their full potential today?" Their answers are enlightening.

(Full disclosure: MsTwixt is a Girl Scout troop leader in Washington, D.C. for three troops and has been a troop leader for nine years - so yes, I have a stake in this.)

Find out how you can get involved here and watch the LiveStream address here.

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