Why Girls* Need Our Support

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE.

I WAS BORN LIKE THAT.

— Eve Ensler

It’s not easy being a girl.* (*The word girl includes all gender-expansive youth: cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth and any girl-identified youth.) It’s never been easy. But now it’s so much more complicated. Every day, our young women are faced with a thousand conflicting pressures and pulls, all dominated by social media. The average American teenage girl consumes at least 10 hours of media per day, most of which sexualizes and demeans her.

Our culture conditions girls to focus on externalities—their appearance, their grades, and their social status—with no attention to who they are on the inside, as creative, unique individuals. Right now in our schools, there is no time or energy invested in the inner life of girls. Consequently, the majority of teenage girls suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, body-dysmorphia and a chronic sense of inadequacy and worthlessness. With this comes drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, unsafe sex, and codependency in abusive relationships. And yet, as we all know, self-esteem is an inside job. That’s why The Intuitive Writing Project is an antidote to the toxic pressures currently confronting teens.

At The Intuitive Writing Project, we offer girls the time and space they need to go within, to connect to their heart, and discover not only who they really are, but who they want to become. The more girls go within, learn to trust their intuition, and cultivate their own voice, the more they develop authentic self-esteem and self-trust: the very foundation of all happiness, health and personal growth.

In our classes, we validate and “mirror back” the unique strengths and gifts of each girl, so she can learn to value and trust herself. As we validate each girls story, we are also validating her innate value as human being—which is the source of all true and lasting empowerment.

We also model validation and empathy so girls and learn to value and empathize with themselves and each other, to believe in themselves as writers and as people, to be brave with their voice in an encouraging, positive space.

We are here to support young women in becoming the authors and leaders their own lives, the kind of visionary thinkers will change the story of the world.

Other resources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/facebooks-dangerous-experiment-teen-girls/620767/

https://blog.gitnux.com/single-gender-classrooms-statistics/

https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/girls-do-better-at-singlesex-schools/280329

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/humanities/study-reveals-benefits-of-allgirls-schools/news-story/bd53dfc34ee1b989266b5e7ae45a3a44

https://girlsschools.org/advocacy/why-girls-schools/

https://girlsschools.org/research/quick-facts/

https://magazine.byu.edu/article/when-women-dont-speak/

https://magazine.byu.edu/article/women-speak-up-less-when-theyre-outnumbered/

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/03/girlhood-melissa-febos-lucid-expose-rape-culture/618445/

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/03/518160055/how-do-you-raise-a-feminist-daughter-chimamanda-adichie-has-15-suggestion

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_ways_to_help_girls_become_strong_women_in_a_sexist_world