Why Girls* Need Our Support

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE.

I WAS BORN LIKE THAT.

— Eve Ensler

It’s not easy being a girl.* It’s never been easy. But now it’s so much more complicated. On one level, girls today are facing epidemic levels of anxiety, depression and despair. According to a recent report from the US Surgeon General, “half of all female teens” have reported “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” At the same time, 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.

(*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.)

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 unique, creative 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 internal-focus of The Intuitive Writing Project offer 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 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. We also model validation and empathy so girls and learn to value and empathize with themselves and each other, to believe in themselves and everything they are capable of achieving. We are here to support young women in becoming the authors and leaders of their own lives, the kind of visionary thinkers who 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