SMART GIRLS AT THE PARTY!!!!
Smart Girls At the Party is a website that was started by the super awesome Amy Poehler and friends. As the site states:
"Smart Girls at the Party is a rapidly expanding online network and community movement. Our aim is to help young women and the young at heart with the process of cultivating their authentic selves. We change the world by being ourselves, and being ourselves is a life long quest. Smart Girls hopes to provide some fun reference materials along the way."
She also forgets to mention that this website is super super fun to play on! And if you need some inspiration or want to learn what it's like to be a girl all over the world, this is a great place to do so! I really liked this series Girls of the World which introduces us to girls and their lives.
Learn more at:
http://sgatp.net
I first found her website awhile ago, and since then there's been a lot of inspirational, powerful girls showing up all over whom I also wanted to highlight in this post. First up is a girl from Virginia who is fighting back after her classmates were forced to attend an abstinence only assembly. After complaining to the principal he threatened to call the college she was just accepted into and to badmouth her, in order to try to get her to back down from fighting for what she believes in. Obviously, this didn't work, especially once the story hit social media, now she has tons of supporters.
"Campbell refused to attend the assembly, which was funded by a conservative religious organization called “Believe in West Virginia” and advertised with fliers that proclaimed “God’s plan for sexual purity.” Instead, she filed a complaint with the ACLU and began to speak out about her objections to this type of school-sponsored event. Campbell called Stenzel’s presentation “slut shaming” and said that it made many students uncomfortable.....
...But it didn’t end with a simple difference of opinion among Campbell and her principal. The high school senior alleges that Aulenbacher threatened to call Wellesley College, where Campbell has been accepted to study in the fall, after she spoke to the press about her objections to the assembly. According to Campbell, her principal said, “How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?” Campbell alleges that Aulenbacher continued to berate her in his office, eventually driving her to tears. “He threatened me and my future in order to put forth his own personal agenda and make teachers and students feel they cant speak up because of fear of retaliation,” she said of the incident."
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/17/1883121/west-virginia-abstinence-assembly/
If you aren't inspired enough already, this next story is about a 13 year old girl in Burkina Faso who raised enough money to buy 60 bicycles for girls her own age who live in rural areas. A lot of times the only schools they have access to are really far away, and can be very dangerous to walk to. It's just one more obstacle that ends up getting in the way of girls attending school, and contributes to them eventually dropping out, and usually becoming child brides.
"Today, I look at all these bicycles intended for young girls like me, girls with ambition and a strong desire to learn. I feel joy at having accomplished just a small thing for other people, and at realizing that everywhere around the world are people who are concerned about the welfare of others.”
Franceline Ouédraogo, 14, has accepted the bikes on behalf of her school.
She said: “Today is an important day in our school lives, because these bikes will improve our conditions as students. For that reason, we feel grateful to Malika for her gifts; these bikes make a real difference. Thanks for relieving us of the daily painful walk we have been going through so far."
http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/3009497
