GirlSpire is more than a resource for building self-respect and confidence during a time of rapid change and challenge in a girl’s life. It inspires ACTION. If you’re a young girl, it’s about owning your own destiny, creating your own opportunities, and inspiring yourself and others in the world. GirlSpire brings to life the powerful art of knowing yourself and lays the foundation of action based identity that EVERY girl should experience.
The Girl Spire ProgramFrom the moment we enter this world until the day we depart we are bombarded with information from ideas, advice, advertisements and promotions, to should’s and shouldn’ts. As we age most of us learn to separate out what information is useful to us and what isn’t.
Now imagine you are a girl, and you are 8… the world looks very different. Your hopes and dreams can be built and crushed hour to hour, your best friend holds the key to some of your biggest decisions, and your life is ruled by… well definitely NOT you. Setting a solid foundation at 8 years old for how you can be and want to be and interact in this life seems impossible, but is more necessary today than ever before.
It’s a known fact that during adolescence, girls' self-esteem drops about twice as much as boys, with varying theories and statistics as to why. Is it body image? School? Family? Friends? All of the above? Laying the foundation for how we relate and maintain relationships with “all of the above” is what GirlSpire is all about. Taking action now to create, analyze, improve and maintain those relationships in a way that inspires and empowers young girls. This is not a “self help” program for girls, rather it’s a self discovering journey with tools that will last a lifetime.
The Program itself is comprised of a 64-page workbook coupled with a 4-week course. The following topics are covered in the first 4-week program. Additional courses dive deeper into each of these separate topics, but the first program is designed to give girls the big picture to taking control of their lives.
There are countless resources for young girls of all ages these days on self-esteem, communication, body image body awareness, career choices, depression, family values, friendship and the list goes on. The list goes on with good reason:
• 92% of teen girls would like to change something about the way they look, with body weight ranking the highest. – Dove “Real Truth About Beauty Global Study, 2005, 2006”
• 90% of eating disorders are found in girls - National Association for Self-Esteem
• 40% of girls ages 11-17 say they do not play sports because they do not feel skilled or competent and 23% do not think their bodies look good. - Girl Scouts USA Study 2006
• 74% of girls say they are under pressure to please everyone – Girls Inc, Study 2006
• 35% of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet – Teen Magazine
• Girls' self-esteem peaks when they are 9 years old, then takes a nose dive - clinical psychologist Robin F. Goodman
However, many books and resources treat these topics as if they are single issues when they are actually all linked and tie into a bigger picture: Creating a solid foundation of identity. GirlSpire is designed to not only create this solid foundation, but also to reach girls at an earlier age and engage them to choose to build their foundation through various actions.
It’s a journey that gets them asking the right questions, and invites them to personally examine authority, their friendships, their family values, communication styles, their feelings, and their aspirations. It invites them to ACT and to take responsibility for themselves at a younger age. Of course, they must lean on others -- family and friends -- but they should lean on them with a firm understanding of who they are now, that changes will occur as they grow, and how to stay in touch with themselves and others as they grow in order to understand and appreciate their personal journeys. This understanding and acceptance of themselves better equips them to fight the tough battles of peer pressure, stress, warped sense of body image, and finding their own voices in the crowd. It also gives them the tools to recognize issues when they arise and deal with them right away.
A girl will always have bad hair days, feel unhappy with her body, become stressed out, lose friends, and feel out of control at times. Many girls will be forced to deal with some of life’s toughest challenges even at very young ages, including disease, divorce, domestic violence, or death. And yet, the key to a healthy girl in the face of all that life throws at her is the ability to come back to a solid foundation when life’s pathway takes hard turns.
GirlSpire addresses the need to provide a roadmap for building a strong foundation in a fun and interactive way that young girls ages 8 to 11 can understand and latch on to. GirlSpire is engages girls in this age group inviting them to work through hands on activities and walk away with the tools needed to build that foundation.
