BRAVE Girls Meet to Empower One Another

More stories from Alyssa Soto

More Space, More Exercise
December 15, 2017

There is a new club called “BRAVE Girls”, and they had their first meeting on October 11 in room 11 from 2:45-3:35 p.m.

BRAVE Girls is an acronym, which stands for “Bold, Resilient, Authentic, Valuable, and Empowered.”

English teacher Jenna Ritter and school social worker Kara Vojcsik came up with the initial idea to create this group for high school girls in September, and then they reached out to other female teachers who might be interested in helping organize the group.

Other teachers helping to organize the club include: choral teacher Samantha Baldwin, English teacher Sarah Buttiens, and history teacher Andrea Walton.

The team of teachers met to discuss the name, goal, and plan for the year’s meetings. They decided that each meeting will have a focus topic such as body image, relationships, expectations, etc.

In the meetings, the girls will have an opportunity to share issues and experiences they’ve had.

“The goal of BRAVE Girls is to give girls a safe place to discuss issues or problems, make friends and allies, as well as empower one another through honest discussions and reflection opportunities,” said Buttiens.

The adults in the school see that the girls need a safe place.

“It was started because some of us faculty members see a need for a support system for our female students, a safe place where they can talk about some issues they face,” said Ritter.

The girls will have a nice place where they can express themselves through words.

“It will provide, in the short term, a once-monthly place for girls to discuss in a non-judgemental environment,” Ritter said.

The way this club will impact the school and the girls long-term,  is to increase female strength. Buttiens said, “We hope to increase female empowerment within the school and decrease petty drama that sometimes gets in the way of real relationships and learning.”

This should have a positive impact on girls in the school. “Hopefully this will create a positive culture among girls at school, and will provide them with tools to build their confidence and their relationships with other girls,” said Ritter.

To help girls more, teachers are taking it upon themselves to gain more information on girl drama.

A few of the club leaders will be attending a conference so they can bring back some information on how to help girls deal with “Girl Drama” at later meetings.

There is a need at this school as well as others for clubs like this.

According to Health and Human services, “Rates of depression among girls 12-17 in 2015 were more than double that of boys (In the U.S., 19.5% of girls experienced at least one major depressive episode in the last year, while only 5.8% of boys did)”.

In addition to increased levels of anxiety and depression, Edutopia.org notes that teenagers have a “heightened capacity for fear and anxiety,” which could be why teenage girls often become involved with drama due to fear of being judged, ridiculed, or ostracized.

Teens are also impulsive, because parts of their brains are not completely developed. Impulsive decision making coupled with underdeveloped empathy may cause girls to say or do things they might not do if they had better skills for handling drama.

The club will help girls feel more confident and have a higher self-esteem and hopefully provide them with tools to help settle arguments or conflicts.