Great Girls Network Jr. isn’t an official organization at this time, however, we are happy to assist moms, or close friends of moms, who are members of GGN gather girls between the ages of 8 – 13 and 14 – 17 in group meetings to explore inspiring ways to see themselves as girls growing into women. We have one group in a suburb of Dallas that has met twice. This group consisted of girls from 8 to 13. The first meeting we focused on how to introduce ourselves to each other, and how to think bigger about ourselves as individuals, school students and involved in community. They did an exercise presented by Maddy Kulkarni about how to map out those three areas on a chart. After they worked, we talked about what they learned. Their moms were watching from the balcony above, and then came and joined us at the end. Great conversation and learning happened for not only the girls, but also for the moms.
The second meeting we had our guest speaker, Nell Merlino, help them present ideas to get involved in specific non-profit activities. Each girl who wanted to stood up and presented to the whole group and got some coaching on how to feel more comfortable speaking. It was very inspiring to watch them stand up and show up! The moms also joined us at the end, and we all shared what we had gotten from participating.
This group has continued meeting monthly through 2019 and Margery Miller joined them on December 15th for their final one. She led them in a conversation about what they had learned this year that they can take with them into 2020. Each time these girls get together, we are all in awe of their intelligence, awareness and eagerness to keep growing and learning!