Here's a snippet of the exciting activities we'll experience with the girls:
* tour of “100 Years of Suffrage” exhibit at the Molly Brown House
* meeting ‘Eleanor Roosevelt’ through a Chautauqua Living History presenter
* attendance to Unconventional Women conference
* meeting bi-partisan panel of Colorado women legislators
* developing individual global advocacy projects in alliance with Peace Jam
* holding a girl caucus and developing an Issue paper for lawmakers
* attending the The White House Project anniversary
* making a PSA about voting
* workshops on The Cliff Effect, Voting Technology, Organizing and more
* participating in the Democratic National Convention and witnessing Sen. Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech

Plus the whole week will be documented by the super awesome directors of Girls Rock!

And guess what? Our involvement is totally girl driven. A young woman Allie, who connected with me at the uME! Leadership Institute, told her mom—Virginia Mason, President and CEO of Girl Scouts of Colorado—that she wanted us to come the conference. Thanks Allie! How's that for girl-women partnership and empowerment?

Also, check out the Girl Scouts USA new Leadership Journeys and March study: Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership.

Some important findings of the study are as follows:
• Girls do not identify with the command-and-control definition of leadership prevalent in our culture today. Instead, girls embrace a leadership style that focuses on ethics, personal principles and social change values.
• 68 percent of survey respondents said they want to be a leader who "stands up for their beliefs and values," and 59 percent said they want to be a leader "who tries to change the world for the better."
• Despite this, girls face barriers that include a lack of self-confidence in their own skill set and competencies, stress, fear of speaking in front of others, peer pressure and stereotypes about what it means to be a girl in today's society.
• Girls feel that the power to change things or teach/help others in many environments is the kind of leadership most appealing to them.

And when I did meet and pursue my first big dream (going to college to become a journalist), self-respect started to bloom. And so did I. And now the world is better for it. And I can say that about myself and you should too. I say own your power because there is too much we are powerless over in the meantime.

I think when we can have a little meet and greet with our future self (who we'd like to be and already are deep inside) we can reveal our passions. Which helps us see what's important to us. Which can trigger our goals. Which allows us to move forward to create the life we want and fulfill our many callings. And it's fun.

Here's where I'm going with this (VIDEO follows!)...

Respect Rx: What inspired you to get into girl advocacy?
Sejal: I’ve always been really passionate about social change initiatives, but the one organization that really was the catalyst for my involvement with girl-related issues was Girls For A Change. When I joined Girls For A Change at the start of high school, I was really passionate and driven, but I still did not have that much direction. GFC revealed to me that any girl, however disadvantaged, can leverage her power to make a difference. The more social change projects I performed, the more I realized that the most fundamental problems affecting youth are not poverty or environmental degradation or political corruption. Rather, it was ignorance and the lack of a cosmopolitan cultivation amongst all youth that taught them that they do have a voice—they can be leaders for change. I desired to really work with the population that I thought was most vulnerable, most marginalized, most in need of love and empowerment: girls.

There also was a team of more than 40 adults from the Girl Scouts to amazing people in Atlanta who helped make the institute happen, including the team at Treesounds Studios. The girls got to meet so many amazing role models (so did I!) and even got to write and record a hook for a song for a 19-year-old amazing artist (more about her later!) who is coming on to the scene. They also learned about going green and creating social change. Mostly they learned about themselves and each other.

Here is the hook the girls created and recorded with their partners at Treesounds. It really says it all about who they are and what happened for them during the week:

WHAT YOU SEE YOU CAN ACHIEVE
BE YOURSELF AND BE FREE
DON'T LET NOTHING KILL YOUR DREAM
TRUST YOURSELF AND BELIEVE
GOTTA FIND YO SELF-ESTEEM
LOVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY
CREATED PERFECTLY
SO FRESH & UNIQUE!

So many of the girls said it was the first time they'd been with a group of girls where there was total acceptance of one another! The tagline of uME! is "You can change the way you look, or you can change the way the world looks at girls!" Nuff said.

Hi girls! Miss you! Love you! xoxoCourt. This is for you (and our power playlist is below!):

I'll write more about the week and the women behind it tomorrow. But in the meantime, I wanted to send you some shout-outs from the girls who will lead us all to a better day:

• One person in eight—900 million—is a girl or young woman age 10–24.

• In many places girls and young women do not enjoy the basic rights of voting, cannot inherit land, are subject to female genital cutting, and do not have the right to stop unwanted sexual advances or gain justice. As the world seeks to fight poverty and respect fundamental human rights, girls remain nearly invisible to those in positions of power—and yet it is only through major and sustained improvements in the condition of girls that the world will reach its goals.

• Girls undertake much of the domestic labor needed for poor families to survive: carrying water, harvesting crops, tending livestock, caring for younger children, and doing chores.

• A sixth of the world’s young people live on less than $2 a day, including 122 million girls in Sub-Saharan Africa who live on less than $1 a day.

• One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18. And 14 million girls ages 15–19 give birth each year. Adolescent girls are up to five times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy than women in their 20s, and their babies are also at higher risk of dying.

• Nearly half of sexual assaults worldwide are against girls ages 15 and younger, and girls ages 15–19 in developing countries are at a particularly high risk for physical and sexual violence.

• Around 59 percent of HIV-positive adults in Sub-Saharan Africa—the worst affected region in the world—are women, and 75 percent of infected youth are girls ages 15–24.

• This report takes as a starting point that the wellbeing of girls matters, above all, because they are individuals with inalienable human rights. Nearly all countries are now legally bound to respect, protect, and fulfill women’s and girls’ rights as set out in two treaties: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. But in many countries and communities girls and young women still experience discrimination and abuse, and many of the public policy measures introduced to redress these issues are not enforced.

"Most important, girls matter because they are human beings. Girls have equal rights to human dignity, self-determination, freedom from violence, good health, education, and participation in economic and political life."

This report offers many powerful recommendations. Read them. The broad agenda includes three key actions:
1. Count girls. Disaggregate data of all types—from health and education statistics to the counts of program beneficiaries—by age and sex. Doing so will make girls more visible to policymakers and reveal where girls are excluded.

2. Invest in girls. Make strategic and significant investments in programs focused on adolescent girls, commensurate with their importance as contributors to the achievement of economic and social goals.

3. Give girls a fair share. In employment, social programs, protection of human rights, and all other domains ensure that adolescent girls benefit equitably. In many cases this will take explicit and deliberate efforts to overcome household and social barriers.

Another recommendation that hit home with us:
Creating safe spaces for girls: Recognizing the value of social networks and access to mentors for girls and young women, civil society organizations (including faith-based organizations) can play a critical role in creating and maintaining safe spaces for girls to congregate, share information and ideas, and obtain support and guidance. Safe and supportive spaces are a vital preventive measure for girls at risk of HIV or sexual violence.

WE'RE IN.

Queue the music...

Report by:
CGD vice president for programs and operations Ruth Levine; Cynthia Lloyd, senior associate with the Poverty, Gender, and Youth program and chair of the Bixby Fellowship program at the Population Coun­cil; Margaret Greene, director of the Population and Social Transitions Team at the International Center for Research on Women; and Caren Grown, economist-in-residence in the Department of Economics at American University.

So the Jens and I—along with Jones, they are Jennifer Davidson (our Respect Rally Training Leader) and Jennifer Uribe (our fearless Intern and Rally-Leader-In-Training)—all converged in Los Angeles last week. We had an awesome retreat where we worked on our Respect Rally and other programs. We also stared at the ocean and tried briefly to corrupt 19-year-old Uribe. But it didn't work. She simply has too much self-respect.

We connected with WHY we want to do this work together. We made mind maps that revealed intentions for ourselves and girls/women like:

Though there is now dispute about whether the Gloucester pact was real, with 17 girls pregnant at one school--and teen pregnancy on the rise in general--does it matter if there was a pact (my longer take on this here)? For parents, the question becomes: What do your teens know about teen pregnancy and how can you all play a role in prevention? Before you start in about the facts or your values about sex and pregnancy, try asking your teens what they think to truly get the conversation going. It also shows that you respect that they are young adults with their own ideas and values--and if they feel you aren't judging them it keeps the door open so they can come to you for advice and support.

Here are some talking points for parents (as featured on ABC's View From the Bay). And GIRLS, there's no rule that says you can't start the conversation with your parents, friends and, of course, anyone you're considering hooking up with in ANY way. Get yapping will ya?

We went camping with two 18-year-old men. We even made them dinner. We wore our cute Contempo Casual ensembles and then we took leave to our separate tents. At least her partner was her long-time BF. Mine was a guy who'd showed me minimal attention (being rude and dismissive), taken me to a dance (a last-minute invite), and chased after my friends in front of me (and everyone else in school). And the "pact" experience sucked so bad for me that I swear I remember thinking—at the moment it was happening—I'll never be the same after this.

And I wasn't. Not because my "precious" virginity was gone. But because I had hit the no-self-respect-aholic's equivalent of ROCK bottom.

get in effect here

1. The Girl Scouts USA uniquely ME! Leadership Institute (which I'm facilitating July 7-11 in Atlanta). I've been reading through the girls' applications. And, well, if you want to have a good cry while your heart fills with hope and admiration for your fellow girls (and our future leaders), come on over to my house and have a read!

2. Respect Rx. We're taking steps every day, every minute to create powerful event programs and trainings for girls and women and their advocates. We're growing rapidly thanks to the Jens* and other amazing women like our new accounting guru who doubles as a passionate high school music teacher. And thanks to my coach Sharna Fey. And thanks to the supportive coaches I train with at The Coaches Training Institute. This leadership stuff takes a village, people! As it should.

It got me thinking about what kind of leader do I want to be? What kinda leader am I already? I believe we all lead. The question is: What are we leading ourselves and others toward?

But really, turning 16 was the best. Driving. You know, driving. But now that's all changed. I've discovered another kinda sweet 16 standard. My *Super* Sweet Sixteen. You know it. I thought MTV's manufacturing-desire-machine could never get to me. But after two years of watching this show, I too have succumbed to the pressure. Now I'm DEMANDING, with tears streaking through my Mystic Tan, that my father—OK, THE Father—throw me a lavish Super Sweet Sixteen do-over to be THE party of all time. Here's the plan: