girl power

A couple weeks ago I was invited to live tweet from a fabulous event in Santa Monica. The event was put on by Surefire girls am organization dedicated to empowering teen girls. 

This event was the very first of many and I was honored to be able to experience it.

The day started at The Art Institute in Santa Monica with many girls arriving from all over Southern California. When you arrived the girls were to pick which 3 workshops they wanted to attend to that day on top of the various speakers and yoga session. There were 11 different workshops the girls could chose from all pertaining to bettering yourself and touching on topics all teenage girls go through.

The 11 workshops held were:

YOUR MONEY

How do you make money, and how do you keep it when you do? What is a budget? How do you use a debit card vs a credit card? What are the terms you need to know with regards to finances – APR, interest, compounding interest, savings accounts, and more. Untangle the web and keep the money you need to get the things you want!

STRONG IS THE NEW SKINNY

You want to look good, but what about strong? If you lift weights won’t you be big and bulky? And what about getting skinny – if you aren’t starving what’s the point? Learn about what you should do to be healthy from working out to questions about how your body works, to sports and what they can do for you. You’ve got this body – use it!

WHAT’S IN YOUR FUTURE?

How do you get from high school to a successful future? How did other people do it and how can you do it too? What else is out there besides all the normal careers you’ve heard of? You have a sneaking suspicion there are a lot more out there, and it would be good to know what that is. These people are here to tell you. It’s time to explore.

STAND TALL & STAND OUT

You have a lot to say, but sometimes you don’t have the confidence to say it. What if you could find a way to stand tall and speak your mind in a way that people would listen. And that you would believe too? Find your inner voice and enter a room with power!

FRIENDS & FRENEMIES

You love your friends, but sometimes things are complicated. You have friends you see all the time, but that doesn’t mean you don’t like the girls you see every once in a while. And what about those girls that haven’t been so nice. What about the bullies? There are a lot of grey areas in high school relationships. How do you find your way, stand your ground and know when to be nice, and when to be strong.

HOW CAN I HELP YOU

The news is full of images of girls fighting to go to school around the world. You also have heard of child brides. Clearly the world is pretty dangerous for a girl. We are lucky in the US in many ways, but even in your own school, or city you might see things you wish you could change. So how can you help, and what can you do? Here is a how-to-change-the-world guide. Even if the world is just around your corner.

Before the girls broke off into their workshops the event was sponsored by some fabulous companies and brands so the girls got to enjoy free manicures from OPI & games from TOMS shoes. 

Can you guess the first workshop I attended?

Of course it was Mirror Mirror.

I really enjoyed the workshop because it focused on everything MessyDirtyHair stands for, which is embracing your imperfections and being comfortable in ones own skin.


Overall it was a very successful and fun event. I wish they had something like this when I was in high school. 

Check out the full event details and more on the awesome Surefire program HERE

FIRED UP

Sometimes you don’t want to change the world – you just want to change your corner.  You know – those things that drive you crazy or make your spidey sense of justice perk up?  Well we’ve got just the people who can give you the tools to make a change right in your community.  Go ahead and be that girl who makes a difference right here – right now!

WHAT’S YOUR STORY

Your story makes you who you are. Whether it’s good or bad, sunshine or rain, it’s yours. How can you tell your story, or make up a new one if you don’t like the one you have? This is a time to explore film, blogging, YouTube videos and other methods you can use to report on your journey through this thing called life. Come on in and tell us where you’ve been, where you’re going.

GEEK IS CHIC

Technology is cool – just check out your phone, apps, games, basically most of what you use in a day to connect. But what if you didn’t just use tech – you created it? Oh yeah. We’re not only talking phone apps, we’re also talking rocket ships –SpaceX – and a girl who works on them, as well as women who design the games you play, girls who make coding cool, and more – In today’s world it is Chic to Geek.

MIRROR MIRROR

If you look at advertisements today (and who doesn’t?) you’d think that all women should stand about 8 feet tall and weigh about 20 pounds. Is that real? Well, um, no. So what’s up? And how do we change it? And while we try to change it – how can we think differently about it? It’s time to regain our power, be happy about who we are and tell the media to shove it. You’ll walk away inspired and renewed. It’s just like getting a good mani/pedi – for your soul.

GET IT GIRL! 7 STEPS TO TURN DREAMS INTO REALITY

Got big dreams? Good! So how do you go get them? Here’s a plan to get from where you are now, to where you wanna be. Who do you look up to and who would you like to be? Getting to your goals isn’t rocket science but it does take some work. Let’s get to it and start making those dreams come true!