Today we’d like to introduce you to WriteGirl.
WriteGirl was founded in 2001 to give Los Angeles teen girls a voice. It has grown into a nationally-recognized creative writing and mentoring organization that serves more than 500 youth annually, supported by 400 professional writer volunteers. WriteGirl teens work with mentors individually and in small groups to explore poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, songwriting, journalism, screenwriting and more. Mentees publish their writing on the WriteGirl blog and in award-winning anthologies. Teens also perform their creative work at public readings and events throughout the Los Angeles region. In addition to helping teens discover the power of their individual voice, WriteGirl has a 100% success rate of guiding high school seniors in its Community Mentoring Program to enroll in college, many with scholarships and as the first in their families to do so.
“Girls need to be guided and inspired to find their fire, their individual voices and their personal perspectives. And women writers need to have a significant way to share their experience and creative skills,” says WriteGirl Executive Director Keren Taylor.
In addition to its Community Mentoring Program, WriteGirl offers workshops for teen boys and co-ed groups at schools and community centers as Bold Ink Writers. WriteGirl / Bold Ink Writers is proud to be a founding and active member of the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, which offers arts education workshops for incarcerated and systems-impacted youth.
In 2020, Keren Taylor and WriteGirl received the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, “spotlighting efforts to bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future…and recognizing WriteGirl’s contributions to the community in promoting literacy, creativity and self-expression to empower girls.” In 2013, First Lady Michelle Obama presented WriteGirl with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest national honor awarded to exemplary afterschool programs from across the country.
Has it been a smooth road?
For nearly 20 years, WriteGirl has provided a safe and brave place for creative self-expression, empowering youth to pursue far-reaching academic and personal goals. Teens need the space, freedom and community to find their voice and become inspired to learn and advance their education. During the past several months, we have learned first-hand that our teens need us now more than ever as they deal with a level of anxiety, stress and isolation that is proving difficult for most adults to cope with.
In March, WriteGirl canceled all in-person programming in response to COVID-19 and began delivering all services online. Through this transition, WriteGirl has been able to provide a positive space and supportive community to the teens and young adults we serve as they deal with anxiety, stress and isolation.
While we have successfully managed a difficult transition from in-person events to completely online programming in the past four months, we are uncertain what the Los Angeles funding landscape will look like for us in the coming year.
From its start, nearly 20 years ago, it has been our mission to support the unheard voices of teens and inspire writers to become mentors and we have definitely evolved since our first workshops at the Bresee Community Center in Koreatown, with just 30 girls. We’ve always aimed for WriteGirl to be a leader and trailblazer in the field of creative education for young people.
In June, we released a Statement and Action Plan in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racism. We see this as a starting point, and guiding document as we go forward, and we know it will evolve further, based on all of our work and contributions. We have been diligently working on aspects of the plan, and have formed an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access committee to help guide us as we enter our 20th anniversary season.
Please tell us about WriteGirl.
WriteGirl envisions a world where girls in our program live, write, and speak boldly as they become inspiring, transformative leaders, driven to effect positive change in their communities.
Giving our girls a caring ear, a warm environment, and intellectual motivation is what we do year-round by bringing the skills and energy of professional women writers to teenage girls who do not otherwise have access to creative writing or mentoring programs. This is so critical because many girls in Los Angeles face immense life challenges. However, with unique programming and exemplary community service from our women writers who volunteer and give back to their field and community, WriteGirl has had great success in making a difference.
“I am most proud of what our girls are doing once they have graduated from college,” says Keren Taylor. “I didn’t realize that this would be an outcome of participation in WriteGirl, but I’m so thrilled to hear about alums who are pursuing careers in community service, nonprofit management or advocacy for various causes. I know we can’t take all the credit for their success, but I know we influenced them greatly in looking at the world with compassion and critical eyes and having confidence and vision to want to be part of positive social action.”
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Since pivoting to online programming, we have been able to reach more teens who need us, especially teens who may have difficulty accessing public transportation to attend our events. We have been inspired to see that our creative educational approaches in the online environment have been extremely well received by our teens and mentors. Even when our in-person programming resumes, we hope to continue providing some programming in an online space as well.
Contact Info:
- Address: WriteGirl
1330 Factory Pl, Unit F-104
Los Angeles, CA 90013 - Website: www.writegirl.org
- Phone: 213-253-2655
- Email: office@writegirl.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writegirlla/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WriteGirlOrganization
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriteGirlLA
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/writegirl
Image Credit:
Circle3Productions, Mitch Maher, Morgan Pirkle, Nicole Ortega
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