Girls Leadership equips schools and youth serving organizations with the resources and training to create environments where girls exercise the power of their voice and are inspired to lead.
Our approach is based on the belief that girls are born powerful, and that they need to be able to come of age in communities that value and celebrate that power. We are proud to partner with teachers, youth development professionals, family service providers, and sports educators who share this belief.
We structure our work around four central values: Authentic Communication, Courageous Growth, Belonging + Inclusion, and Play.
Girls Leadership exists to help create a world where all girls are included, embraced and belong. In our work, inclusion and belonging are at the heart of every decision we make, every program we design, every partner we connect with and all research we conduct so that we can create a more inclusive world where every girl’s leadership is valued.
We create impact for around 150,000 girls per year. We work with districts, public schools, charters, independent schools, and community-based organizations across the country and internationally.
1) Girls Leadership cultivates the power of all girls by providing the influential adults in girls’ lives with transformational training, curriculum, and learning activities. These adults include teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators, program staff, sports educators, and family service providers.
2) We put social and emotional learning (SEL) at the foundation of leadership development.
3) We co-design our programs with the most marginalized girls in order to best serve all girls.
GIRL
Includes anyone who identifies as a girl, as well as non-binary and gender-expansive youth.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership is making others and situations better as a result of your presence, and making that impact last in your absence. This work can begin at any age, and doesn’t require a title or role.
A’ja Wilson Wants to Hold the Door Open: Named Jr. WNBA Global Ambassador
A’ja Wilson is the first Jr. WNBA Global Ambassador. The Jr. WNBA offers initiatives like Belonging in Basketball resources, created in partnership with Girls Leadership and designed for and by girls to recruit and keep girls in the game
Good News
Girls Leadership’s 2025 Power of Voice Benefit event in San Francisco was covered on local news.
How to Use Social Media, According to Teen Girls — Adults Are Panicked About Teens and Social Media. These Girls Have Advice.
Parents and public health experts have a lot to say about what adolescent girls do on their phones. We asked teens to weigh in.
International Day of the Girl: Creating a voice for young women in sports
The ‘Her Time To Play’ initiative aims to promote and encourage girls and women in sports.
How to Evolve Through Diversity with Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Girls Leadership, Simone Marean
Simone shares details of her journey as a founder, and demonstrates the effectiveness of sharing power and building community and the healthy succession and release of responsibility through an organization.
Janet Jackson’s Donation to Oakland-based Girls Leadership Supports its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Aims
Janet Jackson’s vintage clothes from previous tours are being auctioned with all proceeds going to Girls Leadership!
All in for Impact Forum: Leadership Perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion
Susan Reid and Simone Marean discuss leadership, diversity and inclusion in this video with Lisa Shalett, CFO of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
Janet Jackson is Selling Rare Merchandise to Support Oakland Nonprofit Girls Leadership
Janet Jackson is selling vintage merch with proceeds going to Girls Leadership to continue to help girls of color to find their voices in society
Janet Jackson sells merch on the RealReal to benefit girls’ leadership group
Janet Jackson is selling vintage tour merchandise with proceeds going to Girls Leadership
Janet Jackson Partners with the RealReal for Charity Sale
Janet Jackson partnered with the RealReal to sell her vintage merchandise and memorabilia with proceeds going towards Girls Leadership.
Celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day with the WNBA and Her Time to Play
Girls Leadership partnered with the WNBA for the Her Time to Play event, which includes a wellness check, education around Title IX, and a panel discussion for girls ages 10-14!
Women Still Make Less at Work. Follow This Advice to Negotiate for the Pay you Deserve
Patriarchal norms have affected women socially and economically, however a girls leadership qualitative study explains how harmful gender norms are exposed to girls starting at a young age.
Little Girls Can Tell When You Underestimate Them…& They Don’t Like It
In honor of International Day of the Girl, Girls Leadership put out youth-led research explaining how girls know when they are experiencing gender biases.
Mentoring Through Challenging Times: Turning Girls into Leaders
Summarizes key learnings from Girls Leadership’s She Know’s Her Power study.
Jr. NBA Finding New Ways to Connect with Today’s Youth
Girls Leadership is partnering with the WNBA to provide over 20,000 girls access to basketball clinics, life skill sessions, and online learning.
NBA, Nonprofits Partner On Youth Basketball Initiatives
Highlights Girls Leadership’s partnership with the WBNA, supporting the Jr. NBA’s “Her Time to Play” initiative.
The Individual All-Around Women’s Gymnastics Final Will Go On Without Biles
An interview with Girls Leadership’s National Training Director about Simone Biles’ powerful decision to prioritize her wellbeing.
From Research to Practice, Charlotte Jacobs is Busting Myths and Inspiring Action
Profiles the amazing author of the Ready to Lead report, Dr. Charlotte Jacobs, and her work’s focus on the intersections of identity development, race, and gender in education.
As the Pandemic and Police Brutality Bring Inequities Into Sharp Relief, Black Girls Find Themselves Forced to Confront Both Racial and Gender Bias
Sites a data point from the Ready to Lead study around the lack of gender equity training in existing professional development offerings.
Mattel Reveals New Eleanor Roosevelt Barbie Doll Ahead of International Women’s Day
Announces Girls Leadership’s partnership with Mattel for the Barbie Dream Gap Project.
Here’s What Brands Are Doing for Women’s History Month 2021
These initiatives highlight gender disparities, offer monetary support, celebrate inclusive womanhood and mention Girls Leadership’s partnership with Barbie.
Exercising the Power of Your Voice
Simone speaks about the emotional benefits of training girls to use their voice to advocate for themselves and others.
Girl Power: Raising Our Daughters to Be Confident, Capable Women
Girls Leadership and other experts reflect on how parents can help their daughters see their own future potential.
Building Multicultural Leadership with Ready to Lead
Based off of Girls Leadership’s pivotal Ready to Lead study, this piece features a roundtable discussion focused on the implications of the report’s findings on the workforce of the future.
Girls Leadership Nonprofit Works to Lessen COVID-strain for Girls of Color
Girls Leadership believes that the pandemic should be an impetus to reevaluate school design and programming, calling upon policymakers and schools to dismantle barriers that prevent Black and Latinx girls from activating their full potential.
Mentoring Through Challenging Times: Prepare an Emotional Emergency Kit
Girls Leadership encourages families to prepare their own emotional emergency kits to make it through this year.
How You Can Celebrate International Day Of The Girl And Raise A Leader
An in-depth feature on Girls Leadership highlighting the origin story, SEL approaches, and how the organization celebrates girls not only on International Day of the Girl but also every single day.
Black Girl Freedom Fund: Extraordinary Times Require Extraordinary Measures
1BILLION4BLACKGIRLS references Girls Leadership’s Ready to Lead research as the collective calls for a $1 billion investment to support black girls and young women.
Teachers And Parents Hold The Key To Increasing Leadership Potential For Girls Of Color
Forbes highlights Girls Leadership’s Ready to Lead research that studies teachers and young girls of color to learn how to better identify and support the next generation of female leaders.
Girls Leadership, Vodafone Team Up for Black and Latinx Girls
Girls Leadership asks… Where are we headed in terms of women’s leadership? Are we doing enough to support girls of color and their families? Are we supporting representation in leadership roles, mentorships, and educational leadership?
Girls Leadership Report Finds Black and Latinx Girls Are Ready to Lead
Teen Vogue highlights the main findings of our newly launched research report by Dr. Charlotte Jacobs, Ready to Lead.
Ambition Has Always Been ‘Ladylike’
Sexism unleashed in response to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run returns for the Democratic vice presidential campaign. Black women in contention for the spot have both race and gender to contend with—a “double jeopardy” they must navigate.
Are You Showing Up for Black and Latinx Girls? Girls Leadership’s Study Shows Schools Are Not
“We have always been and will continue to be ready to lead.” Public academic, writer, philanthropic innovator, and past Girls Leadership honoree Rachel Cargle shares her story
‘I Refuse to Listen to White Women Cry’
Activist Rachel Cargle has built a brand — and a business — by calling out racial injustices within feminism
Nonprofit Spotlight: Oakland’s Girls Leadership Breaking Down Unrealistic Standards and Empowering Girls to Make their Voices Heard
Empowering girls before they lose their voice.
Without great role models to instruct them, girls can have a hard time speaking up and advocating for themselves.
Is ‘Girl Power’ really the right message for our daughters?
We mean well with this slogan, but let’s think about what it’s actually telling girls and boys.
We Tell Our Kids That Hard Work Always Pays Off. What Happens When They Fail Anyway?
By Rachel Simmons, Girls Leadership Co-founder.
How to Make Your Message More Powerful.
Michelle Barry Franco talks about thought leaders who are doing this really well, why taking a stand is such a critical part of having a strong message, and the three essential elements you should consider when getting on any stage.
How Not to Be a Snowplow Parent
The college bribery scandal raises the concern that overprotected young children are ill-equipped to face challenges. Here’s advice for raising a self-sufficient child.
The Virtues of Girl-Boy Friendships.
Even as more grown-ups come around to the idea that gender is a spectrum, children continue to draw a bold line between “boy” and “girl” and police these categories with a great fervor. “Boys can’t be friends with girls, and boys can’t jump rope!” my son’s friend recently explained to him during recess.
Is “girl power” creating a mental health crisis?
Will girls ever feel like they are enough as they are? Like many American girls raised after the Women’s Movement, Rachel grew up believing that not only could she accomplish anything she put her mind to, but she was also expected to excel at everything.
Supergirl is a Myth: How to Help Girls Thrive in a World of Growing Expectations.
In “Enough As She Is,” Rachel Simmons explores how effortless perfection became the expectation for girls and how parents and society can “dispense with the myth of the so-called amazing girl.”
How Empowering Girls to Confront Conflict and Buck Perfection Helps Their Well-Being.
CEO & Co-founder Simone Marean says it’s crucial that adults start helping young girls to engage in productive conflict, acknowledge and grow from mistakes, develop emotional intelligence and take responsibility for the role they each play in social situations.
Teaching girls they can be anything — but they don’t have to be everything.
Rachel Simmons says we must help girls know themselves well enough to pursue what makes them tick, not what they assume will please or impress others.
The Promise of Self-Compassion for Stressed-Out Teens
Rachel Simmons shares a powerful tool for “owning up to a tough moment without paying for it with your self-worth.”
With the fall of Rob Porter, are we ready to stop giving a pass to abusers?
Rachel Simmons urges parents to talk to their daughters about what sort of values they want to embody — and then help them understand that those values carry over into every part of their lives.
Perfectionism among teens is rampant (and we’re not helping).
Rachel Simmons offers alternatives to simply saying, “just chill” to our kids.
How to Help Your Child Not Be a #MeToo. — What Parents Can Do to Help Keep Their Children Safe From Assault
Rachel Simmons says, “It’s up to us to say, ‘I believe your feelings and you should too,’ because self advocacy can only happen when you authorize your own feelings.”
Rachel Simmons talked about how she learned from mistakes to achieve success, and why parents must share their own mistakes and apologize in front of kids too.
Rachel Simmons weighs in on a Dutch woman who faces down her catcallers by posting selfies with them, using social media as a tool to take back her own power.
Are the Boy Scouts trying to recruit girls away from the Girl Scouts?
Rachel Simmons on why girls and boys need single sex spaces to be themselves, with each other.
6 Things Parents Should Know About Sending Kids Back to School.
If your child is sad about leaving camp friends or worried about the academic pressures of the next grade level, hear her out — and show empathy. Then, avoid the knee-jerk reaction to fix everything. Instead, ask your child to brainstorm ways to make the situation better.
Everyday Sexism in a ‘Post-Feminist’ World.
Pop culture tells girls they can do anything, but the messages they experience in the classroom tell a different story. Organizations like Girls Leadership are providing solutions.
On Campus, Failure Is on the Syllabus.
A Smith College initiative with Rachel Simmons called “Failing Well” is one of a crop of university
programs that aim to help high achievers cope with basic setbacks.
How to help children learn resilience through failure.
Good Morning America interviewed Rachel Simmons about concepts in her upcoming book, Enough as She Is.
6 Ways to Be a Strong Role Model for Your Daughter
“There is so much pressure to put other people’s feelings and needs ahead of our own—and we need to change the messaging for the next generation of women,” says Simone Marean
Body image: Are girls’ clothes sending wrong message to kids? (Opinion)
“Self-consciousness goes up with the more skin you are baring and the more shape you are showing.. Your body becomes an object that others can have access to, and we know that self-objectification begins really early,” said Rachel Simmons.
The Girl Scouts Is Raising Our Next Generation of Rippers
“If we can build bravery skills, then they’ll have the internal capacity to recover from failure and go back out there and try again,” Marean says. Pain and rejection will happen; being in nature can help girls find solace, strength, and inspiration.
Gloria Steinem: There Is No Such Thing As ‘White Feminism’
At an intimate fundraising dinner held Thursday evening in New York City to benefit non-profit Girls Leadership, Steinem spoke at length about the perception that silos that exist between black and white feminists.
Want to raise empowered women? Start in middle school.
Practical tips for empowering middle schoolers, featuring Co-Founder Rachel Simmons & more.
Want to Raise a Rocket Scientist? 20 Holiday Gifts to Give Girls a Head Start.
Featuring Girls Leadership Parent & Daughter Book Club.
How DonorsChoose, She’s The First And Girls Leadership Built Their Brands.
“Over the years we’ve learned to trust our audience,” says Simone Marean. “Now we do our best to give away content every day.”
The art of saying no: How to raise kids to be polite, not pushovers.
Common courtesy shouldn’t outweigh common sense. Help your kids learn how to say no. Interview with Cofounder Simone Marean.
Is Your Kid Ready for a Best Friend?
Whether your child has a BFF, wants one, or isn’t yet clued in to the concept, these tips will help you teach her what true friendship entails.
One of our Adventure Nannies, Aryn, works as an educator with Girl’s Leadership, so we sat down with her to learn more about this life-changing organization.
Encouraging Girls to Face Fear, Take Risks and Seek Adventure. Host Mina Kim interviewed Simone Marean and “The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure” author Caroline Paul.
There are some unsettling trends in girl dynamics today, Simone Marean told hundreds of parents and students attending Tuesday night’s Piedmont Education Speaker Series called “Raising Resilient Girls.”
7 Skills to Teach Your Daughter by Age 13.
Rachel Simmons on how parents can help girls through the pressure of tween life.
How Embracing Failure Can Be a Stepping Stone to Success.
Teach young women there is value in failure—even more so than in success—if you fail chasing a dream, taking a risk, or trying something new.
Why This Nonprofit Wants to Help Girls Fail.
Want more female leaders? Lose the pressure for perfection. Fortune’s article of Simone Marean’s interview with Lauren Schiller.
We all want our sons and daughters to grow up strong and independent, but how do we ensure that ‘having it all’ doesn’t mean ‘doing it all’? Lauren Schiller interviewed Simone Marean.
Target Moves Toward Gender-Neutral Store Signage
Rachel Simmons was interviewed about Target’s new policy of gender-neutral clothing and toys.
Mean Girls Starting Earlier — Even in Preschool
Name-calling, teasing and social exclusion is happening to their daughters in early elementary school, kindergarten or even preschool.
Westfield’s Roosevelt Intermediate School’s ‘Raising Resilient Girls’ presentation a plus for parents
After the presentation and the question and answer session that followed, it was clear that parents would be leaving with language to use at home to resolve conflicts effectively,”
Every Mom and Dad a STEM Mentor
For confidence building, I am a big fan of Girls Leadership Institute and their Summer camps. –Julie Kantor
Ronnie and Simone talked about the pressures on middle school girls, what’s available for boys’ social emotional learning, and our goals to reach 25 million girls.
Girls Leadership Institute Launched Programs in New Jersey
Read about Girls Leadership expanding into New Jersey and our first event with host study partner, the Livingston Board of Education.
Bestselling “Odd Girl Out” Author Presented Workshop
Read an article in the Maplewood Patch about Rachel Simmons’ talk in Maplewood, NJ.
Girls and the Ambition Gap
Hear Co-Founder and Executive Director Simone Marean talk about girls and the ambition gap, with best-selling author Peggy Orenstien and About Face’s Jennifer Berger.
Tu seras une boss, ma fille
Read an article (in French) from Libération about GL’s Real Parents, Real Daughters workshop in New York.
Institute Helps Girls Overcome Pressures, Have Healthy Relationships
Hearing Girls Leadership Institute Executive Director Simone Marean talk about “Raising Resilient Girls” seemed like a good way to better understand the complex undercurrents of the interactions of girls on the school yard.
Leadership Workshops Help Girls Navigate Friendships
Girls face relationship challenges that can be very sophisticated at a very young age. Parents of the youngest girls often feel helpless to deal with the mean girl behavior that their daughters experience.
Mean girls, good girls — how about strong girls?
The message of Simone Marean’s Real Parents, Real Daughters workshop was the classic stuff of female assertiveness training: Be strong. Respect yourself. Look people in the eye. Calmly tell them what you need and how you feel. But this was no ordinary assertiveness class.
Girls, Uninterrupted
“Everyone where I live really judges me,” one girl says. “My mom sent me here because she said no one would judge me.”
