ARE YOU READY TO MAKE SURE AAPI GIRLS AND GENDER-EXPANSIVE YOUTH ARE HEARD?

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., and make up 7.7% of the total U.S. population. But no national study exists on the experiences of AAPI girls and gender-expansive youth. Let’s change that. 

If you…

• Are 14-22 years old
• Are a girl or are a gender-expansive youth 
• Identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander*

…then you’re eligible to participate as a photojournalist in the first-ever national study on AAPI girls!

Tell us your story by photographing and writing about your community and your relationship to leadership. You will have a month to share your photos and writings with us and will earn $40 in compensation. If you are interested, apply HERE by 9/15/2023.

If you are…

• A teacher of middle school, high school, college or university 
• Based in the US or US territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,  Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands)
• Wishing you had a great book or a cozy sweatshirt to start the year?

Take ten minutes to help your students and be entered for our raffle.

This survey closes 9/17/23.

This project was developed in collaboration with the AAPI Youth Research Council and Evaluation Studio.

If you want to help amplify the voices of AAPI girls, please share this page with your community, schools, or community groups by linking to the page. 

*AAPI includes:

• Those who identify as biracial, multi-racial, adoptees, and trans-racial adoptees
• Those who identify as Filipino/Filipino American
• Those who identify as Vietnamese/Vietnamese American
• Those who identify as Central Asian/Central Asian American (Afghani, Kazakh…) 
• Those who identify as East Asian/ Southeast Asian (Chinese, Hmong, Hongkongers, Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, Taiwanese…)
• Those who identify as South Asian/South Asian American (Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan…) 
• Those who identify as Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander (Fijian, Samoan, Tongan…)
• Documented and undocumented girls and gender-expansive youth

What if the voices of AAPI girls were heard and their leadership fully realized?

Girls Leadership is embarking on a national study to learn how ethnicity and culture impact the leadership development of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) girls. This study will be co-led by Girls Leadership and the AAPI Youth Research Council, a girls’ research council made up of youth who identify as AAPI and girl or gender-expansive.

After an extensive search and interview process, we have selected our AAPI research council. We are so honored to have these young people work with us on this important research. Learn more about the 17 council members.

The goal of this study is to understand the wide-ranging definitions and understandings of leadership within the diverse communities of AAPI youth, as well as the external leadership supports and barriers, so that teachers, schools, and community-based organizations can create greater equity in the leadership development of all girls.

Learn More

Are you a girl, teacher, parent, or program staff who would like to learn more? Please complete this form to receive updates and more details.

Sponsors

Interested in sponsoring? Check out our sponsorship deck and contact Senior Development Director Catherine Stahl for more information.

Donate now to contribute to this project.

Advisory Board

Research Cabinet

This study will explore:

• How ethnicity and culture impact girls’ definition of leadership, their leadership identity, and skill development
• How leadership definition is impacted by intersections of family structure, income level, education level, language spoken at home, geography, immigration status, and generational status
• How parents and caregivers define leadership and identify as leaders
• How teachers perceive supports and barriers to leadership for AAPI girls

Why is this research important?

With the model minority myth, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are often unseen and unheard. But they’re the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., accounting for 7.7% of the nation’s total population at 24 million in 2020 — nearly double that of 2000’s AAPI population of 12.7 million.

Yet very little data exists on this disparate group that hails from more than 50 origin countries and speaks 100+ languages. And while there is some data on the general AAPI population, no research exists on AAPI girls.

Why now? 

In mainstream media and news, AAPI experiences — especially those of AAPI girls and women — are often erased, tokenized, fetishized, stereotyped, or overlooked. Asian American women reported anti-Asian violence and discrimination during the pandemic at 2.2 times the rate of Asian American men, and Pacific Islander women also reported high rates of discrimination.

The economic impact of COVID further amplified the income disparity, disproportionately harming the lowest income groups, including Hmong, Cambodian, Burmese, and Pacific Islander communities.

The time to tell the story of our AAPI girls is long overdue.

About our research firm:

Evaluation Studio is an innovative and community-centered research firm. Our model is more than just research; it’s about transforming knowledge creation by centering the experiences and voices of the communities we serve. We are a women-led organization grounded in helping girl- and BIPOC- serving youth development nonprofits craft the data-driven narratives they need. We are grounded in an integrated approach of using traditional and liberatory research methods. Our iterative process of discovery, discussion, and design help clients refine their data and knowledge creation processes to empower their stories of impact.