Proud to be a girl

Last week, my Big Brothers Big Sisters, little Sister (who I will call C) and I attended a girl talk seminar with a handfull of other "Big" and "Little" sisters at a local coffee shop. For those not ensconced in the Big Brothers Big Sisters culture, we grown ups are always referred to as "Bigs" and the kiddoes are always referred to as "Littles". Often at these functions you will hear an adult say "my little loves it when I take her to a pizza buffet." Anyway, the seminar was led by the Torch Light Society, a UT woman's organization and the goal was to foster empowerment and independence. I thought for sure C would be bored and think it was hokey. She hated the teen pregnancy awareness seminar we went to and they even served free food at that one. But much to my surprise she loved it. I did too for that matter. The seminar included discussions about why it was great to be a girl (great clothes, fun hairstyles, smarter than boys), things we can do now that we could not do 30 or 40 years ago, 10 things I like about myself and we analyzed ads for messages about body image. Anyway, we had a lot of fun exploring our girl-ness and I was so impressed that they were able to keep my 13 year old little's attention and teach her a little something while having fun.