Pax Lodge asks ‘what’s your challenge to girls of the world?’
At Pax Lodge, the London WAGGGS World Centre, we are devoting our time to improving girls and young women’s self-esteem and body confidence through the Free Being Me programme.
Using our special version of the activities, Pax Lodge staff and volunteers are eagerly working on helping make the girls at Pax Lodge feel better about themselves.
The excited staff team began their Free Being Me adventures in April, with training from Deputy World Centre Manager Rachel, and Events Intern, Kayla. We’ve worked with 85 girls since April. Of those 85, half of the older girls (ages 11-15) and 69% of the younger girls (ages 7-10), told us they felt an increase in their confidence after attending our 1 hour and 15 minute session. The Pax Lodge team is very happy about this! We’re all young women ourselves, we are aware of the constant struggle of interpreting the media, and the Image Myth attempting to make it seem to be reality. Changing the perspective of women and girls on their own worst critic, themselves, is a huge accomplishment.
Over the course of the summer, all the staff and volunteers will work with over 1,400 more participants on Free Being Me.
The best part about our session is that once the girls leave, they leave their legacy. We are asking the girls to “challenge the girls of the world” to do something to fight the Image Myth. Our favourite challenges so far are:
“I challenge girls of the world to be themselves when everybody isn’t; not to change for anyone”
“I challenge girls of the world to not make modifications to their body because you are beautiful just the way you are”
“I challenge girls of the world to not worry about getting their hair wet. Swim! Run in the Rain! Let the air dry it & flow naturally”
So, why don’t you take the challenge? Let’s fight the Image Myth, and prove the media wrong! Because we are all beautiful just the way we are!
Share your challenge on the WAGGGS Facebook page or on twitter