Growing Up Strong

I spent an amazing Saturday morning on June 1st doing an amazing thing. It wasn't anything special that I did, but it was the event that was truly remarkable. I was a running buddy for a third grade girl from my school at the Girls on the Run 5k event in Toyota Park (where the Chicago Fire play!) as the finale to the program she completed this spring which focused on fitness, healthy lifestyles, and building self-esteem.

Girls on the Run is a really cool organization created to support girls as they grow up in becoming confident, passionate, and healthy as they pursue their dreams. It sounds lofty and even a little silly, but after experiencing the 5k, I've really been thinking about how necessary organizations like this are. They want girls to grow up strong and to go conquer the world. My running buddy did an amazing job (she is NINE years old and only asked me to walk three times during the whole race!) and we had a blast. The event's atmosphere was fun, encouraging, and completely supportive. People were yelling "You can do it!" "You're so great!" "You're beautiful!" "Keep going!" the whole way. At times it dawned on me that my nine-year-old running buddy may have only been hearing those words for the first time in her life right there at that race. It's not often that my kids have people cheering them on, believing in them, staking bets on their side. In the midst of all the triumph, it set a bittersweet note in my heart, as I know this one optimistic Saturday morning is very different from the world where that same nine-year-old girl actually lives.

My mind has been full of this kind of stuff ever since that race. (Here's one blogger who's really insightful on this particular issue who I have been reading lately.) We need more events like this and messages like these sent out to little girls. Now I'm no tiara type, and I'm hardly one to claim Girl Power as reason to celebrate anything. I was perfectly happy to be the only girl on my soccer team in fourth grade; after all, the boys were more aggressive and I liked that better anyway. But I do see the crazy junk that goes into the minds of girls in America every day. I see my second grade girls hike up their shirts so they're showing some skin and have seen notes passed with hyper-sexualized language that no seven or eight-year-old should even know. I, just like any girl, sometimes have a hard time remembering that it's who I am and not how I look that is the truly important thing. The messages out there for us are messed up. And being a girl is an awesome yet confusing life. Thanks to my parents, friends, and God, I don't have to struggle with the confusion quite as intensely as lot of other girls I know. And girls don't have the monopoly on this kind of confusion. The false messages are everywhere for everyone. Money, power, appearance, sexuality, materialism, and popularity are brainwashed into the mind of every kid with a pair of eyes to see a billboard, TV screen, video game, iPhone, or window display in the mall. Someone has got to start setting the record straight. 

We need more people telling all kids that they are created for a purpose, not for a picture frame. We need more people helping kids work on their brains to work for their dreams. We need more people who help kids develop confidence, not in some skewed sense of popularity, but in their values, beliefs, and sense of self. 

We need more people who help kids to grow up strong.