Advocate
Want to support girls in your community?
Beyond sharing our exhibitions and educational activities, you can get involved with a variety of organizations that support girls on the ground. Explore the organizations, museums, and podcasts that support girls as well as those related to the field of girlhood studies.
Beyond your own family, getting involved with a local organization is the best way to start change that you can see.
Empower Girls
Below is a list of organizations that provide resources that inspire and empower girls.
A Mighty Girl provides lists of books, toys, and movies as well as resources for parents on raising smart, confident, and courageous girls.
Chick History tells the stories of women’s roles and contributions to history.
FabFems is a website dedicated to linking girls with professional role models in STEM.
Feministing provides a diverse collection of writers who cover a broad range of inter-sectional feminist issues, and a community where women of all ages can contribute to the conversation.
Girl Start provides resources for parents and educators of girls interested in Science, Engineering, Technology or Math.
Girl Up, an adolescent girl campaign by the United Nations foundation, empowers girls to be leaders in their communities and engages them to take action to create social change.
Girls Inc. provides resources to help parents raise brave, confident and smart girls, as well as programming for girls to aid development.
Girls Leadership teaches girls to use their voices through online resources and support, as well as programmes for girls, educators and families.
Girls Make Beats inspires and teaches girls how to become the next generation of female DJs, producers and engineers.
Girls on the Run provides after school programmes for 8-13 year old girls that build the confidence of girls by supporting their physical and mental health.
Girls Who Code addresses the gender gap in computing and technology through after school clubs and summer programs for middle and high school girls.
SheHeroes features online content and videos that help girls envision their own potential with inspiring stories about real-life, successful female role models across all fields.
STEM Like a Girl is recoining the phrase ‘like a girl’ and putting on parent-daughter workshops and resources to encourage girls to pursue STEM.
Museums and Exhibitions
United States
- The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York
- DiMenna Children’s History Museum, New York, USA
- Girlhood: It’s Complicated at the Smithsonian Institution
- Mary Ellen Mark: Girlhood at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
United Kingdom
- Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland
- Sudbury’s Nostalgic Museum of Childhood in Sudbury, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
- Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in London
Africa
- Museum of Childhood, Capetown, South Africa
Asia/Australia/Pacific
- ECU Museum of Childhood Collection, Australia
- Parramatta Female Factory Precinct National Heritage Site, Australia
Europe
- Explora IL Museo Dei Bambini Di Roma in Rome, Italy
- MUBA Museo dei Bambini di Milano in Milano, Italy
- War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- The Women’s History Museum, Aarhus, Denmark
- Toys’ Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania
Central and South America
- Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City, Mexico
Know of a museum we should add to this list? E-mail us!
Podcasts
There are many podcasts streaming today. We’ve rounded up podcasts that we absolutely love—either as series or specific episodes. If you know of one we should add, send it through.
How to Be a Girl
Marlo Mack is a single Seattle mom raising a transgender daughter, and this podcast explores their mother-daughter relationship, the duo’s life together, and the challenges and successes they face. It’s heartwarming, sometimes funny, and a must-listen for parents everywhere. Listen here.
The Deciding Decade
Run by Pete Buttigieg, this podcast explores the thinkers and doers who are catalyzing action and paving the way for enduring change. They include young girl activists such as Mari Copeny, Marley Dias, and Alexandria Villasenor. Access the podcasts via iHeartRadio.
Teen Screen Feminism
Run by Dr. Athena Bellas of the University of Melbourne, this podcast series explores feminism, popular film and television, and girlhood. We highly recommend checking out two podcasts which featured Junior Girl Emily Chandler:
- Monstrous Girls on the Teen Screen (Oct. 2016) explored representations of girls in horror films; and
- Queer Girls Onscreen: A Conversation with Emily Chandler (June 2016) explored how queer girls are represented in popular media, from tropes and subtext to current developments.
Listen to Teen Screen Feminism on iTunes, or check out the Teen Screen Feminism blog for more information.
Footnoting History
Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge runs this bi-weekly podcast dedicated to overlooked, unknown, and exciting stories from the footnotes of history. Find past episodes and subscribe on iTunes, or visit their website. Her episodes include the stories of:
- 15-year-old Evelyn Nesbit and the Crime of the Century.
- Kate Marsden, who traversed thousands of miles to ameliorate the lot of lepers.
- Sichelgaita of Salerno, who turned the tide of battle at Dyrrachium.
- Mary Buckland, a silent contributor to science and geology.
- A sixth-century Gepid princess.
- A swashbuckling seventeenth-century opera singer.
- Joanna I of Naples, who remains one of the most controversial young women in history.
Radio Diaries
Recounting the extraordinary stories of ordinary life, this podcast invites people to report on their own lives and histories. The series has won every major award in broadcast journalism and has been a mainstay on public radio since 1996. Many of their episodes feature the stories of girls and women. Subscribe on iTunes or visit their website.
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey co-host this podcast series by HowStuffWorks.com, which explores various histories from around the world. Episodes range from ancient queens to episodes from well-known time periods and major cultures in history. Subscribe on iTunes or visit their website.
The History Chicks
Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider produce and narrate hour-long episodes that explore female characters in history, both factual and fictional. They look at the challenges, failures and successes, times, and juicy tidbits about women’s lives while giving listeners avenues to continue exploring on their own. Subscribe on their website.
Girlhood Studies Organizations and Publications
Organizations
- Association for Research in Cultures of Young People
- International Girl Studies Association
- Society for the History of Children and Youth
Publications
- Brown Girls Museum Blog
- Feminist Formations from The Johns Hopkins University
- Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
- Journal of Children and Media