Spaces for Creative Autonomy Online

If you are interested in critiquing or making suggestions for our project or informing us of any related research teams or activism projects or simply wishing to share comments, you may contact our team at the following email address:

ywlp.ucf.zine@gmail.com

Girls Decide

At UCF Day, the Littles selected a title for the 'zine they will be creating this semester. After 17 suggestions, there was a three-way tie between "Pizza's Yummy," "The Teen Zine," and "Women Wonder."

After a second round of voting, there was a show of seven votes for "The Teen Zine" and a show of five votes for "Women Wonder." Not wanting to compromise, and because of the close numbers, the following title was born:

We look forward to updating you all as we receive submissions from the girls over the next few weeks.

The Creative Autonomy Initiative

Youth leadership is highly undervalued in American society. While it complicates the leadership efforts of adolescents in general, it is especially relevant when considering girls' leadership. With only a few roles models, either "real world" or fictional, of women and/or girls in positions of leadership to look up to, and with their own attempts at leadership so often discouraged or ignored, girls may find it difficult to view themselves as leaders. Apart from its potential long-term effects on the emergence of future women leaders, this also has more immediate short-term effects, including possible struggles with self-esteem, self-confidence in themselves and their work, and other issues of self-image and conduct that may go underdeveloped in girls who are so infrequently encouraged to think critically about, and give voice to, their own experiences and decisions.

As part of working with YWLP, in response to the specific needs we have seen demonstrated by this semester's group of Littles, we have incorporated more engagement in regard to the discussion of bullying to more effectively address this issue which affects all of our girls on a day-to-day basis. We hope to support the girls in exploring ways to respond to bullying (including cyber-bullying) of themselves and others, and possible ways to creatively raise others' awareness of the bullying problem online and offline.

The creation of a 'zine, a Twitter account, a scrapbook, and two videos by the Littles to be posted on a Youtube channel, and an anti-bullying lesson to be conducted on UCF Day will allows the girls to create and have agency in their own spaces and will allow our group to tackle the topic of bullying directly by engaging the Littles to find their own positive leadership influence in their everyday activities and also in technological endeavors.

This 'zine will be wholly developed and executed by the Littles. The only influence E, R, or S will have on the publication is the format in which the submissions will be compiled physically and then scanned and uploaded to a .pdf file available online. The following is a flier that was given to the Littles at the October 12th meeting:

The girls will also decorate a scrapbook to document their progression throughout this semester as an ongoing part of their YWLP experiences. Their contributions to the scrapbook will be completed on UCF Day.

The girls will engage on the internet by claiming spaces for themselves using a Twitter account, as well as a Youtube channel. At the end of each meeting at the middle schools, the Littles will write down anything they are thinking or feeling in 140 characters or less (one sentence) to be posted on the group's Twitter page. The following is a flier given to the Littles at the October 12th meeting:

The two Youtube videos the Littles will make are also to be filmed on UCF Day. They will make one promotional video for YWLP; what would they say to a girl to get her interested in becoming involved with YWLP? They will also shoot an anti-/bullying video. Both projects are subject to their interpretations. The only influence E, R, and S will have on either video is to string the video clips together and then post the completed videos on the Youtube channel.

The complete lesson play for our anti-bullying segment on UCF Day and any further explanation on the subject can be found in this post.

This project is relevant to the Girls Studies movement and the discourses surrounding girls and leadership because it is a project geared directly toward having girls create and develop their own spaces where their voices can be heard and where they can move themselves forward. It is important that these girls understand they are young leaders in their day-to-day lives, and that leadership is not reserved for adults or for those in formal leadership positions. When girls create their own spaces on the internet and with other forms of technology and media, they will have the opportunity to recognize and then utilize the leadership skills which they already possess, and in doing so they will be able to further develop other leadership qualities as their years and experience progress.

Women Leaders: We Were Once Girls

Welcome to the forum for following, discussing, and analyzing our Creative Autonomy Initiative. If you are interested in Women's Studies, Girls Studies, Queer Studies, Gay & Lesbian Studies, Feminism, or the dismantling of any oppressive discriminatory patriarchal system, then this might be of interest to you.

The Creative Autonomy Initiative was developed by E, R, and S: three college-age women currently attending the University of Central Florida. In order to meet the service-learning requirement of our Girls and Leadership course, we decided to work with an organization we were already involved with on our university's campus: the Young Women Leaders Program (or, more affectionately, YWLP). What is service-learning, you ask? And YWLP? Who are E, R, and S? Creative Autono-what? Well, we'll tell you:

Service-learning is a practice employed throughout UCF's disciplines which requires community involvement and reflection in regard to its relation to course content and vice versa in order to enhance their academic experience. In service-learning courses, students are required to complete fifteen hours of what is essentially community service per semester. However, these community service hours are more complex than just volunteering at a local animal shelter or pitching in at the nearby soup kitchen; it is requirement that the service work that an individual is doing is directly related, or can be applied, to what said individual is learning in the classroom. Parallels must be drawn between the course, its texts, and the project through active participation and reflection. In a Theories of Masculinity class, perhaps a service-learning student or group would develop a project involving a nearby chapter of Men Can Stop Rape.

YWLP is sponsored by the Women's Studies department at UCF and is comprised of omwne attending the university acting as mentors (Big Sisters) to participating 7th grade girls from three local public middle schools (Little Sisters), and six Facilitators that prompt discussion and conduct weekly lessons. By pairing Bigs with Littles within larger mentoring groups, this program focuses on encouraging the Littles to learn about their own autonomy, competency, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and desires for their futures. The ultimate goal is to promote in the girls their own potential as leaders. Littles participate for the length of a semester, whereas Bigs may participate as long as they are students at UCF.

Little Sisters are selected by the local public middle schools' administrators, predominantly by the schools' guidance counselors. They are not the girls at the tops of their classes or the popularity lader, nor are they the girls that are constantly struggling in school or with their peers. They are the girls often caught in the middle, sometimes forgotten or neglected in favor of the other two extremes that seem in greater need of enrichment or challenge. These girls exhibit qualities of leadership but may not always have been consistent in channeling them. The girls may not believe that they are leaders or understand all the many forms that leadership can take. Girls are leaders everyday in everything they do. Class presidency, being on cheerleading squad, or qualifying for the school spelling bee are not the only ways to be leaders. All girls are influential and powerful beings. YWLP's goal is help the girls recognize that.

A different lesson is covered at each meeting: one week it may be body image, another week it could be preventing gossip or cyber-bullying. Lessons include group discussion, sister time, and activities that engage the girls up out of their chairs. In these lessons, the Littles demonstrate the leadership skills they already possess and exhibit a positive rise in their self-esteem and participation. There are five weekend activities per semester that are optional: one might be playing Bingo at a local nursing home and another might be a water balloon fight and a picnic at a park. Finally, there is UCF Day: one full Saturday when the Littles come to UCF's campus and get a tour, lunch, participate in craft projects, scavenger hunts, and a lesson or two.

E has been involved with YWLP for three semesters. The first two semesters she was a Big Sister, and this semester she has taken on the role of Facilitator at one of the middle schools. R and S have been involved with YWLP as Big Sisters for two semesters. This project is very near and dear to their hearts, remembering back to how their perceptions of themselves may have been better or their faith in themselves may have been stronger sooner had they had a program like YWLP available to them at the age of thirteen.

There are many ways to support girls and to discuss the subjects of girlhood and girls leadership, this is only one. Our Creative Autonomy Initiative was inspired by every one of our girls, and it was developed in the hopes that they can and will create a better world for themselves than the one we have offered them. A detailed discussion of the components of our project can be found in the next post.

We were once girls. We were powerful, ingenious, and often we had no idea.

They are now girls. They are powerful, ingenious, and they deserve to know.

Girls Lead

This is an academic blog dedicated to documenting the progress and analysis of our service-learning project working in partnership with the Young Women Leaders Program of the University of Central Florida and with the 7th grade girls from three local middle schools who participate in its mentorship. This year-long project is comprised of four aims: to assist the girls in recognizing their own power and leadership skills, to encourage the girls to use their power and leadership skills to create their own spaces online and to exercise their agency within those spaces to elicit a positive impact, to support the girls in forging their own projects by actively engaging with other technological mediums, and assisting the girls in fostering a movement for advocacy against bullying online and off while building a shared-responsibility structure to hold all community members (including themselves) accountable for society's treatment, perceptions, and expectations of girls.