By Nikki Weiner (Founder of Building Bold)
A recent survey conducted by the Dove Self-Esteem Fund found that 70% of girls age 8–17 believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school, and relationships with family and friends.
Why are so many girls feeling inadequate? It’s time that women take a deeper look within themselves in order to empower the next generation of women. I had the chance to discuss this issue with Melody Pourmoradi, Life and Wellness Coach and Founder of the GiRLiFE Empowerment Workshop Series. During the transition from girlhood to womanhood, Melody remembers feeling an immense amount of fear. I could hardly contain my own experiences when I heard Melody utter the word “fear.” Memories of panic attacks, nightmares, and anxiety as a little girl flooded my mind. In that moment, our shared experience of fear brought us together.
GiRLiFE was conceived in 2014 with the notion that, in order to address fear, girls need to learn how to nourish their minds and bodies. “When we [are] young girls, we start out so authentically who we are,” explains Melody. “Something happens during adolescence and we stop tuning in and start tuning out.” Sound familiar? That inevitable turning outward. That shift of identify. That transition from who we are born to be into who the world tells us to be. Maintaining authenticity during this transition is at the core of GiRLiFE.
The world is ever evolving. It’s not the same as when Melody or I were growing up. We live in a digital age with high expectations of how we portray ourselves on social media. The contradicting messages girls receive about authenticity leads to a myriad of self-esteem setbacks. GiRLiFE seeks to address these issues through offering women globally the educational resources to empower girls in their communities. GiRLiFE provides women the opportunity to “use their own experiences, their wounds, scars, and difficult challenges in their lives, and turn them into something positive…to start a business in a box,” explains Melody.
Now more than ever, there is a need for women to link hands and empower the world one girl at a time. Through the GiRLiFE Empowerment Workshop Series, Melody adds, “Women who have never done this before are finding their own wings and becoming empowered first, and then teaching what they most need to learn.”
For more about GiRLiFE, visit www.lifeevolutionscoaching.com/mediakit
Originally published at medium.com