A Message from Rhonda
People often ask me why I started GirlSmarts. I can look back now and see that it was a moment of spontaneous combustion.
I had just finished reading Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia and was compelled to DO SOMETHING about the world in which girls were coming of age—especially, since I had an 11-year-old daughter at the time, and I was interacting with many teenage girls at open mic poetry readings in the Corning area.
Rhonda Morton, founder of GirlSmarts
When one of those girls found out that I frequently spent weekends alone retreating from the world to think about life and give free reign to my creative spirit, she asked if she could come some time. That request was like a match on gasoline!
Why not offer a retreat to these girls that would let them get a better grip on who they were and what they wanted? I could provide space, time, and ideas to explore. They could do the rest. I invited five or six girls and they invited a couple others, and we ventured into the unknown together. Their feedback helped me hone some of the exercises I use to this day.
Now, many years, many workshops, and many girls later, I continue to offer GirlSmarts because it feeds my soul just as much as it does the participants'.
It's an honor to work with young women willing to open their hearts and minds to what I have to share. They courageously dive into the sometimes-murky waters of self-discovery. And they take what they learn into the world and into the future.
I stand in awe of their desire to live with intention and their ability to make the world a better place by doing so.