Girl. Strong.

Girl. Strong. Girl. Strong. is a not-for-profit organization focused on empowering young girls with essential life skills to become limitless women!

Congratulations, Christina Varga on stepping into the role of Board Chair for Girl.Strong.!We are incredibly excited to ...
09/01/2026

Congratulations, Christina Varga on stepping into the role of Board Chair for Girl.Strong.!

We are incredibly excited to have you take on this leadership role. Your experience, perspective, and commitment to empowering young people will be such an asset as Girl.Strong. continues to grow and expand its impact.

We’re looking forward to working alongside you and seeing all that we can accomplish together in this next chapter.

Congratulations again, Christina — so well deserved! 👏

Yollanda Zhang
Renata Ortega

We're excited to welcome two exceptional leaders to the Girl. Strong. Board of Directors!Please join us in welcoming Ale...
07/31/2026

We're excited to welcome two exceptional leaders to the Girl. Strong. Board of Directors!

Please join us in welcoming Alessandra Saccal as our Director of Communications & Secretary and Dr. Lawrence Loh as our Treasurer.

Alessandra is an award-winning business communicator with more than 25 years of experience leading corporate communications and public relations across corporate and agency environments. Her expertise spans reputation and crisis management, employee engagement, change management, and strategic communications. Throughout her career, she has built meaningful community connections through public relations, cause marketing, and corporate giving initiatives. A passionate advocate for girls and young women, Alessandra believes that confidence, self-esteem, and strong support networks create opportunities for lifelong success. We are thrilled to have her communications leadership helping to amplify Girl. Strong.'s mission.

Lawrence is a physician leader, storyteller, and proud girl dad whose leadership has had a profound impact on public health in Canada. While many know him for guiding Canada's hardest-hit region through the COVID-19 pandemic, Lawrence says his most important role is raising and empowering his two daughters alongside his wife. His passion for advancing health equity, breaking down leadership barriers for equity-deserving communities, and challenging stereotypes through storytelling aligns deeply with Girl. Strong.'s vision. As Treasurer, he brings thoughtful leadership, strategic insight, and a steadfast commitment to creating opportunities for girls to thrive.

Together, Alessandra and Lawrence bring a remarkable combination of communications expertise, leadership, advocacy, and heart. Their dedication to empowering girls will strengthen our organization as we continue to build confidence, resilience, and leadership in the next generation.

Welcome to the Girl. Strong. leadership team—we're honoured to have you on this journey with us.

Nonprofit Empowerment GirlsLeadership

Yollanda Zhang
Renata Ortega

We're excited to welcome two exceptional leaders to the Girl. Strong. Board of Directors for the 2026–2028 term!Please j...
07/31/2026

We're excited to welcome two exceptional leaders to the Girl. Strong. Board of Directors for the 2026–2028 term!

Please join us in welcoming Alessandra Saccal as our Director of Communications & Secretary and Dr. Lawrence Loh as our Treasurer.

Alessandra is an award-winning business communicator with more than 25 years of experience leading corporate communications and public relations across corporate and agency environments. Her expertise spans reputation and crisis management, employee engagement, change management, and strategic communications. Throughout her career, she has built meaningful community connections through public relations, cause marketing, and corporate giving initiatives. A passionate advocate for girls and young women, Alessandra believes that confidence, self-esteem, and strong support networks create opportunities for lifelong success. We are thrilled to have her communications leadership helping to amplify Girl. Strong.'s mission.

Lawrence is a physician leader, storyteller, and proud girl dad whose leadership has had a profound impact on public health in Canada. While many know him for guiding Canada's hardest-hit region through the COVID-19 pandemic, Lawrence says his most important role is raising and empowering his two daughters alongside his wife. His passion for advancing health equity, breaking down leadership barriers for equity-deserving communities, and challenging stereotypes through storytelling aligns deeply with Girl. Strong.'s vision. As Treasurer, he brings thoughtful leadership, strategic insight, and a steadfast commitment to creating opportunities for girls to thrive.

Together, Alessandra and Lawrence bring a remarkable combination of communications expertise, leadership, advocacy, and heart. Their dedication to empowering girls will strengthen our organization as we continue to build confidence, resilience, and leadership in the next generation.

Welcome to the Girl. Strong. leadership team—we're honoured to have you on this journey with us.



Yollanda Zhang
Renata Donegani

We currently have openings on our Board of Directors and are looking for the right people to step in.Girl.Strong. is see...
05/21/2026

We currently have openings on our Board of Directors and are looking for the right people to step in.

Girl.Strong. is seeking individuals who want to actively contribute, lead, and create impact as part of a working board.

Our mission is to empower girls with the confidence, emotional resilience, and life skills they need to thrive. This is an opportunity to take on a meaningful leadership role and help guide the organization’s continued impact in the community.

We are currently seeking individuals for the following roles:
• Board Chair (Leadership & Accountability)
• Treasurer (Financial Stewardship)
• Director of Communications (Visibility & Outreach)

This opportunity is ideal for someone who:
✔ Wants to use their skills for meaningful impact
✔ Is excited about hands-on contribution in a mission-driven organization
✔ Believes in mental health, youth empowerment, and community-based work
✔ Values collaboration, accountability, and purpose-driven leadership
As a working board, our directors contribute both strategically and operationally—supporting initiatives, strengthening systems, and helping sustain and evolve our impact.

If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved that is intentional, impactful, and aligned with your values, we’d love to connect.

📩 Interested or want to learn more? Message us directly or email us at [email protected]

Let’s continue building something meaningful—together.


Yollanda Zhang
Renata Donegani

02/24/2026

💜 That’s a wrap on! 💜 was grateful to have the opportunity to deliver The Power Within body-confidence and self-esteem program for the last two years!

This past weekend, along with our Founder , we proudly presented our last cohort with their graduation certificates.

We will miss them and all of our previous participants who are creative, funny, kind, and beautiful inside and out.

Thank you to our participants for their energy and presence, parents for recognizing the importance of building skills to encourage body-confidence and self-esteem, and our amazing teachers and youth leaders that care deeply about helping youth live limitless lives.🥹

The Power Within was a fully-funded program in partnership with , with support from Women and Gender Equality Canada and Dove Self-Esteem Project, all of which made this program accessible, with no direct cost to parents. Funding for this program has ended.

02/02/2026

Over the past two years, Girl. Strong. has reached 1,000+ girls, educators, therapists, parents, and community leaders through our partnership with ’s The Power Within Program. It has been an honour and privilege to support youth and teens in building body confidence, self-esteem, and inner resilience.

This video captures highlights from the program in action, centring the voices of students alongside the educators and youth leaders who helped create safe, empowering spaces for learning and growth.

Girl. Strong. was proud to serve as a community partner in the delivery of this powerful program, which was developed by in partnership with the ’s Self-Esteem Project, with funding from the Government of Canada through Women and Gender Equality Canada ().

We are deeply grateful to the Girl. Strong. team, including our executive director, , lead teachers and , and youth leaders .gad and , whose dedication and care were integral to bringing this program to life. We also extend our sincere thanks to our incredible guest speakers, , , , and .weisberg who generously shared their expertise with participants.🙏

A special thank you to for commissioning this video and to Dennis and his team at for thoughtfully capturing the heart of this work through multiple on-location shoots and a beautifully produced final video.

As this funding cycle and chapter comes to a close, we reflect with pride and gratitude on the impact made and on the collective effort that made it possible.💜

💪Every girl deserves to know her power.

We’re proud to share a meaningful update from our founder, .With nearly 20 years in education, including 7 as a high sch...
01/15/2026

We’re proud to share a meaningful update from our founder, .

With nearly 20 years in education, including 7 as a high school math and physics teacher, Yollanda has worked closely with teens and parents across schools, community programs, and nonprofit spaces. That experience, combined with her background as an engineer, Mandarin school founder, coach, author, and mental health advocate, has shaped her deep understanding of the pressures young people and families face today.

Yollanda has now stepped into a new chapter as a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and practicum student, continuing her lifelong commitment to supporting youth and families. Her clinical work focuses on teens and parents, particularly within the Asian diaspora and culturally diverse communities, navigating identity, family expectations, and emotional wellbeing.

She is currently welcoming a limited number of clients for virtual therapy sessions in English and Mandarin, with some reduced-cost spots available during this supervised training period.

We’re grateful to see our founder continue this work with the same care, integrity, and heart that has always been at the centre of Girl. Strong. 💜

🔗Link to book a complimentary session in QR code and bio.

01/10/2026

We’re all set for The Power Within launch THIS Sunday, Jan. 11th!! 🥳🤩

It’s our fourth and final cohort of this amazing program offered at no cost to parents in partnership with . There are still 3 spots left if you’re interested in helping your daughter build and . 💜

👉Registration link in bio 🔗

Looking forward to meeting all the girls in 2 days! 🤩

This Sunday, Jan. 11th is the last chance to join The Power Within program for free.💪According to research, by age 13, 8...
01/06/2026

This Sunday, Jan. 11th is the last chance to join The Power Within program for free.💪

According to research, by age 13, 80% of the girls will distort their image online using filters or other tool to appear more “attractive” (Dove’s Self-Esteem Project).

Do you have a girl ages 10-14 in your life that you care about? They will definitely benefit from The Power Within program designed by and ’s Self-Esteem Project on building and .

It will be delivered by our wonderful team—presenter: and youth leader: .gad. 💜

👉Space is limited. Link to register below:

https://tr.ee/7uqBdXyNCY

Feel free to dm us if you have any questions.

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3219 Yonge St, 2nd Floor
Toronto, ON
M4N 2L3

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