Free to Be

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Personal Growth for Girls, Boys and the Adults Who Love Them! Let's Grow Together!

10/13/2026

Hype Girls 🙌 vs. Mean Girls 🧟‍♀️

We've been talking about BOTH in our middle school group, and the conversations have been SO good! The thing about mean girl behavior is it often hurts the most because it comes from girls we think are our friends. 💔 It's the backhanded compliments. The whispers. The inside jokes meant to exclude. The celebrating you to your face but tearing you down behind your back. The subtle competition disguised as friendship. And sometimes, girls don't even realize they're doing it.

So we've been talking about what it means to be a HYPE GIRL instead. 🙌

✨ A hype girl celebrates your wins, even when she's disappointed about her own.

✨ A hype girl speaks highly of you, even when you're not around.

✨ A hype girl includes rather than excludes.

✨ A hype girl encourages you to take chances instead of making you doubt yourself.

✨ A hype girl doesn't see another girl's success as a threat to her own.

And here's something SUPER important we're teaching: You can feel jealous of someone AND still be a good friend to them. It's not about never having those feelings, it's about what you choose to DO with them. Friendship shouldn't feel like a competition. It should feel like having someone in your corner. 👊

We're not just teaching girls how to recognize mean girl behavior. We're teaching them how to make sure they're not the ones doing it. Be the girl who claps when another girl wins. Even when nobody's watching. 👏

09/14/2026

Trying something new around here. 💛 Once a week, I’m going to look back and share a few little things I’m grateful for. Not the big life-changing stuff, highlight reel stuff but the ordinary stuff that’s really easy to miss when you’re running from one thing to the next.

A good conversation. A ridiculous laugh. A tea session my girls. Something that went right. A moment that made me stop and think, “This feels good.”

Because I’m realizing that a lot of the best parts of my life probably aren’t going to announce themselves as IMPORTANT MOMENTS. They’re just going to happen on some random Tuesday while I’m busy thinking about what needs to happen next. So this is my attempt to notice them. And maybe your reminder to do the same. So what’s one little thing from this past week you’re grateful for? 💛

08/27/2026

We don't expect kids to master math, dance, sports or any other new skill after one lesson. Why would we expect them to master confidence, boundaries or healthy friendships after one conversation? 🤷‍♀️

This is why we meet every week. This why we practice. This is Girl Squad 💛 Groups start next week! Freetobemovement.org/events

08/20/2026

We talk about confidence like it's something we just hand out to girls. (Guilty 🙋‍♀️). But we can tell them till we're blue in the face that they're amazing and they still may not get it (don't stop telling them they're amazing 🥶). But confidence comes from actually doing stuff that makes her nervous.

Trying out for a team. Speaking up when their voice shakes. Walking into a room where she doesn't know anyone. Setting a boundary and even scarier, standing firm in it. And sometimes failing 😬

We can give them the tools and encourage them with all we've got but eventually, they have to do the hard thing. And every time they do, they add more evidence that proves the Negative Nelly in their head wrong. They learn, "I can do hard things. I don't have to be the best. And, I'm actually pretty cool" 😘

08/19/2026

Happy first day of school Northern Colorado!! And anyone else having the day! Show me ALL the first day of school pictures! Seriously, I love them! Post yours in the comments. Here's our 11th and 10th graders ❤️

08/12/2026

On June 1st, I posted about Pride month thinking, "Ok, I'm going to be a better content creator this month!" and then... nothing. So here are some highlights from Free to Be and some personal. I had a wonderful summer at both and am sad that our girls go back to school, BUT am super excited for Girl Squad to start back up! I always spend more time at Free to Be in the summer and I realized that to be more present in this mission I need to actually be more present in this mission. So I'm teaching again this year and can not wait to spend Tuesday evenings with the middle schoolers! Enjoy this last week of summer break and we hope we see you at something here soon!

06/01/2026

Happy Pride Month 🌈

At Free to Be, we believe every child deserves to feel safe, seen, accepted, and celebrated for exactly who they are. We believe love is love.
We are gender affirming. And this month and every month, we proudly support LGBTQ+ youth and families.

Because confidence grows when kids know they belong. When they don’t have to hide parts of themselves and when they’re surrounded by people who say:

🌈 You are welcome here.
🌈 You are loved here.
🌈 You get to be fully, beautifully yourself here.

This is the kind of world I want our girls growing up in.

Happy Pride Month. We’re glad you’re here. 💛

05/19/2026

Sometimes when kids get older, some think they’ve moved past the need for play. But teens still need places to be silly, to laugh until their stomach hurts, to feel safe enough to let their guard down. Because growing up is hard. Friendships get more complicated. Pressure to be someone you're not becomes bigger and self-doubt sneaks in.

But sometimes the best thing for a teen’s nervous system, confidence, and mental health… Is simply being with others who make them feel like themself. These moments matter more than people realize. 💛

05/12/2026

Some of our members took a field trip to the Museum of Art to tour their mask exhibit and it turned into one of those accidental life lessons. Girls learn young to wear masks.

The “I’m fine” mask.
The “I don’t care” mask.
The “I’ll just go along with everyone else” mask.

The mask that keeps them liked, accepted and "safe". Part of the work we do at Free to Be is helping girls slowly realize that they don't have to perform their way into being accepted. They don’t have to shrink, pretend, or become someone else to be worthy of connection. Confidence isn’t pretending to be someone you aren't. It’s simply learning to take the mask off.

05/08/2026

🙌🙌🙌

Address

2105 S College
Fort Collins, CO
80525

Telephone

+19709887118

Website

http://www.freetobemovement.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Free to Be posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Free to Be:

Want your organization to be the top-listed non profit organization in Fort Collins?