Girls in the Know Chicago

04/21/2020

Tune in Friday 4/24 at 4:15PM for a GITK Strong Community LIVE session: Coping with COVID. Psychiatrist Melanie McKean, D.O., Ph.D. of St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute will check in with girls and their families, and offer some tips for how to cope during this challenging time.

https://zoom.us/j/98626020381

Can’t make it? We’ll post the recorded session next week!

02/11/2018

Teaching failure is hard, but when you are young and growing to find yourself, it can crush your spirit! Let's teach girls how to be like themselves, and that failure is not the end, but a pathway to another direction. Failure shows us life lessons, hard and difficult as they may be, it teaches us strength and ferocity to keep trying. AND "Like a Girl" we keep trying!

Join Always in our mission to boost girls’ confidence by encouraging girls everywhere to embrace failure as fuel to build confidence & Keep Going ....

02/10/2018

Several inspiring, diverse women to watch in the coming weeks, don't forget to support the women in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Some of these women are as young as 14 years old!

The 2018 Winter Olympics are nearly a month away, and while fans are certainly stoked to see more than two weeks of events including skiing, bobsled, and hockey, it's the 2018 Winter Olympic athletes looking to compete in PyeongChang that make the wh…

02/05/2018

We and our children are living in a very open and digital age, and when we share, are we sharing too much? Facebook profiles, birth date announcements, location and address sharing, pictures shared with hashtags.
This information is enough to create an online profile or create a bank account before your child is even 18. Minors are a perfect target. Please take time to read the article below, it just might be enough when you are in a panic to figure out what you need to do.

https://completeid.com/what-to-do-if-your-childs-identity-is-stolen/

What to do if your child's identity is stolen A Carnegie Mellon CyLab study (source) found that in 2011, over 42,000 minors had their identity stolen before they had even turned 18. Children are the perfect targets because they have a clean, blank credit file, and your 3-year-old is not going to che...

01/19/2018

With the 2018 Winter Olympics next month, I was inspired to share some stories of the great women that embody the sportsmanship of the bobsled team. Nigeria, a country that does not have snow or has never competed in bobsled. This inspiring team has not only great story of how women work together to set goals and overcome boundaries, but work to challenge the norm.

https://sheleadsafrica.org/nigerias-bobsled-team/

Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga are three women who want to put Nigeria down in history as Africa's first bobsled team at the Winter Olympics.

01/18/2018

- This continues to be a trend and will undoubtedly be heard and seen in the media from your daughter. Talking about harassment and assault embodies safety in confidence in girls, by making them aware of boundaries and communicating when they do not feel safe with others people. Instead of talking about what represents, talk about the topic of personal safety, setting boundaries in relationships with friends and adults. Keeping the conversation age and topic appropriate helps your children understand the themes of such important movement.

Sexual harassment and assault are problems we can't ignore—and we need to include the next generation in these tough conversations.

01/17/2018

Do you know what "Sharenting" is?

In today's media presence on facebook, most children have a digital footprint before they are even able to comprehend the use of a computer. Parents between the ages of 18 - 40 often share stories, pictures and information on social media of their children in families. But, "will we get hacked"?

Things to consider when sharing your family and children's data:
1. Consider not posting in realtime.
2. Do not share your location.
3. When you share your children's information like location, birthdate, name and your name...a hacker has enough information to open a bank account. Protect their identity and yours.
4. Consider privatizing your security on social media sites and who you share this information.

The perils of parenting shared on social media can sometimes go too far, or in too much detail. “Sharenting” is the topic of a new study that might have pare...

01/16/2018

Body shaming continues to be a pathway our media, fashion and beauty in particular adopt. Recently a yound dutch model, Nina Agdal was body shamed by a magazine for not fitting into the sample sizes; she has an athletic and curvy body type. Take this opportunity to share the topic of body image with young girls, as "body image" this needs constant conversation of confidence and health, not a certain size or look.

In a powerful Instagram post, the 25-year-old model revealed that a magazine body-shamed her over her size, and explained how she finally overcame her insecurities.

01/15/2018

Young fifth grader gives her own “dream speech” as part of youth Marin Luther King public speaking contest:

01/10/2018

Do you use Uber to shuttle kids between activities without a parent or adult in the car to accompany them? Some do!

Uber actually has policies in place prohibiting anyone under 18 from having an account and all riders under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Uber drivers may require an ID, and if rider is under 18 or cannot produce the ID, the driver can cancel the ride.

Uber drivers are shuttling kids to school, ballet practice and more, even though it's technically against the car service's rules.

01/06/2018

Are you and the kids cooped up in the house because of the weather? If you can get out and away from the computer and device, do something as a family today! Laser tag, local museums, the Shedd Aquarium or go to a movie. Take some time out to rest from the holidays, as school will be staring soon if it already hasn’t.