This Will be the Course Every Teenage Girl Needs

As part of our girls course project, Hannah Gardner writes about becoming our freelance co-trainer! We shared the news about securing funding for that HERE. We introduced Hannah Shead, our new project manager for the course HERE.

When I heard the news that Own My Life was rolling out a pilot for a girls’ course, I was over the moon. And I remember thinking, ‘God I wish this course existed when I was in school’.

School is an insane time in life. It’s been 10 years since I left school, and I still look back and shudder on specific memories. It’s not that anything particularly bad happened to me, I was just constantly filled with angst… and the fear of what every single person thought of me.

Have I rolled up my skirt to the right length so that it’s short enough that I look cool, but not short to the point of looking skimpy? Does my hair look okay? How much should I participate in class so that I’m not labelled dumb or worse, a nerd? What if I get my period today and it leaks on the back of my skirt and the boys tell me I’m gross? What if the boy I like finds out that I like him and I’m publicly shamed?

Oh, what a horrible time in life (while equally glorious and lovely at times too)! It’s funny looking back to "high school" me. I was a completely different person back then; I really had no idea who I was or who I wanted to be. It’s crazy to me now that I wouldn’t have called myself a feminist (there was no way I was letting the boys label me as an annoying, aggressive feminist).

During adolescence, you’re figuring out who you are, what you want in life and what you stand for. It’s hard to do that, though, when you’re trying to fit in (yes, I would have absolutely jumped off a cliff if that’s what all my friends were doing). Add media and social media into the mix, alongside the physical and emotional changes puberty brings, and it’s an absolute minefield.

Magazines, TV, social media (you name it) spew out unrealistic ideals not only about how we should look, but also about how we should perform as women, ultimately reinforcing deeply entrenched patriarchal structures, systems and ideologies. And from what I’ve heard and read, youth culture hasn’t changed too much from when I was in school.

The rise of the 'chill girl’ trope has emerged amongst young people (The Guardian; Refinery29). Chill girls don’t ask for much, they don’t call out misogynistic comments or problematic behaviour on dates, they don’t mind their boyfriends flirting with other girls; they’re chill, they don’t cause a fuss. Being a chill girl spares you of labels like ‘crazy’ or ‘too much’, or ‘aggressive feminist’. Moulding myself into a chill girl is exactly what I would be doing if I was back in school today.

The arrival of Inspired to…Own My Life brings a blazing beam of light into the dark, hazy minefield that is being a girl within a patriarchal world. Through helping girls to see clearly the culture that surrounds us, how to safely use social media, what healthy relationships look like and the choices that are available to us, the course empowers young women to grab a hold of their agency, and, of course I’m going to say it, take ownership of their lives.

What an honour it is to be part of such a force for positive change! I am absolutely thrilled to join the team as a freelance co-trainer, supporting amazing facilitators to deliver the Inspired course to girls.

✨ Join our mailing list to stay updated on our development of the Inspired course for girls.

✨ If you need resources sooner, why not learn about the DAY Programme, a preventative resource for wokring with young people, created by Own My Life founder Natalie Collins.