Community Is Not Extra, It’s Essential for Black Girlhood

Every year we accept new girls into our program and they come with powerful stories of their experiences thus far of walking in this world being a Black girl. These are stories at the intersections of race and gender, geographical areas, family structures, and school experiences. However, one insight I have learned as a previous educator and now a community leader, while structured spaces as classrooms should have characteristics for Black girls to thrive-- being seen, their voices being heard, and their stories being considered and included--there just is not enough time or capacity to guarantee this even in the best of schools.

This is where community-held spaces matter.

When parents tell us, "my daughter has never felt this sense of community before," it says Empowering Her Destiny is doing more than increasing their life skills, college and career readiness, and guiding them through our themes for the year. Rather, there is a counternarrative experience girls are having which is rewiring their thought processes that are the result of years of being unsupported, isolated, or misunderstood.. According to Emmady & Puderbaugh (2023), the brain has the ability to change the way it reacts and thinks, but that is based on new experiences. When Black girls have been unsupported, bullied, and felt isolated, they begin to believe this is what they deserve and this is how the world should work. However, our space exists to challenge this narrative and experience by curating authentic sisterhood and community. Showing Black girls what it feels like to be treated well as their going through girlhood, what support looks like, and how it feels for their way of being a Black girl to be accepted by others is critical in the stages of social development. This was brought out in my study, In Search to Be Seen: A Grounded Theory of Black Girlhood Voiced by Adolescent Black Girls, where Black girls across United States voiced how important social development was to their development.

The results are visible. Girls take more academic risks. They show up more confidently in social spaces. They experience joy, not as an afterthought, but as apart of our community.

This is how self-esteem and confidence are truly built: through repeated, affirming experiences that tell Black girls they are worthy, capable, and deeply valued. We see this transformation month after month, year after year, not because Black girls needed fixing, but because they needed spaces that held them fully.