Shout out to some of the awesome Girls for Gender Equity...Meghan, Tulani, Nefertiti, Bria, Serne, Shantiqua, Shekeira, me. Up front: Jody Ann, Charicka, Shurayer and Kimberly.

Friday was a good day. Scratch that. Friday was a GREAT day! In fact, it was one of the best days I’ve had in a really long time. Why? Three letters…GGE. Girls for Gender Equity. They’re pro-girl, anti-gender-based violence, all-activist and generally awesome.

Ok, so knowing what they do is one thing…but meeting some of the girls in person…now that’s something else.

When I headed to the GGE offices in Brooklyn to meet with a group of about 10 high-school aged girls to talk about the magazine, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They probably didn’t, either. So, we started off the afternoon easy with introductions and some Q&A. Most of them were about 17 and went to schools from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Personalities all, some on two, others on ten. Lol.

After the quiet came the questions, about me and about the magazine— they wanted to know where I went to school,  where I live, how I got started, where I found the articles, how sales went, if I had worked with anyone else, if I wanted to work with anyone else, etc.

And after the questions, and some very real answers, came a level of comfort. They started reading the magazine and giving me feedback. Khalya’s triumph over teen pregnancy story was a fav. The dating abuse article got them fired up.  Hydeia’s article about living with HIV touched some. A few recognized Lo Anderson from a poetry reading and Priscilla “P.Star” Diaz from The Electric Company. We talked about things in the stories we related to and those we couldn’t understand. We laughed. We shared and we laughed some more.

Planning big big things...

The raw energy in that room was unlike anything I’ve ever seen and so we built on that and started planning. What exactly I won’t say just yet, but trust me when I say it’ll be well worth the wait.

During the Q & A Shantiqua, asked me a question that stuck with me long after I answered it. She wanted to know, “WHY do you do this?”

At the time, I explained it as best I could—because creating a magazine has been a dream of mine since I was teen, because it was exciting work, because I thought it mattered, etc. But after spending a few hours with them, the best answer I had, was that I did it for moments like those and for girls like them.

I hope they got it (or got something out of it) because I know I did. And to quote Tulani and Shantiqua, I left that evening feeling very motivated and “blessed”….”yeeeeeeessssss!”