The Southern Girls Project

We are a partnership of journalists, organizations and creative talent across the South listening to girls tell us what it's like to be a Southern girl in 2016.

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Friday Feelings: Find joy in your world

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Friday Feelings: Take charge of your own happiness

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FRIDAY FEELINGS: 

Focus on your foundation-  Hannah Cowart   

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Television could be used as a tool to shape confidence and teach girls of color how to navigate the world. Instead, it serves as another reminder of the exclusion that women of color experience daily.

Read more: “ To a Latina like me, representation in the media isn't just important. It's everything”

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NOLA.com held its first #SouthernGirlsCookoff with three girls who are extraordinarily talented chefs. Each of the girls was required to create a holiday side dish with a Louisiana twist in under 45 minutes, using no more than $30 in ingredients. The judges chose Chef Emma Phillipus’ creole brussel sprouts with bacon, pine nuts, Craisins and tasso as the winning dish. Kid Chef Eliana, who won Food Network’s “Chopped Teen Tournament” was the main hostess of the event. 

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November 14, 1960

This is a photo of Gail Etienne. She was one of the McDonogh Three: three first graders to integrate McDonogh No. 19 elementary school in New Orleans on the same day Ruby Bridges started her first day at William Frantz Elementary.

Read more about the "McDonogh Three" in this archived article from NOLA.com

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Today in History: November 14, 1960

Ruby Bridges became the public face of desegregation when she started her first day of school at William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Take a look back at that day and the desegregation of more schools in New Orleans at Nola.com  

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Hillary Clinton spoke directly to girls and young women in her concession speech on Wednesday. 

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Tell us on Instagram.

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Women all over the nation marked today’s historical election day sporting pins, pearls, and of course, pantsuits. 

At the Southern Girls Project, we asked women who currently live (or have lived) in the South to send pictures of what they wore to the polls. 

See more Election Day photos on the Southern Girls Project Instagram. 

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Today is the United Nations’ International Day of the Girl. In 2011, the UN General Assembly declared Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl, with the mission to recognize girls and the unique challenges they face around the world.

The Southern Girls Project is committed to amplifying the voices of girls who will inherit the South. In honor of International Day of the Girl, read about  10 girls we’ve met so far along the way.

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Meet 14-year-old Alexis Lavarine from Kenner,  Louisiana. She has her sights set on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team.

Lavarine has been training since she was seven years old. And she’s been in a position to  become one of the top female boxer contenders in Louisiana since she was nine.

“Some people don’t believe in women (boxing) just because we’re girls,” she said. “We’ve had that at several gyms, people don’t want me to do it. But I’m not going to let that bother me. I believe in myself and that I can do it.”

Read the full story at Nola.com. 

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Thirteen-year-old Gabby Womble is from Metairie, Louisiana. She says Southern girls like her have learned to be strong while facing adversity like growing up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

And they know how to bring joy to others – like during Mardi Gras celebrations. “I love how we’re always so happy and we always try to make everyone else equally as happy.

The Southern Girls Project sat down with Gabby to talk about what it’s like to grow up as a girl in the South today. This is a photo essay from the “Girls in Their Rooms” series. 

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The deck is stacked against girls in the juvenile justice system. In fact, the system has a long history of judging girls differently from boys. And once a girl is in the system, she can drawn in over and over again for minor probation violations.

Every year, nearly 50,000 adolescent girls enter the juvenile courts because of a system that criminalizes low-level offenses. That system is biased against girls.

Over the last 30 years, the percentage of girls in the juvenile justice system has dramatically increased. And the increase isn’t because girls are more criminal. It’s because more girls are being punished as criminals for things like breaking curfew or running away.

These low-level infractions can also range from skipping school to talking back to parents or guardians. These are known as “status offenses,” so named because a person’s status as a minor, a person under the age of 18. Their age is the only factor that makes these actions illegal.

More than half of the states in the U.S. detain juveniles for minor status offenses. Seven of those states are in the South.

Read the full story on Mother Jones.

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Given the anxieties that powerful women provoke, it’s not surprising that both men and women judge them more harshly than they judge powerful men.

Peter Beinart writes in Fear of a Female President

(Illustration credit: Edmon de Haro; Alex Wong / Getty)

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As part of the Southern Girls Project, we’re meeting with girls around the South to talk about how their rooms are expressions of their individuality. Our photo series puts the spotlight on girls as they tell their stories and talk about the things they hold dear.

Meet Gabby Womble from Metairie, Louisiana. She’s in eighth grade at Mount Carmel Academy. She’s also a gymnast, an avid reader, and a Girl Scout.

With three brothers, she says her room is a place to escape “the craziness” for a bit.

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Another Southern girl is taking over the AL.com Snapchat account this week.

Tomorrow, September 20, follow along as Keilee Terry of the Bringing Smart Back youtube channel and winner of our #SouthernGirlsTBH Instagram  video contest, takes over the Al.com Snapchat account.

She’ll be giving us a glimpse into her life as  #GIRLBOSS and owner of her own princess party company in Decatur, Alabama. 

Snapchat name: Aldotcom