“Girl Power” has become a very condescending word that doesn’t hold the message it used to. People see this phrase as a joke now. I’ll admit that I did too until I recently had the opportunity to see what girl power really means.

Last month I took a week off of school to be a high school leader to 6th graders at a local middle school as they spent a few days and nights at a camp. Throughout the week, other leaders and I were assigned certain cabins to control and manage during downtime.

I was put in the smaller girl cabin with two other leaders and about 15 girls. The girls got to pick who they bunked with so it was safe to say they were all besties.

While I would be getting dressed or getting ready for bed, I liked to watch the girls have fun playing weird games they made up or talking about boys they liked, but what I loved the most was seeing how much they were there for one another.

The moment that absolutely melted my heart was when these two best friends were waiting in line for a bathroom stall to be open so they could change. One of the stalls had a broken lock, so when one friend went in, the other stood there and held the door for her until she was done.

No questions asked.

No hesitation.

It was just a reflex for her to help her friend.

The roles then changed when she was done and then held the door for her friend. This was a very powerful thing for me to see because it proved to me that girl power is and always will be a thing. We support one another from a young age and prove that we are stronger together.

These girls showed so much love for one another that week and truly made me believe that we should reclaim girl power for what it really means.

One girl brought some hair tinsel with her and offered it to every single girl in the cabin, including me and the other high school leaders. She spent so much time putting this tinsel in everyone’s hair and never even complained when she ran out of time to get ready. All she cared about was making everyone happy, and it worked.

It really doesn’t stop there, though. These girls built such a strong community of love in just one week that I have never seen before. They were all so kind and uplifting to one another and this group of girls alone made me so confident that this generation of young women will turn out amazing because they truly enjoy uplifting and supporting each other.

Girl power isn’t a corny or useless phrase, it truly is a powerful thing.
I learned a lot from these young girls and I thank them for teaching me what girl power is and should look like. These girls were beautiful inside and out and I hope they never change.

Girl power is alive and looking well, we just need to rewrite what we think it means.