The New BFF Community

Dawn Starkey

Community-based activities increase girls' self-esteem because it builds strong, confident young women. In order to facilitate this, six teenage girls came together for weekly meetings in an all-girls group in an apartment clubhouse located in Medford, Oregon. The project established community and facilitated productive conversations while still empowering girls, allowing them to determine the path of discussions. As a result, the intimate process of forming a group was conducted for participants to network, confide, connect, learn, and support one another. Diverse girls coming from single-parent households in the apartment community openly discussed their thoughts surrounding body image, growing up, bullies, friendships, feelings, perceptions, parents, and fears. The six young women gained friendships among peers in their neighborhood and were able to incorporate this into accomplishing tasks in their daily lives.