Girl Up is an organization in partnership with the United Nations that combats social problems girls face and has a chapter at Lambert. 

Normalized cultural traditions like child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and menstrual stigma have put adolescent girls’ futures in jeopardy. Girl Up travels the world, providing girls support through tools such as education, healthcare, and leadership opportunities. 

This organization has come to Lambert High School with a mission to spread the belief that girls are powerful, and they want to share that with every woman. The Lambert Girl Up co-sponsors, Mrs. Noles and Mrs. Halter, provided insight on the organization’s inclusive and empowering nature. Lambert’s Girl Up chapter has made a prodigious impact at Lambert by painting the girls’ bathrooms with motivational quotes, flowers, and other artwork. They also believe in spreading supportive messages such as body positivity and female empowerment. The Lambert Girl Up chapter has innovative ideas about how they want to support women at the school, so the more people that join, the bigger the impact. More extensive projects can be done to fuel and strengthen girl power. 

“An executive board can only do so much if there are no people to do it for,” Mrs. Halter stated. There is power in numbers, so more support means more effective projects the leaders of Girl Up can do to help girls locally at Lambert and globally.

On a global scale, Girl Up focuses primarily on educating girls’ about the change they are capable of making. Mrs. Halter expanded on that idea by noting that Girl Up provides girls in developing countries with feminine hygiene products, school supplies, and tools they can’t obtain otherwise. Unfortunately, suicide is the number one cause of death among girls aged 15-19 as issues such as child marriage and the degradation of women can conflict with helping girls achieve a future of freedom and independence, promoting girl power. The Girl Up organization strives to show girls how to find a voice for themselves- to speak up against issues that discourage them from education and equality. When a girl realizes her worth, she becomes unstoppable. Girl Up strives for all girls to emulate this message by communicating for themselves. 

“Rather than having someone advocate for you, advocate for yourself,” Mrs. Halter said.

Mrs. Noles mentioned that they hope to partner up with HOSA to provide feminine products to girls in need, which is a remarkable future goal. 10-20% of school days are missed by girls without access to menstrual products, and in India, 1 in 5 girls end up dropping out of school due to shame from their male classmates and no access to these products. Girl Up is thankfully providing feminine products to women so that their periods don’t stop them from receiving an education. In addition, Girl Up hosts an annual leadership summit that the Lambert Chapter would like to continue attending. It is located primarily in Emory University in Atlanta. This event allows people in the club to gather new ideas for projects by interacting with other clubs. 

Girl Up is an exceptional organization providing hope and advocacy to girls all over the world. Lambert’s Girl Up chapter is a space for girl power to strengthen and to help other girls.