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| Being a girl is tough. You have to deal with serious problems every day like sexual harassment, school violence, substance abuse, body image, and the pressure to have sex. The messages you see glamorizing sex, smoking, alcohol, and thinness, and the pressure you may feel from your peers to experiment with risky behavior don't help you when you're trying to make decisions about how to live your life. With all of the decisions facing you, you probably feel you need someone to talk to. But who? Does your school address the issues you care about? Are there adults in your life that care? And do other girls really experience the same problems? That's what a Sister-to-Sister Summit is all about. At a summit, you can talk about your fears, frustrations, dreams, and ideas with other girls. Talking with other girls will help you identify your concerns, and you can then decide what changes you want to make. Your thoughts will be translated into a platform for action that will spark change in your schools and communities. And you will not only share ideas with other girls, but there will be adults at the summit who will also listen to you and help you implement the platform for action. What does a Sister-to-Sister Summit look like? A typical summit will be planned by girls with assistance from caring adults from AAUW and other organizations. On the day of the summit, 50-100 girls, aged 12-16, from a town, county, or state will gather to discuss issues of importance to them--issues they have chosen. By the end of the day, the girls will have constructed a platform for action that will help them overcome the barriers they face. The first summit took place in Philadelphia on November 15, 1997. The girls who attended chose to talk about school violence, early sexual activity, and body image. Here's what they had to say about their summit: "I liked the fact that we can speak our mind and no one is there to make fun of us or say anything negative." "Hopefully, we at least got some things out in the open. I know we didn't solve all the problems that face us today, but we were able to feel the unity of sisterhood." "The thing I liked best about the summit was that all the topics were things that we face every day." "It felt good to know I wasn't the only person with the same problems." "I liked the openness and confidentiality of the chat groups. It made it easy to talk about all kinds of issues." "I think girls got a better understanding of each other. They got to view different ideas and it makes you look at issues differently." If you want to find out more about Sister-to-Sister Summits, please send a message to sister@mail.aauw.org.
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