Gender Identity at Girls Write Now
Girls Write Now remains committed to centering, supporting, and amplifying voices of those who have been historically disempowered due to their gender and gender identity. Anchored in intersectional feminism and queer history, we reaffirm our charge to create space for writing, mentoring, community, resources, and opportunities for the breadth of marginalized gender identities that exist within our community. Girls Write Now was founded to protect and promote their rights for freedom and autonomy of mind and body—especially their stories, long-restricted and silenced around the world.
Girls Write Now will continue to expand our thinking beyond the binary to provide a 360 degree perspective of gender in all of our programs, services, media, and institutional structures, practices, and policies. Working closely with our community—diverse in every sense across the lines of gender, as well as age, race, class, religion, geography, and beyond—Girls Write Now opens up new possibilities for all those marginalized by their gender to be heard, understood, accepted, and positioned to lead change.
Please join us…
Beyond the Binary is an intimate collection of original multi-genre, multimedia pieces by our community that interrogate and blur the traditional boundaries of gender. Girls Write Now celebrates the young women and gender-expansive writers who make up our community—we are all the richer for their powerful words and voices.
Read testimonials below; join our Community Conversations where together we build a stronger culture of compassion, inclusion, and understanding by discussing a range of necessary topics; and contact us with your questions, suggestions, and testimonials so we can represent the community as fully as possible.
The Collaboratory is Girls Write Now’s home for writing, mentoring, and community in all of its forms. As a mentor, mentee, or member in the Collaboratory, you have direct access to our unique experiences, resources, and opportunities that are created with a 360 degree perspective on gender. If you are not a part of a group disempowered due to gender, please join as a member—we look forward to partnering with you.
“IVDEIB” is Girls Write Now’s DEIB advisory body: Intersectional Voices in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. The diverse perspectives of IVDEIB inform and make recommendations to leadership on gender-related issues, as well as other important topics, that impact our community. If you are interested in joining this leadership group, please complete the form.
A Few of Our Community Members on Gender Identity
We invite you to lend your perspective as we create our 360 degree community view of gender.
“The structure of Girls Write Now as a program serves the individual in a very holistic manner, and I think that that really sets it apart from almost every other institution—period. I know that for me as an individual, it has allowed me to feel accepted completely and empowered as I am. I think that by having a structure that is so inclusive Girls Write Now empowers any and every person to be fully themselves.”
—m.c. (they/them)
Girls wRite now mentee
“I want to contribute to the change I wish to see in the world, but as a trans woman in Alabama, it can be challenging to see myself as part of that future. Through Girls Write Now, I feel empowered to write my story genuinely and to find strength in the adversity I experience. It’s my goal to become the person I wish I could have seen when I was younger: a strong leader whose gender identity does not dissuade them from the work they can achieve and the difference they can make. I want to be true to myself while not letting people use my identity as a way to discredit me or label my inclusion on projects as a political decision. I will be part of the change.”
—A.S. (she/her)
girls write now mentee
“I understand that girls and women become their best with mentorship and support from other women or girls. I want girls to understand that writing and sharing their stories empower them and those who come behind them.”
—J.K. (she/her)
Teaching artist