Spring 2025
Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities
The Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Journey is perfect for mentees and mentors who are looking to turn their passion for storytelling, content creation, or journalism into a career. Through a dynamic online course, mentoring sessions, and live networking events, you will explore various career paths available to writers today, learn practical skills to help you succeed, and discover how to build a sustainable career that aligns with your interests and strengths. Discover career paths in finance, technology, corporate communications, publishing and more!
Girls Write Now Collaboratory
This Journey is Closed, but You Can Apply for a Fall 2026 Journey Now!
Learning Objectives
Apply to Join
Deadline: January 15, 2025
As a mentee or mentor in the Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Journey, you’ll have access to an online course designed to help you learn skills to bring into interviews and networking situations. You’ll be paired with a mentee or mentor for one full cycle, and you’ll meet with them at least once each month. You’ll attend at least one community engagement experience a month and are encouraged to attend monthly Career Chats in which you will meet with professionals from a variety of industries.
- Cycle(s) Spring 2025
- Time 3 hours per month
- Areas of Focus Career Development, Networking
- Requirement Attend at least one Career Chat per month
- Available Spots Per Cycle 20
Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Course
Through a combination of lectures, industry insights, practical exercises, and interviews with professionals in non-traditional writing fields, learn how to apply your writing skills to a variety of emerging and unconventional careers. You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of how to adapt your writing style for different mediums, develop a tailored portfolio, and market yourself in industries you might not have thought were open to writers.
Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Mentoring
Mentees and mentors in the Careers for Creatives Journey will be matched for one cycle. Pairs will meet for at least one hour-long session each month.
Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Community Experiences
Mentees and mentors in the Careers for Creatives Journey must attend at least one Community Experience per month. They are encouraged to attend the following monthly Career Chats:
- March 11, 2025: 4:45-6 pm ET
- April 8, 2025: 4:45-6 pm ET
- May 6, 2025: 4:45-6 pm ET
Career 360 Adventure
The Careers for Creatives: Unexpected Opportunities Journey is a part of the Career 360 Adventure.
Journeys in the Career 360 Adventure focus on finding and keeping employment that fuels and inspires. It is perfect for mentees and mentors who are looking for a new job or want to make the most of their current role.
Find Your Journey
Find Your Journey
Everything Is a Story: Nonfiction that Reads like Fiction (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, mentees and mentors will explore the ways in which creative storytelling techniques can be applied to nonfiction writing of all kinds, from memoir and personal essay to op-ed and how-to articles. We will dive into what makes a story—from structural archetypes to writing that flows—and learn how to harness the power of story to make nonfiction compelling and transformative.
Wild Ideas: Nature, Science & Creativity (Fall 2026)
Created in honor of Helen Ghiradella, the biologist who uncovered the hidden architecture of butterfly wings, this Journey invites you, mentor and mentee, to explore the natural world through the complementary lenses of scientific inquiry and creative expression. Through close observation, research, and reflection, you'll investigate the forms, patterns, and processes found in nature, then build an original project—writing, visual art, media, performance, music, or a form of your own choosing—that celebrates where these disciplines meet. Along the way, you'll sharpen your powers of observation, stretch your interdisciplinary thinking, and develop the ability to translate scientific understanding into meaningful art.
Hooked on Fiction: Story Structures for Plotters, Pantsers, & Plantsers (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, we’ll tackle one of the most daunting parts of novel writing: the opening chapter. Participants will explore how to hook readers while establishing character, setting, and stakes—asking big questions like where to begin and how to share key details without overload.
Building Buzz: Publicity in the Publishing Industry (Fall 2026)
This Journey explores how social media—especially TikTok’s BookTok community—has transformed the publishing industry.
The Power of Punchlines: Stand-Up Comedy for Change (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, mentors and mentees will explore the power of comedy as a tool for social change, with a special focus on stand-up comedy. From climate change and economic inequality to LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and mental health, participants will learn how to write and perform material that blends humor with meaningful social critique.
Civil Discourse: Connection & Persuasion (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, you—mentor and mentee—will build essential skills in public speaking, argumentation, and critical thinking. Through hands-on activities and lively discussion, you'll learn to craft persuasive speeches, construct well-reasoned arguments, and present your ideas with confidence. You'll explore what makes communication land, sharpen your thinking under pressure, and practice responding to perspectives unlike your own in a structured setting. By the end, you'll be able to make your case clearly, engage in dialogue that goes somewhere, and carry these skills into academic, professional, and civic life.
Independent Study (Fall 2026)
Create your own experience with our Independent Study Journey. Mentors and mentees meet as a pair, attend events of interest, and use coursework to help plan creative projects and meet your goals.
Lead Community Change (Fall 2026)
Lead Community Change is a dynamic two-cycle Journey that harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to drive social impact. Aspiring young leaders and activists will unleash their creativity to develop and implement innovative community-based social activism projects, supported by Girls Write Now’s rich storytelling resources.
Dark Tales: A Horror Book Club (Fall 2026)
Step into the shadows of horror and discover what makes a story truly unsettling. Across three monthly book club meetings, you—mentor and mentee—will dig into close readings and lively discussion of selected works, examining how authors build suspense, conjure atmosphere, evoke fear, and use the genre to probe deeper social, psychological, and cultural questions. Together you'll unpack narrative technique, character development, and the many shapes the genre can take. By summer's end, you'll have a richer appreciation for horror, sharper critical instincts as readers, and a store of inspiration and craft to carry into your own writing. Required books this cycle: Dark Is When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce, The Body by Bethany C. Morrow, and I'll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel.
Explore Tour (Fall 2026)
Explore all of the creative and storytelling pathways Girls Write Now has to offer through a multimedia, multi-genre experience that includes mini courses, exploratory studios, and one-to-one pair sessions.
