Our CEO, Crystal Patriarche, shared in a blog post last week that She Writes Press chose as its 2016 Passion Project the Girls Write Now anthology, (R)evolution. If you don't know why we're so passionate about this organization, you need only to close your eyes and think back to the time when you first realized that you could express yourself using the written word. Whether you came to writing through poetry, prose, or whether your first love was reading, you undoubtedly remember those tentative first experiences of self-expression.

Some questions float to mind. Were you supported? Did anyone foster your efforts? Did you have people who championed you? Who wanted to read what you'd written, or hear you read aloud? Who told you that your voice mattered? If you did, you are in the minority. Most girls do not have that kind of support, or any kind of champion.

In the video below, author Amy Fusselman delivers a heart-felt speech at a Girls Write Now CHAPTERS 2014 meeting. In her speech she says to the girls:

Your voice matters. Your consciousness, your perception, your feeling, your thoughts matter. Your writing, which is yours and yours alone, is sacred, and worth devoting yourself wholly to.

I personally can't imagine having been given this message as a teenager. For me, high school was when I gave up my childhood love of writing, and lost it for many years after that, because a teacher ripped to shreds an essay I was proud of, a piece of writing that meant something to me but so little to him. It took me years to make my way back, to recognize that I had something to say, and  that writing had been an early love that had been doused.

In Girls Write Now, underserved girls not only have champions in their mentors and the many other support structures the organization offers, but a forum, a voice, a venue, and an avenue to publication through their annual anthology. We are so proud and honored to be publishing this collection of essays in 2016 and supporting our own belief that writing doesn't just change lives, it saves lives. I believe that Girls Write Now is saving lives every day in their lived mission statement that girls' voices matter.

Help us support Girls Write Now and their 2016 effort to double the number of girls they serve. This giving campaign is happening now, and we're asking for She Writers to help by donating before the end of the year. Thank you! And thanks from Girls Write Now.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO GIRLS WRITE NOW: