From Girls Write Blog: GWN Intern Emma Shakarshy recounts the run-up to the electrifying Spring Reading at the New School University and reflects on the impact of programs like Girls Write Now:

I joined the Girls Write Now team at the beginning of June and was immediately thrown into the chaos of Spring Reading preparation. After two weeks of photocopying portfolios, putting together graduation bags, stapling programs, and calling girls to confirm details of the reading, I felt like I had a pretty good sense of what the Spring Reading was all about. When I walked into the New School on June 14th for my first real induction into the Girls Write Now community, I was blown away by the brazen confidence of the mentees who dribbled by the sign-in table I was manning for the afternoon.

When given the opportunity to practice with the microphone, many of the girls didn’t reveal an ounce of nervous hesitation. Some of the girls were initially reluctant to take the plunge, but they soon found encouragement in the other mentees. They reticently took the stage and, throughout their brief rehearsal, steadily built their voices and their presence in a room full of enthusiastic, talented girls. Their passion bounced off the walls and hit me full force. I found myself wondering how much the mentees must have grown in the past year if, in the two minute span of their test run, they seemed to have transformed from timid girls to bold women.

It was in this moment, as I peeked my head in the door of the giant auditorium, that I started to understand the true essence of Girls Write Now; Girls Write Now is about amplifying the voices and experiences of teenage girls. It’s about turning the microphone on and edging young women onto the stage for the community to absorb and grow from. It’s intangible, the kind of force that can’t be captured by a website or conveyed through a brightly colored invitation. Until I heard the girls in action, despite being buried in copies of their writing and constantly hearing about them in the office, I wasn’t able to fully understand the sheer intensity of the program.

The audience soon filled the auditorium as the girls took their seats and cleared their throats. Joined by NBC National correspondent Amy Robach and critically acclaimed author Jean Thompson, the girls walked on stage one by one in their Sunday best, tucked their hair behind their ears, and read their work. The audience was silent. Mentees shrugged off their protective skin and allowed strangers to see the inner workings of their hearts and minds. Mentors swelled, inspired by the very girls who they inspired throughout the school year. Parents smiled, sneaking proud peeks at an audience rapt by their daughters’ strong stories.

The girls spoke of the big things: heartbreak, identity, leaving one’s home country, making friends across cultural barriers, the question of the afterlife, the genocide in Darfur. With poignant lines like Amalie Kwassman’s “I have so much noise. I’m on a rampage and it was never my choice but I just had to let me voice” and Brittany Barker’s “A pen is all we need to make these heartless boys revolve”, the girls spoke of the potency of self-expression. In her piece, “Dear Mom,” Dianelis Coronado spoke eloquently of her mother, who has constantly supported Dianelis’s writing despite her inability to speak or understand English. Dianelis, crying herself, left no audience member unmoved when she read, “Maybe one day in the future we’ll sit together and I’ll happily translate this letter to you. Despite all, I love you and thanks for everything. Love, Your Daughter.”

The reading ended with mentor/mentee pair Samantha White and Erica Silberman speaking about the impact of the organization on their lives and the importance of community support in fueling Girls Write Now. As I stood in the back of the dark auditorium preparing myself for the flurry of post-reading activity, I couldn’t help but feel enormously, smile-stretchingly proud to be the newest member of Girls Write Now and to have experienced such a touching testament to the power of creative self-expression.

Girls Write Now still needs your support to make events like the Spring Reading possible. If you want to help keep our girls writing, here’s how.