Girls Inc. of Durham’s recent partnership with Maybelline New York has helped reach over 100 girls between the ages of 13 – 18 with months of direct impact programs at our after-school program GirlZONE. At our Kickoff event in January 60 girls from across Durham Region joined us, and at our Celebration in June another 60 girls came out to celebrate. Both events were hosted downtown Toronto and highlighted some of our Girls Inc. activities, such as ‘Gmail’, where girls create and send positive messages to each other – that aren’t about their appearance, ‘Pop the hate’ which encourages girls to not only acknowledge the harmful words they’ve been called but banish them and ‘Shields’ that allow girls the opportunity to give and share words that empower themselves and each other. Both events were a success because of our dedicated team and the partnership support from Maybelline, including our point person Genevieve Ringuet, and the insightful and dynamic speakers, such as Brand Director Cammie Guest, and Grace Lee. The event also featured a rotating slideshow of photos taken over the course of the program so that the girls could see themselves and celebration their achievements and growth. Maybelline was also generous enough to supply a photo booth and with our props the girls had a fantastic time taking photos they could then take home to mark this celebration.