Girls Empowerment Network’s mission is to ignite power in girls by teaching them skills to thrive and believe in their ability to be unstoppable. The agency accomplishes this through our self-efficacy curriculum which girls experience on their school campuses, through summer camps, and at We Are Girls Conferences. Our vision is a world where all girls believe in their power.

Originally called The Ophelia Project, the Girls Empowerment Network was created in 1996 by 12 concerned mothers raising adolescent girls in Austin, Texas. These mothers met after reading Reviving Ophelia, a book by Dr. Mary Pipher, to address an increasing trend among middle school aged girls – a systematic decline and sometimes permanent loss of self-esteem, the outcome of which can be devastating: epidemic levels of anorexia/bulimia, self-mutilation, depression, low academic achievement, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse.