I’m Orla, and I’m one of the Girls Inc. participants who was given the opportunity to go to the Girls Inc. summit earlier this year. I wanted to talk a bit about what Girls Inc. has done for me—not only in terms of opportunities, which are plentiful, but also how it has helped me understand and accept myself and my interests.

I’m sure you have all seen the differences between what is expected of a girl and what is expected of a boy. As a child, I saw it everywhere I went, and it always upset me. Even just the toy aisle at a Walmart seemed to lay out my entire life for me and I hated it. Pink baby dolls, pink kitchen sets, pink cleaning supplies. Sometimes, the girls section might have had things I liked. But I wouldn’t have known, because I always made it a point to pick things out from the boy’s section, where they had Legos and Hot Wheels and other things that didn’t feel limiting.

At the time, I thought it was because being a girl just wasn’t for me; that there was something wrong with me. But now I can see that I wanted people to look at me and see me as who I was, not as the stereotypes in the toy aisle.

Back then, Girls Inc. felt like just another place for me to hang out for a few hours and make some friends, which is most activities when you’re six years old. But in the background, it was accomplishing something else for me without me even realizing it. It was becoming that space where I was just a person. It was becoming a space where the only expectation of me was that I could do anything.

There was a long period of time where I didn’t do Girls Inc. at all. It was after COVID, of course, a time where no one was doing much of anything. It was only until this year that I was asked if I wanted to participate in the Girls Leading Change program, where I got to create a teen advocacy project with a few other girls. I was hesitant at first, but eventually I agreed. My decision to participate quickly became one of the best decisions of my life.

For a long time, I have had a realist perspective on my life and its path. I never thought I could be the kind of person that people would want to listen to, the kind of person that would get all of these opportunities to see the world and share my ideas and hear the ideas of others. Through the Girls Leading Change program, I felt like I was opened to the world. We went to Queens Park in Toronto and Parliament Hill in Ottawa and were able to speak to over a dozen MPs and MPPs. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very passionate about unsafe road design, and I have always wanted to become a transportation engineer to try to carry out changes to make roads safer. After my visit to these government offices, it made me consider making changes through a government career path when, before, it was completely off my radar as something possible for someone like me.

We also went to St. Louis, Missouri for the Girls Inc. Summit, where girls from across Canada and the U.S. joined together to talk about their Teen Advocacy Projects. It was so incredible to hear other’s projects and share our own—it was definitely my favourite part of the trip. Our project was about taking the harmful messaging found on baby girl’s onesies, such as “I’m too pretty to do math,” and “does this diaper make my butt look fat?” and sizing them up to adult t-shirts and wearing them to make people think twice about the harmful messaging flippantly forced onto girls literally from birth. Our slogan was: If you wouldn’t wear it, why should she?

I learned so many incredible things from my Girls Leading Change experience, including how leadership and collaboration work, both on a small scale in our project, and on a larger scale in government. I loved hearing so many different perspectives and ideas of what people were passionate about, things I hadn’t cared about until I heard someone who cared explain it. So many of the things I have learned and experienced during the program, I really believe will stick with me my entire life.

“You can do anything” has always been something adults have told me. But after seeing the good people can do, I can do, it’s something I truly believe for myself. That is the greatest gift that has been inspired for me by my teammates and the people guiding me in Girls inc.

When I was younger, so many supported me, and so many do now, and I will always be thankful for that. I want all girls to have that kind of support in their lives, and one of my biggest hopes is that I can be that support for other girls.

If I could have all those girls in the audience today remember one thing, I want it to be this: No matter who you are, where you come from, what you think you’re capable of, always aim high. Because if you shoot for the stars, you may still land on the moon.