There is so much going on in the world right now, and it feels like the stakes have never been higher. We at Cinnamongirl believe it’s crucial that we include teens in the conversation around events that affect their lives, both now and in the future. Here are a few tips for how you can help the teen(s) in your life to get informed, engaged, and involved.

Resources:

Now is a Good Time to Talk to Kids about Civics Life Kit Podcast, NPR

Political Issues Teens are Interested in by Michele Meleen, teens.lovetoknow.com

Cinnamongirl works to get our young women engaged, informed, and action-oriented through travel, reading, writing, field trips, and conversations with experts in their fields. Donate today!

 

Film and television can be a great jumping-off point for discussions about a wide range of social issues with your teen. Not only are these wonderful stories, wonderfully told, but the long and difficult road toward the point where they could be told at all is a discussion in itself.

 

Till: The story of how Emmett Till’s mother found a way to call attention to the brutality and injustice of his murder, and at the same time lift him up with honor and dignity.

 

The Woman King: Produced, directed by, and starring Black women, this film is about the all-female army, the Agojie, who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 17th-19th centuries. A moving and beautiful tribute to the power of Black women.

 

Heartbreak High on Netflix: Teens in this hilarious and heartwarming Australian show grapple with gender, race, misogyny, classism, disability, and mental health, all while navigating everyday teen drama. TW: police violence, family violence, attempted sexual assault.

 

The King’s Jester on Netflix: Comedian Hasan Minhaj weaves self-deprecating humor and sharp social commentary with the story of how he realized that his brand of political comedy was putting his young family at risk.

We have just a couple months left to reach our $75K fundraising goal. Your donation will provide top-notch education and networking opportunities, excellent mentorships, travel experiences that broaden our girls’ horizons, and lifelong friendships to support our girls as they change the future! Donate as an individual or go big and participate in a fun, easy, peer-to-peer campaign.

Don’t forget to RSVP for our first-ever pinning ceremony, where we will honor and celebrate the accomplishments of our young Cinnamongirl leaders! Our MC for the evening will be 4-time Emmy Award-winning journalist/anchor working for NBC Bay Area, Cheryl Hurd. This is an easy way to show up for girls of color, whether you have a Cinnamongirl or not; we encourage you attend this event!

The Passport Book Club now has a cohort for readers ages twelve and up, led by sixteen-year old high school juniors Kailynn Guidry and Mariah McCoy! Kailynn is a second-year Cinnamongirl, and Mariah is in her third year with us. Both have participated in Write Your Story and Travelgirl. Keep reading to learn about these two accomplished young women.

 

K: This may be a cliche, but I’m proud of how I do in school. I’m currently taking 2 AP classes and 2 honors classes with a 4.57 GPA all while juggling extracurriculars such as Cinnamongirl, lacrosse, and more, not to mention I switch back and forth between two different houses.

 

M: My high school had to cut its journalism class a few years ago, and I helped to found an organization called Block CP, which replaces some of those missing pieces such as writing and podcasting. I am now able to combine my passions for writing and football by being a reporter for Block CP. 

 

 

K: I know I want to go to college and get a degree for sure. Ideally I want to open my own business and get to the point where I can just be the owner and retire early and live in a beautiful house while traveling the world.

 

M: I’d like to attend a 4-year university and be successful in my desired career path. My goal is for me to be stable enough to provide for my family the same way my parents have done for me my whole life. 

 

 

K: I love the opportunities I get! I traveled out of the country as a high schooler; not very many people get to say that. I’ve been able to interview popular authors at Bay Area Book Fest, lead a book club… and I made tons of friends on the Australia trip that I’m still in contact with.

 

M: I love being around women of color who serve as mentors to me and push me to achieve my goals. I feel supported at all times by the leaders of the program and my fellow sisters who I have connected with. 

 

 

K: I like being able to talk to and build a relationship with girls younger than me. Although this makes me sound like an old lady, they really keep me up to date on what’s going on in middle school nowadays. I also can’t help but feel like Mariah and I are people they can trust. On our Zoom calls the girls are very chill and can’t stop talking to each other about life, making jokes, or just laughing in general, and I think that we do a good job of making sure they know that this is a safe space.

 

M: I am enjoying watching each girl explore interesting books and develop an appreciation of different cultures through reading. I love hearing how they relate to the storylines and watching them become comfortable sharing with one another.

 

 

K: No book has topped The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas for me. I love how she portrays the life of being black in America while also having parts that are lighthearted, goofy, and just showing the life of a teen.

 

M: I recently read Black Boy by Richard Wright for school and really enjoyed the storyline. Even though Richard and I live in completely different worlds, I can relate to his struggles and was intrigued by his journey through life.

Passport Book Club Our 4-6 grade cohort read and discussed Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cyntia Leitich Smith; Our 7th grade+ cohort read Angie Thomas’s On the Come Up, which was released as a movie in September. In November, the younger girls will read A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée (see below for her second book, Something to Say), and the older girls will read An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo.

 

Travelgirl is raising funds for their trip to Japan, and we continue to prepare for the Civil Rights tour of the South, and our visit to Washington, D.C. In Washington, we will spend two days at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and three days on Capitol Hill, The White House and visiting the Supreme Court. We hope that our girls will get to meet leaders like Barbara Lee, The Sqaud, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi. Please let us know if you have a connection that will help us arrange quality time with any of these leaders and more!

Write Your Story took a Master Class with tanea lunsford lynx, a critically acclaimed writer, abolitionist, and proud fourth-generation Black San Franciscan. Click here for a taste of her workshop, Ingredients for Good Fiction.

 

Entrepreneurgirl will kick off in January 2023!

V is for Voting by Kate Farrell, illustrated by Cailin Kuhwald An ABC book for progressive families around progressive concepts and values: A is for active participation // B is for Building a more equal nation. // C is for citizens' rights, and our duties. // D is for difference, our strength and our beauty.

 

Something to Say by Lisa Moore Ramée. Jenae is so shy that she can’t even make friends at her new school–and she’s terrified of public speaking. But when her community is divided over whether her school, named after beloved but racist actor John Wayne, should change its namesake to Sylvia Mendez, the Mexican American girl who integrated California public schools years before Brown v Board of Education, Jenae does some research, forms an opinion, and finds her voice.

 

Lifting as We Climb: The Story of Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box  by Evette Donne. Most books credit white women like Susan B. Anthony with leading charge for women’s suffrage–and ignore the many women of color–especially Black women in church groups, sororities, and social clubs–who fought both racism and misogyny to gain the right to vote. An inspiring book for middle grade readers and beyond.

 

The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho. May Chen’s beloved, high-achieving older brother dies by suicide, and her parents soon become the target of racist accusations that they put too much pressure on their son. May’s father tells her to keep her head down, but May cannot help writing about and exposing the bigotry she sees. But the consequences of speaking out are more complicated than she predicts. This YA novel grapples with issues of mental health, classism, racism, and the importance of who controls the narrative.