A Fireside Chat with Keren Taylor (By a WriteGirl Alum!)
/As 2023 comes to a close, WriteGirl Executive Director Keren Taylor sat down with WriteGirl alum and broadcast journalist Sofia Silvia to discuss what’s ahead for WriteGirl in the coming year, and also reflect a little bit on the past 22 years:
Sofia Silvia
Okay, so I was born in 2002. Since WriteGirl was founded in 2001, it has been around longer than I've been alive. For the 22 years that you've been running this organization, what continues to inspire you? What drives you forward?
Keren Taylor
To see a teen girl get up on a soapbox for the first time, to have a teen submit their writing for the first time and want to be published, to see a teen share their work at a workshop for the very first time – those are things that always drive me because I think they're life changing moments. They're this little pivotal moment that they don't even realize at the time is very transformative for them. Because it pulled them out of themselves. It took them out of their shell; it made them see themselves in a new light because others saw them in a new light.
Sofia
When you were starting WriteGirl, and also now when you look at the groundwork of it, why do you think it's so important that young individuals are given confidence as writers or as storytellers rather than other skill sets?
Keren
I mean, teens need a lot of things, right? I think they benefit from all kinds of different activities and education and mentors. But if you can have confidence, it just gives you this sort of key that helps unlock other doors because if you don't have confidence in it, it's the one thing that could really hold you back. Skills, you can develop. Relationships, you can develop. But if you don't have confidence, all of those things almost become inaccessible to you. So, above everything, even above creativity, and above writing, confidence is almost more important than all of it. We embed ways for them to develop their confidence, like sharing their work with one other person, sharing their work in front of a smaller group, asking questions, doing a six-word story in the Zoom chat, even putting their writing out there in front of others. And it's so small, it's six words, but when they see the feedback that comes in from others, that becomes a spark where they think, “Oh, I do have something to say. I do have words that are valuable, that have an impact on others.” And then you can see how that can grow and eventually become something where they don't even call confidence anymore, because they just have it.
Sofia
Where do you find the inspiration for the curriculum and the direction of the organization or doing fun activities like Soapbox [a segment where teens can rant or rave about anything they want for 30 seconds]?
Keren
I think that's one of the most fun aspects of WriteGirl for me is that I continue to try to mine my own life and my own adventures for things that could become part of our curriculum. And part of our sessions. For example, I discovered that manhole covers are really amazing. They're all over the world. And some of them are really ornate. And I've collected a lot of photographs of manhole covers from around the world in my travels. So we have a whole lesson now about manhole covers that talks about what they are and why they’re round. And we show a bunch of them. And then people draw their own manhole covers. And then they write about the world underneath it, like it becomes a portal to your imagination. And that's maybe one example of something where it was sort of personal to me. But it's been a really powerful activity that we've been able to do with a lot of teens and adults that have really loved it. But it sort of opens your eyes to something that you see all the time in life that you don't realize is widely used all around the world. And that has the power to really capture your imagination. It's a manhole cover – it sounds so funny. And then nature, of course. We do a lot of things related to nature and the oceans.
And I'm always thinking about what's going on in the world right now. Like, we don't necessarily write about current events; we don't write about war, or we don't talk to the teens about the latest Supreme Court decision, but we're conscious of it. And we're kind of always thinking, okay, that's happening in the world – how do we get our teens to maybe think about peace, about reconciliation, about what it means to bridge a gap about conflict in their own lives. So how do we bring in some of those themes that are happening in the world into the workshop and have our teens write about it, investigate it; and then they'll make their own connection like “Oh, yeah, we wrote about conflict at the WriteGirl workshop, and now I'm reading about conflict in another part of the world.” They can make that connection themselves. I think I get a lot of inspiration from a whole lot of sources, including our volunteers who always bring us really interesting articles and special guests that we should incorporate. And I'm reading a lot to try to continue to find new threads and things that we can bring in.
When it comes to our Soapbox segment at our workshops, one thing that inspired it was that I was in debating and public speaking in high school, and it was really transformative for me. Because there are unbelievably scary moments when you have to get up in front of a group and you have to either argue something in the case of debating and make your point, or just public speaking, where you have to get up in front of a roomful of people, and make them feel connected to what you're saying. Because anybody can get up in front of a room of people and speak. But can you do that and actually have people laugh, or have people feel something or have people really want to listen? That's really what the skill is all about. But it doesn't happen overnight. You can't just develop that skill by thinking about it or writing about it or wanting to – you have to practice it. So I think Soapbox was something I thought of implementing quite a number of years ago now, because it is public speaking, but we don't call it that. It's 30 seconds. So it's very short; it's free speech that is open to anything. They can speak about anything at all that's on their mind. I think that freedom to just just dip your toe in the water and say what you think is so helpful. I think everybody could do public speaking if they learned how to tap into what they're passionate about because everybody has something that they really care about, whether it's a person or a recipe, or a place or something that they want in the future or something that makes them mad. If you can have people tap into those emotions, then public speaking becomes a lot less scary – because it's not really about the audience. It's about your own feelings, right?
Sofia
So what is that development process for a workshop? When you're working with volunteers, working with staff, before a workshop, what is the story behind it? How does it all happen? What's behind the curtain?
Keren
Yeah, there's lots of side conversations. There'll be a conversation with the group over here, and another meeting will happen over there. And there's sort of themes that will percolate. We have something called the Padlet that we use, a virtual wall that we throw ideas onto. And then we bring a team of people together and do a lot of brainstorming with them about skills that we want to bring into the workshop activities. And then we dive into one activity and try to really think, “what are the layers of it? What are the steps of it? How can we make it more interactive? How can we bring in sensory details?” It's probably about a dozen meetings that happen before one workshop to bring all the little elements together and create a flow that's going to work. It's a little bit like producing a TV show; we have a 30 to 60 page script that we developed that kind of breaks down every minute of the workshop. And, of course, we allow for things to ebb and flow. Because sometimes things take longer. And sometimes people don't show up and all kinds of things happen along the way. But we try to really make a plan that feels like it's going to really work and really be exciting and interesting and reflective for everyone. We don’t want to make it feel orchestrated. We don't want them to feel like we had 12 meetings, and we have a 30-page script. We want the audience to kind of feel like it's all kind of happening in the moment. We want everything to feel a little bit more spontaneous, but we know that a great deal of planning went into all of it.
Sofia
Now, I was in WriteGirl in 2019, so obviously, that was pre-pandemic so I have a lot of memories of going to WriteGirl workshops in person. And I know that WriteGirl workshops are all online now correct?
Keren
For the most part, yes, we are doing some in-person in the LA area. But most of our workshops are online. And part of that is because we've got teens now joining us from around the country and around the world and the online aspect makes the workshops accessible to all of them.
Sofia
So what ultimately made you decide to continue WriteGirl workshops online? And what ways do you think the WriteGirl community has made more of an impact since becoming global?
Keren
Online gets a little bit of a bad rap sometimes, I think, because people go to a webinar, and it's just this boring, static speaker, and you can't do anything, and you're just watching it. And you might as well just watch a video. But what we've sort of said is okay, how can we recreate as much as we can and have a feeling of being together in a place? So we're always looking at how we can make it feel even more like a “happening.” On Zoom we're using the chat, we're using quizzes, we're using virtual walls, we've got guest speakers, we've got mentoring breakout sessions; and we just continue to change it up so that teens come with this feeling of like, “I don't know how this is going to be” and then they leave going, “Wow, that was really fun. I had a great time. I learned something. I got some writing done. I met some people.” I think it can be done if you do it right.
And we now have the ability to bring people in who otherwise couldn't come, because transportation is a huge issue, in Los Angeles especially. Many of our teens during our in-person days couldn't make it because they couldn't get a ride, or they would live too far away to even get on the bus to get there. So now – to be able to do it online and have those teens participate as well as teens from outside of LA and outside of America – that's been a real, lifelong dream to be able to create a larger, broader, more diverse community that goes beyond our own city.
Sofia
It's definitely amazing to see the way in which WriteGirl is now kind of like, an interconnected global community instead of just kind of like, stuck in Los Angeles County.
Keren
Right, exactly. And I think everybody benefits, like the teens in LA benefit a lot from hearing from a teen in the Philippines or in Nigeria. And of course, those teens who are in those locations who maybe don't have access to afterschool programming, or Soapbox or public speaking, or some of the things that we do here – you can see them really soaking up the opportunity to have exposure to these things.
Sofia
How do you make sure that the community element is fostered on those online workshops so that it doesn't feel like you're in a room of strangers and that this is a community?
Keren
I think there's a number of things, and we're always working on that. One is that we really fully prepare our mentors. They get a 10-page document before each workshop that talks about what we're going to do, some guidelines, some ways that they can be more active in the chat, reminders about honoring people's pronouns, and inclusivity tips on how to really make all of our members feel welcome and included. I think that preparation that we do for our mentors is really helpful so that they can really bring some things to the table and participate specifically in the chat and out loud in different ways. I think that combination of having some Mentoring Breakouts at the workshop, where they get a one-on-one experience is really valuable. So they're not just in a group environment; they also get to have time with just one other person. We've added some things like the watercooler time at the end of the workshop, where it's sort of like how, at the end of an event, there's a watercooler or people just hanging out a little bit. So now at the end of our online workshops we let people stay on and ask questions. So we've been working on how to do more of those kinds of things that mimic what happens organically in the real world, so that you feel the same kind of connection. I think there's probably still more that we could do to help advance that feeling of it being connected and getting to know people. And of course I miss the cupcakes; I miss the hugging; I miss some of the things that you really cannot do online, but there are still other ways that we can develop connection and community.
Sofia
Have you considered ever implementing hybrid workshops? At any point?
Keren
Yes, we've done a couple small hybrid events actually. The world, unfortunately, is still catching up to this virtual hybrid thing. So for us, one of our goals is to see how we could fully launch at least one larger hybrid workshop where there's 100 people in a room, and everybody else is on Zoom, and we can all hear and communicate with each other. We're actually talking to a tech company right now about possibly making that happen in the future. We have the ability to do smaller versions of that but the larger events would allow us to have a large group of people like we used to in one place, and then have everybody else on an interface online. I mean, I think the sky's the limit, as far as how large and how big and how grand that could be. So we just have to find the right technology partners.
Sofia
Amazing… exciting. So what are you wishing for WriteGirl or for your community in 2024?
Keren
Well, I think we would like to continue to grow. We'd like to continue to find more teens to participate that maybe didn't know about us and don't have access to this kind of programming. That's always on my mind. Here in the U.S., we have communities where there are teens in rural areas and in large cities all over the country that feel a little bit isolated, lost, uncertain, and disconnected. And if we can bring them into this community, give them some optimism, some hope, some joy, some confidence, I know we could really impact those young lives a great deal. And I hope that we can continue to find ways for WriteGirl to feel fresh and relevant, and as impactful as possible, because that part is not easy. We're, in a way, competing with everything else online, with TikTok, with YouTube, with Netflix. People have a choice of what they do when they sit down in front of their phone or computer or television. And we will have to continue to work very hard to make WriteGirl a place that teens choose to go to.
Sofia
What is something that people don't know about? WriteGirl?
Keren
Well, I think we just did a little tabulation of how many workshops we did last year, and it was over 100. And that's something that people don’t know; we talk about our Poetry Workshop, our Songwriting Workshop, and we used to have a model of doing one workshop a month. But now, because we're online, and because there are different time zones in the world, we have been running workshops sometimes in the evening, sometimes early in the morning, sometimes on the weekends and sometimes even in the middle of the night Pacific Time! So I think most people don't realize just how many events and workshops WriteGirl presents every year.
And I think people don't realize how many of our teens have come back to be mentors to help volunteer behind the scenes. And that's always thrilling. We don't really promote it; we just let it organically be something that our teens choose to do. And we're always happy to have our alums be involved, once again, on the other side. I think this fall, maybe four or five of our former teens became mentors, and went through our training. So that's pretty exciting.
Sofia
And that's so amazing. It's so cool to see the full circle, right?
Keren
Totally! And a lot of people don't know about our Partner Programs. I think that's something we also don't talk about a great deal. We do work with teens who are incarcerated, teens who have been involved in the juvenile justice system, teens who are in foster care or in treatment centers. We do a lot of work with teens who are incredibly vulnerable, and really facing critical challenges. And we don't always talk about it; we don't want those teens to feel like we're talking about them or somehow broadcasting their very private circumstances to the world. But that's a really wonderful bunch of programs we do in the community that helps teens who are really in great need.
Sofia
Now, you have a lot of amazing accomplishments at WriteGirl; you've had a lot of wonderful alums pass through that you can be proud of. But what is your favorite story, your favorite fun fact that is about maybe either a WriteGirl alum, or maybe something that happened involving WriteGirl, that not a lot of people know about?
Keren
We've got alums who have now become lawyers, doctors, teachers, and a lot of them have said that WriteGirl was really pivotal in helping them find their career, find their way, make a decision – a big decision – to do something as bold as going into their Master's program or a Phd program. And to see Amanda Gorman shine on the international stage as a poet, and being there for some of her first opportunities to be on a microphone when she was 14, that's incredibly exhilarating. And while we know that there's only one Amanda and that not everybody will go on to superstardom like Amanda, she's still somewhat emblematic of the rise of all of our teens. They all develop and grow through the program in different ways. And to see that and to hear from them years later, it's really exciting. We always get testimonials from teens and alums who just decide one day to send us a letter or note saying how much WriteGirl has really helped them. We used to have a bulletin board where all of those were pinned up and it got so full that we had to clean off the board over and over again because there have just been so many cards and letters over all these years. Literally thousands of teens have come through WriteGirl and I don't know where all of them are. I haven't been in touch with all of them by any means but I sometimes still feel a little bit connected to all of them in a way, you know? This little invisible thread that connects us and I'm really excited that we can have that kind of an impact.
Sofia
Right, definitely. So how has WriteGirl changed since you first started it in 2001?
Keren
In some ways, we're remarkably similar to how we were in 2001. We still have one-on-one mentoring, we still do group workshops, we still have a College Access Program. We've grown so there's more teens, and more mentors. But the basic sort of kernel of WriteGirl is a writing community that inspires each other and writers who bring their expertise to mentor teens. Those essential qualities that were there at the start of WriteGirl are still there now. And, that is pretty exciting at a time when many organizations and companies and families evolve or devolve sometimes to become entirely different than when they started. It's really rewarding for me to look back and see how consistent we've been about staying true to our mission, and how valuable it still is. There is a part of me that's sort of like, I can't believe that we still need to fight for our rights, that we still need a place where teen girls and non-binary members can come together to inspire and support each other; and gain confidence from a community that focuses on the needs of girls and women, as well as gender-expansive youth. And there is still no equity for women; twenty-three years later we are still very much in a fight to have women be paid what they should be paid equal to men in the same roles. We are still in a fight to have more women in leadership. We're still fighting for the rights of women to be seen as equals in almost every industry and every situation. Twenty-three years later, I thought we would be further in the world on that. So we keep going. We keep fighting and we keep inspiring teens to continue that fight so that they can go on to being the next leaders and continuing the mission.
Sofia
What is it that keeps you up at night? What still needs to be done?
Keren
[Through tears] Oh, I don't know why that just hit me. In the middle of the night, I'll wake up and I'll think about a specific teen who I know is struggling, and just kind of try to think about what are other ways that we could support that teen or help. Some of what keeps me up is thinking about the teens who we work with who are either incarcerated or just have family struggles, or emotional struggles. And then I think about the teens who are not in WriteGirl and the ones who are alone and feeling isolated, who feel lost and not loved and not supported and don't have a hope for what could be different in their future. I'm often in the middle of the night thinking about how we can reach those teens, how we could connect with them, and how we can bring them into this community and give them the support. From Uvalde to the Appalachians to Chile to Russia, there are teens all over the world that would really benefit from the mentorship and the community we have here. It is definitely still a mission and a challenge for me and WriteGirl to figure out how we can reach more of them and bring them here into this place.
Sofia
I do think that care is such an important part of it and I think it's the fact that you care so much and that there is so much love and support from all of the people at WriteGirl that makes it work, and is what makes it effective. I know for me, as an alum, I started to kind of just have that feeling that I could dream to kind of be whatever I wanted to be because there was so much care and love and support. I think if you weren't kept up at night thinking about everyone, it wouldn't feel genuine. I think, at least in my experience, in working with WriteGirl, everyone in WriteGirl really does care about the work they're doing and it shows and that's what makes an impact on the teams.
Keren
Yeah, you bring up a really great point actually. I think that is one thing that keeps me up sometimes in a positive way at night, thinking about the mentors, thinking about the staff. Thinking about just how much this community cares about young people, and that's really thrilling. Sometimes I think, “How did this even happen that we have such a wonderful group of staff and volunteers all committed to this mission?” That is really kind of incredible and I'm really grateful for each and every person, and the parents as well as alums, and the donors who really do deeply care and commit resources, time, energy and money to continue to make this organization grow and have the impact that it does.
So we’ve been talking a lot about what I do and how I see things, but it is absolutely very much a community that has a lot of roots, you know. I'm thinking of just the vastness of the WriteGirl leadership and mentorship team; it is really large and goes well beyond my individual efforts. And a lot of other people stay up at night too like Katie and Megan and Cindy and Allison and John and it just goes on when I start thinking about the list of people that care deeply about what happens to the members here at WriteGirl and how we can really help people. That's really exciting.
Sofia
Yeah, thank you so much. I just already feel the warmth and love just from this conversation talking about WriteGirl. I'm just reminded of how much I felt inspired as a storyteller and as a young person.
Sofia Silvia is a WriteGirl alum and an emerging producer, journalist and multimedia creator. With a B.S in Journalism from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she spent her college years concentrating on live media production and broadcast news reporting. Sofia worked as a news producer at FOX61 in Hartford, CT, and she is now working at BAYCAT studio in San Francisco, CA where she is honing her skills as a videographer and storyteller.
