WriteGirl recently hosted a workshop pairing women who've written hits for the likes of Demi Lovato with teen girls looking to find their own voice.

Read the full article at hollywoodreporter.com

WriteGirl is proud to the be the official charity of the The Bespoke Communication Awards! Recently, PR Couture conducted an interview with Executive Director Keren Taylor.

May 12, 2016 | Silver Lake Blog

Through one-on-one mentoring and monthly creative writing workshops, girls are given techniques, insights and hot topics for great writing in all genres from WriteGirl professional women writers. Workshops and mentoring sessions explore poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, songwriting, journalism, screenwriting, playwriting, persuasive writing, journal writing, editing and more.

SLB has had the privilege of catching up with one of the WriteGirl mentors Lauren McQuade. Here is what she had to share…

By TakeTwo | April 14, 2016 | Southern California Public Radio 89.3KPCC

This weekend Hollywood actors join forces with WriteGirl to portray stories written by teen girls on stage. WriteGirl is hosting a fundraising benefit at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood called *Lights, Camera, WriteGirl!* 

Keren Taylor, the executive director of Write Girl, and writer Josann McGibbon, who's credits include "Runaway Bride," "The Starter Wife" and last year's Disney Channel hit "Descendants" joined host Alex Cohen in studio to talk about the organization, their red carpet benefit, and the process of mentoring young women to become confident poets, journalists, screenwriters, and more. 

Lisa Loeb and other songwriters bring teen girls' songs to life

Singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb debuted a new song on Saturday afternoon to a crowd of more than 100 teen girls at the Huntington Library in Pasadena.

Can I say I'm broken? Can I say I'm scared? Can I say I'm just a shell of a girl? Cuz If you knew me, if you knew me, you'd already know.

She'd written the melody just minutes before and the lyrics were written earlier that day by 17-year-old Lauren Cook.

Janel Pineda always knew she loved writing, but never thought about how that could impact her life. That changed when her uncle mailed her a newspaper about a Los Angeles writing program for young girls. At age 14, Pineda joined WriteGirl, where she attended writing workshops and worked closely with a mentor throughout high school.

Emotional Map of Los Angeles has been chosen one of the NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winners for 2015.

Our 14th anthology, launched in June, features 190 stories from WriteGirl teens and mentors, written in settings from all accross LA.

This award marks the 72nd book award for WriteGirl anthologies. 

Click to order your copy of Emotional Map of Los Angeles

WriteGirl made the list of Top-Rated Nonprofits of 2015 by GreatNonprofits.org, an honor given to nonprofits that receive a high number of positive reviews by volunteers and those served. 

Do you have great things to say about WriteGirl as well? Write a review at GreatNonprofits.org!

WriteGirl was honored at the Departures Magazine Philanthropy Honors gala on Oct. 7 in New York City, with host Norah O'Donnell of *CBS This Morning*. Longtime WriteGirl supporter Margaret Hyde accepted the award for WriteGirl and spoke of WriteGirl’s 13-year history of empowering teen girls through creativity!

Never underestimate the power of a girl and her pen. It's that philosophy that propelled Keren Taylor to start WriteGirl, a non-profit literacy program for underserved 13-18 year old girls in the L.A. area. Since its inception in 2001, it has helped hundreds of teens find their voices/calling and in 2013, Michelle Obama presented Keren and WriteGirl with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest honor given to such endeavors. And just this year, Keren was selected a CNN Hero for her creative efforts to help young people. She is truly an inspiration.

Click here to listen to the podcast

Edutopia features WriteGirl for improving confidence and inspiring academic success 

"Because of WriteGirl, I can write. It might sound silly -- because obviously this is WriteGirl -- but it's never been silly to me. Growing up with dyslexia meant that my writing was always less eloquent and less readable than everyone else's. I grew up not trusting my writing, not trusting my words, and, eventually, not even trusting my own voice. Society taught me my voice was unimportant because I was a girl and my learning disability taught me to silence that voice completely. It wasn't until I joined WriteGirl that someone taught me to speak up." – Emily, Grade 12

Click to read the article on Edutopia.org

Keren Taylor, executive director of WriteGirl, has been selected as a CNN Hero for her work empowering thousands of at-risk teen girls in Los Angeles. CNN Heroes selected Taylor from more than 10,000 individuals worldwide.

Exclusive Essay by Jacqueline Uy:

Back in elementary school, there was always that one kid who, when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, would say, “I want to be president.” That kid was me.

But as I got older I realized that what I really wanted to become was a journalist, specifically a foreign correspondent. Even with this, I never really thought that I would ever step foot in the White House, much less meet first lady Michelle Obama. So when the opportunity to do both arose, I reacted like any normal 16-year-old in my situation: I didn’t believe it. 

"Captivating and emotional from the first entry to the last, You Are Here is a compilation of journals, essays, poetry, descriptive writing, novel excerpts, songs, etc., covering topics ranging from growing up to love to infatuation to loneliness to despair."

As part of our Global Citizen program, Paperblanks® enjoys the opportunity to partner with some truly inspirational organisations. One such group is WriteGirl, “a community of women writers, [that] promotes creativity and self-expression to empower girls.”

Jacqueline Cablas Uy dreams of someday traveling the world to write newspaper stories that change lives. Growing up in a one-bedroom condo in Los Angeles, she often reads National Geographic and was inspired by the journalists who had the freedom to fly to exotic places and tell the world’s untold stories.

She always worried though that being a minority would limit her options, as she sensed a lack of Filipino American women at the top of the news business. But her WriteGirl mentor Katherine shows her she has the potential to break through barriers and declare her place in journalism.

The eyes of 16-year-old Jacqueline Uy glistened as First Lady Michelle Obama pulled her into a tight hug and whispered in her ear.

"She just told me to keep writing, and that her favorite thing to do was to write," said Uy, a member of WriteGirl, one of 12 after-school programs honored at the White House Nov. 22. "She told me to keep on dreaming, because someday I'll achieve my dreams and goals."

WriteGirl was honored by the White House in November 2013 with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest honor such programs can receive in the United States. Executive Director and Founder Keren Taylor and WriteGirl participant Jacqueline Uy personally received the award from First Lady Michelle Obama in the East Room of the White House.