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.

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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.”