GirlSpeak

Every year at GirlSpeak we honor the UN International Day of the Girl. This year's theme is 'End child marriage and invest in girls’ rights', something everyone should be able to support!

We are spotlighting the real life impacts of girls marriage and the new laws brought in by the Taliban.

Head girl Ashley E Remer speaks with our guest writer Tahera K. Tahera shares the story of her family and girls she knows who got married as children.

Read Tahera's writing at Girl Museum.

Check out the Malala Fund for more information.

This month on GirlSpeak, Head Girl Ashley E. Remer talks with midwife and health and nutrition specialist Kelley Khamphouxay about girls' nutrition needs, stunting, and the windows of opportunity to build strong and healthy girls.

Here are some links to information about girls' nutrition, stunting, and a successful project addressing issues of girls' nutrition in Timor-Leste.

Visit us at Girl Museum.

Did you read girls' magazines when you were younger? Do you still read them? We do. Explore the history of American girls' magazines with our Education Advisor Hillary Hanel.

Visit Girl Museum for more girl-positive content.

To learn more, check out:

Digitized The American Girl Magazines published by the Girl Scouts 1920-1944: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=americangirl 

American Girls, STEM, and the Space Race DBQ featuring historic Seventeen Magazine content.

https://www.girlmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DBQ-Girls-STEM-Cold-War.pdf 

This month, the Junior Curator of our latest exhibition, 1776: Revolutionary Girls, Lindsay Guarnieri takes a deeper dive into one of the girls featured, Dicey Langston.

Learn more about this amazing teenage heroine and come visit the show!

References

https://gardenandgun.com/meet-the-southern-revolutionary-war-heroine-inspiring-a-symphony

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/roles-native-americans-during-revolution

https://honoringourpatriots.dar.org/patriots/laodicea-dicey-langston-springfield/

https://studysc.org/sc-people/william-bloody-bill-cunningham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQH_x8WAPgI

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/49411/49411-h/49411-h.htm

This month's episode starts our conversations about girls during the time of the American Revolution in honor of 250 years of independence. Resident scholar Elizabeth Dillenberg discusses notable early American girls-Sybil Ludington, Emily Geiger, and Anna Green Winslow.

For more information about Sybil Ludington, check out the chapter about her in our book  Exploring American Girlhood through 50 Historic Treasures by Ashley E. Remer and Tiffany R. Isselhardt (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).

You can also visit our Heroines Quilt VIII exhibition Heroines of the American Revolution.

To honor ICOM's 80th anniversary and the 2026 International Museum Day, Girl Museum's Head Girl Ashley E Remer speaks with Aotearoa New Zealand museum leader Liz Cotton about this year's theme-- 'Museums Uniting a Divided World'. Join us for a great conversation about our work in museums and how we approach the aspirations of IMD themes.

Bio: Elizabeth (Liz) Cotton is an experienced museum and gallery sector leader based in Auckland with over 25 years of experience fostering community relationships and enhancing visitor experiences in cultural institutions. She has held senior roles including Director of Museum Experience at MOTAT and Director Museum & Arts at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, where she led significant visitor experience transformations and team development. She prioritizes building strong relationships with mana whenua, iwi, councils, and funders, integrating Te Tiriti principles throughout her work.

Check out the Museum of Technology and Transport (MOTAT).

And ICOM NZ.

This month, GirlSpeak focuses on girls writings about war. Resident Scholar Elizabeth Dillenburg discusses the impact of armed conflicts on girls' lives and how they use writing to share and reflect on their situations.

For more, read:

Girl Museum's blogs by Tahera K. https://www.girlmuseum.org/tag/tahera-k/

Iraqi Girl's Blog https://iraqigirl.blogspot.com/

Girl Museum celebrates Women's History this month with our biennial Heroines Quilt exhibition. Head Girl Ashley E Remer reflects on the exhibition, what makes a heroine, and why we need them as girls and as grown ups in today's world. Education Advisor Hillary Rose also gives her thoughts on the importance of heroines.

Please visit the year's Heroines Quilt IX exhibition at Girl Museum.

BBC article on What Makes a Hero.

This month's podcast continues our collaborative project with James Madison University’s Feminist Rhetorics course. This is the final of three podcasts guest-hosted by team of students who are exploring Girl Museum, the Girls. Period. exhibition.

On this episode, the team interview Kigere Rose, the founder of the Women's Rights Initiative, and Eleanor Jones, who interned at WORI researching and developing the East African Women’s Museum, to find out how WORI works to empower women through menstrual education, and how the East African Women’s Museum serves to empower women’s contributions to everyday history.

Thanks for listening.

The JMU Team: Ally de Cardona, Via Chapin, LeeAnne English-Stewart, and Freddie Tavakoli.

Girls. Period. exhibition

Girl Museum

Women's Rights Initiative (WORI)

Our first podcast of 2026 continues our collaborative project with James Madison University’s Feminist Rhetorics course. This is the second of three podcasts guest-hosted by team of students from that class who are exploring Girl Museum, the Girls. Period. exhibition.

The team continue their interview our Head Girl, Ashley E. Remer about Girl Museum and Ella Stotzky, a fellow student who worked on the exhibition.

Thanks for listening.

The JMU Team: Ally de Cardona, Via Chapin, LeeAnne English-Stewart, and Freddie Tavakoli.

Girls. Period. exhibition

Girl Museum