When I was little, I never signed up for Girl Scouts . Being the defiant second grader I was, I told my mom it was lame and for weird girls who like to camp. The promise of earning badges and selling cookies didn’t appeal to me. All of my friends joined, then slowly bailed out throughout elementary and middle school. My best friend, however, stayed with the organization. I recently went to her gold award, which is the final step of the Girl Scouts program. It is a huge deal —a big enough deal that they served free ice cream and fancy lemonade. To receive this award, she organized a club that volunteered at the retirement home across the street from our high school. The other award recipients did a variety of projects that aimed to help their communities, too.

I dragged my mom with me to watch my best friend walk across the stage in khaki pants. We laughed at the overly peppy announcer and commented on all the shoe faux pas. We listened to what amazing things previous gold award winners are doing today and how they are making a difference.

The ceremony was coming to an end, and at this point I was fighting off yawns and my legs were horribly uncomfortable due to wearing jeans for longer than I’d like (ten minutes is really longer than I’d like). The CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Anna Maria Chávez, strutted to the podium cool and confident. I instantly perked up when I felt her energy and passion for her job and the organization, although a little less perky than the announcer. She dove into deeper issues than just cookies and badges. She poked fun of the politicians in the media today, telling the crowd that you do not need to be angry and vulgar to get your point across. She spoke of love and inclusion while remaining powerful. Chávez stressed that gender, race, or economic background should not slow down anyone. How a woman can be anything and everything that a man is. She told little girls that they are not bossy and to raise their hands if they know the answer in class. How girls are powerful, and even more powerful as a strong group, like Girl Scouts, and should be proud to be in the organization. She told all the young girls that Girl Scouts need to get their “swagger back,” and have pride in being a Girl Scout. She challenged members to make connections with other Scouts as often as possible, whether in high school, college, or in their career. Girl power was the main theme of her speech, and you could see the look of admiration on not only the young Brownies' faces, but all the adults, too. She received a heartfelt and emotional standing ovation.

If every little girl heard empowerment from such a sincere source, we would have more women CEOs. We would have more women in college courses ready to speak up and lead. We would have more high school girls with undeniable confidence. We would have more bold and fearless little girls. I was moved by Anna Maria Chávez’s speech, and I know that many of the young girls in the audience found a new role model as I did. If I could go back in time I would tell my stubborn self that Girl Scouts isn’t for dweebs, it is full of powerful women who are going to make a change, starting from CEO down to assertive little Brownies.