In 1976, I bought my first pair of running shoes. I was fifteen then and like most fifteen year old girls, trying to figure out who I was inside a changing body. I was desperately wanting to be liked by the beautiful crowd--popular with the boys. But I couldn't fit into the box the world placed over the spark of my spirit. The box told me things I knew in my soul weren't true: That the way I looked was more important than who I was inside. That being a woman meant keeping emotions like anger to myself. That having a boyfriend meant giving up part of my own identity. But I stepped in anyway. Hours spent trying to mold my body, my lifestyle, my life into what the box required were extremely painful.

So I ran. I'd strap on those running shoes and head for the woods, the streets, wherever my feet would take me. I felt Beautiful. Strong. Powerful. I felt a part of something greater than myself.

On July 7th, 1993, I remember it well. I put on my running shoes and ran at sunset. I'm not sure what instant of the run the box disappeared, but like a glass womb it shattered around me and pushed me out, born to an entirely new freedom. It was a moment of personal awakening.

A year later, I began work on what was to become the Girls on the Run program. The concept, however, was born long before that July run. It was born in 8th grade when a boy in my class told me with disgust that I looked like a boy. It was born when a young woman, weighing 85 pounds and starving herself, told me she need to lose weight to be beautiful. It was born when I took a pregnant thirteen-year-old on a long walk in the woods.

Girls on the Run is a lot more than a running program. It will, I believe, create an entire generation of girls who can live peacefully and happily outside of the Girl Box.

In 30 years, I'll be 70. My daughter will be 32. If I have anything to say about it, she will never have to climb out of the Girl Box. Girls on the Run will shatter the Girl Box, like the spirit did for me that July night and help her and other girls feel comfortable simply being themselves.

History

Molly Barker established Girls on the Run® in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1996. A four-time Hawaii Ironman tri-athlete, Molly holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former high school teacher and track coach, Molly has also worked as a counselor addressing the needs of women with eating disorders, alcohol and substance addictions and depression.

The Girls on the Run® curricula, the heart of the program, provides pre-adolescent girls with the necessary tools to embrace their individual strengths as they enter middle and high school. Written by Molly and Dori Luke, L.C.S.W., it is based upon research in the field of adolescent issues. The earliest version of the 24 lesson curriculum was piloted in 1996 with the help of 13 brave girls. Twenty-six girls came the next season, then 75. In 2000, Girls on the Run International, a 501(c)(3) organization was born.