Middle school can be tough, but Girl Talk has set out to ease this burden for students at Calavera Hills Middle School.

Girls Talk was nationally established in 2002, and has since spread to 48 states and over 60,000 girls. At Sage Creek, it was established in 2016 and is composed of about 20 members.

Run by seniors, leaders meet at lunch to prepare for each meeting. As of right now, the club leaders consists of seniors Elyse VanderWoude, Madison Sample, Sophia Trevino, and Grace McGuire. “We have different topics each week, so next week is about boys for example,” said Sample. “Some of our topics include body, image, self-esteem, and confidence,” VanderWoude commented.

The purpose is to mentor younger girls and help them with any problems they have, whether it be family, friends, or anything else. “It makes me feel good to give back, I feel like I have a good connection to the girls,” Sample expressed. Leaders draw advice from personal experience, “Because I’m a little older than them, I definitely use my personal experiences to help them,” said VanderWoude.

Meetings are every Monday in room 109, at Calavera Hills Middle School. “We start with an icebreaker, sometimes a skit, just to make everyone feel more comfortable,” said Sample. The meeting then progresses to leaders talking about their own personal experiences. “After we talk about the experiences we’ve had, the girls usually start to feel comfortable enough to ask questions,” said Elyse.

Girl Talk advises girls through the seemingly awkward middle school years. “Sometimes they share these crazy stories about someone who was mean to them and it can be sad,¨ said Sample. It can be tough to handle situations like these but, “it feels so good to know I’m helping a younger generation of women.”