IAmA High School Girl Scout. I’ve been in the program for 12 years now and ready to answer questions! AMA!

If you could make up a badge, what would it be?

i would personally make a badge for internet safety. Something where the program teaches girls what's right and wrong by going through things that are considered inappropriate. It's easy to tell someone not to talk to strangers on the internet, but if you show them the dangers, they'll be better equipped for handling situations online.

Are the cookies made with real girls scouts?

Yep, I'm just one of the lucky ones that got away. In all seriousness, no, just whatever is printed on the box.

But if I had a dime for everytime I've been asked that question, I'd be rich.

How does it feel to know that the Boy Scouts are now allowing girls to join their ranks? Do you have any memories that stand out among others (good or bad)? And mostly what is the Girl Scout Program? I'm not too familiar with it.

I feel that the Boy Scouts allowing females into the program was a very strange move for them to boost membership. I know they'll have to change a lot of rules about camps and other things here and there to accommodate female Boy Scouts. My big question to them would be if they're changing the name to be inclusive.

My favorite memory with Girl Scouting has been a volunteer trip I did with my troop, where we donated toys and blankets to the pediatric ward of our hospital. I know that we made some people's days by that and it certainly made my year.

The Girl Lead Program is specific to my council's region. We train high school girl scouts in leadership skills and offer them many opportunities to lead peers and adults. We started with Mega Drop, which is a process that moves cases of cookies from warehouse to troops in my region to distribute to consumers, and has now branched out into college application and job resume workshops.

I am have no clue what these programs are or how they work other than media portrayals; but the name change caught my eye. What are the differences between the two groups besides gender? Do girl they tend to focus on activities that are more "traditional" for their gender?

When they first started, yes. There used to be table making and hosting patches when Girl Scouts first started.

We now focus on empowering girls specifically to get them ready for the future. We have patches that are for camping and computer programming as well as design and community service.

I can't speak for what Boy Scouts does.

Are the Girl Scouts something you see yourself staying with for life? Are there career opportunities within the organization for you?

Whether it be working directly with scouts/the program or in the business/administrative side?

I plan on getting a troop after I go to college, and am stable enough to hold weekly meetings and put a focus on the girls. There are many career opportunities in girl scouts, and some that I'm looking into are recruitment and marketing strategy. I've volunteered with the retail end of sales before (hoodies, sashes, vests, badges) and I could see myself there, but not permanently. I plan on becoming a Veterinarian, actually!

What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

There's a cookie that got released a couple years ago that was only available that year. They were called the Cinna-Spins and they were small cinnamon cookies that looked like wrapped coils and came in 100-calorie packs.

From the popular line-up I'd have to say Peanut Butter Sandwiches, other known as Do-si-dos.

What work are you doing in order to recieve your Gold award?

I’m working to make my community more LGBT friendly by asking local businesses to promise to stand up against hate and be a safe space to their customers and then signify it by placing asking them to publicly display their support. This would seem easy to anywhere else, but my location has a prominant KKK community at times and has many people against LGBT community.

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I haven't received any owners against it yet, but I'm very early in starting out the project.

Plan on asking small businesses only? Could really garner some attention if a big retailer refused.

For now, I do plan on staying local, but if there is a large push to bring it larger, I won't stop it there.

I haven't received any owners against it yet, but I'm very early in starting out the project.

Life-long & Gold Award Girl Scout here – Daisy through Adult, so going on ~30 years. Kudos on being so involved! I grew up in a small town and all but one other girl dropped out of my troop by the time we were Seniors, which motivated me to apply and go on a few Wider Ops. What’s your high school and troop like?

In a previous job I helped researchers and scientists host their AMAs so they could connect with people about their books, courses, etc. Any particular reason you decided to do an AMA today?

My troop has 3 seniors, 1 junior, and 2 sophomores currently, and we focus on community service of all kinds and we do many flag ceremonies in our area.

I just have a free day and decided to host an AMA, mainly from the Boy Scouts allowing girls, and that tends to be a pretty popular topic today.

And That is awesome! I always love finding people who have stayed in girl scouts for a long time, besides just "Oh I was a brownie once".

Can either of yas talk more about what, if any, opportunities there are for adult women to get involved with Girl Scouts beyond being troop leaders or employed by the organization?

Also, everything I know about Girl Scouts is incredibly vague: "leadership," "financial management skills," and "empowerment," mostly. I'd love to hear more about what a typical meeting looks like, how troop leaders teach/lead activities with those goals in mind, and what those activities might be. (I was one of those short-term Brownies decades ago, and all I remember about it is making pine cone bird feeders. I'm so curious about how they get from age-appropriate things like that to, "Okay, today you're going to manage the logistics of product distribution!")

What badges are you the most proof of, and what do they mean?

As far as I know, most of the adult participation is directed to troop leaders, and I've heard lots about being more inclusive to adult members.

Our troop meetings are planned at our last meeting, and we decide what we do each time, and lead our peers. So as a group, we say we want to earn more badges, look to see what we want, set it up to earn it at the next meeting, and go through with it. I'm proud of my financing my future badge because it led me to look at what tools I have to go to college and live off campus/on campus. That is our typical leadership and financial management skills.

As for empowerment, we support each other to go further individually, outside of the troop. We have girls in ROTC, who were feeling like their voices weren't heard, so we encouraged them to speak up and started to get more involved in community involvement for Veterans.

How do you feel about the Girl Scout Cookies weed strain being super popular now?

So, none of that really has had a correlation to Girl Scouts as an organization. It's actually illegal for anyone to use the name Girl Scouts without a partnership. There are many cease and desist letters that go out to dispensaries that use it and some lawsuits that come from it. It's like labeling hats as Disney or Jolly Rancher without creating a partnership with them.

This happens a lot, and it shouldn't. People don't think its trademarked, but it is, and using it in that way is a violation of trademark laws.

Here is an article that talks about one of the lawsuits.

Hi! My sister was in the program since a brownie. She didn't make it all the way through to hi school, but mom was a leader for a couple of years. I feel like there was a lot of pressure, on the Boy scouts, from girls and parents, to include them; who felt like the Girl scouts didn't offer the more 'rugged' options in their camps and outings. My mom always complained that none her troops parents wanted anything more than socializing and 'glamping' for their daughters. What is your take on what most girls wanted from their experience?

Good Question!

It very much depends on what troop you talk to or even what girl scouts you talk to. I find that a majority of younger girls do like glamping and events with lots of socialization, but I've met other troops that do more. My troop loves community service and doing more one-on-one activities, but all of us are high school. I've met brownie troops that will plant trees or do some more simple camping, but it's very hard to do rugged activities with a group of about 15 elementary students and plan it with their parents and make sure everyone is happy AND keep parents from drinking at a girl scout outing.

All in all, it is prevalent that daisies, brownies, and some juniors like socializing and glamping, and juniors, cadettes, seniors, and ambassadors will like more one-on-one activities.

Can I order the cookies online, shipped to Europe?

Currently, we do not as an organization have it set up for GSUSA to send overseas to other parts of WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts). I know Girl Guides of Canada sells cookies.

You could do an order when it comes to cookie season with a Girl Scout, where she ships it to you, but that would be a matter for beginning of February, when the sale starts. I'm sure something could be figured out besides buying overpriced cookies off E-bay.

Do you feel that young transgendered people deserve to be in either Girl Scouts, or Boy Scouts in accordance with whichever gender they identify with? Sorry for the deep question, just curious what your opinion on this is.

I can agree with our rules that as long as someone identifies as female, they should be allowed in Girl Scouts. Identification tends to be that the student identifies as female, and their parents or school recognizes them as such.

And no problem, I actually hear this one pretty often.

Is the selling of Girl Scout cookies a mandatory activity? Do you get reprimanded if you don't sell a certain amount?

Also, compared to the Boy Scouts, do Girl Scouts learn the same amount of survival skills?

Nope, selling is not mandatory, but is very encouraged to fund programming for troops, and the rewards are very encouraging to most girls.

I would say its a different type of survival skill. We learn leadership skills and how to talk to adults, and even how to take rejection. BSA focuses more on outdoor survival from what I've seen.

Former Girl Scout here. How do you feel about the shift from Badges and Pins to Journeys and Guides?

Personally I disliked the more ridged book work of the Journeys. It felt like less creative freedom to Leaders and Troops to explore the interests of their girls. I would love to hear your opinion though!

I think Journeys are great! They are helping a lot of our girls try to do them with a clearer idea of what to do. I love it when I'm trying to earn awards, because it helps me figure out what I have to do and gives me many options on how to do that.

Its more of a shift from "Go and be part of your local community" to "Plant a local garden with your troop" OR "Do community servie with your troop" In my opinion.

What was the funniest thing that evar happened to you as a girl scout?? Even if it wasn't funny when it happened?

This is a crazy story.

I was working a booth at Walmart, and this lady came up and told me "I would buy cookies but I know where the money really goes". So I asked her "Where does the money really go?" and she told me "It goes towards funding abortions". And had this smug look on her face before walking away.

That was the most inaccurate statement I have ever heard, but I still get a laugh out of it.

I'm not as familiar with Girl Scouting as I am BSA. From outward appearances GSSA spends a lot of time on cookies, and not much on outdoors etc. I realize they are different programs with somewhat different paths to the goals of developing young leaders, but how much of your time do you spend on cookies vs other program elements? It is like a tip of the ice berg thing?

Tip of the iceberg is exactly what it is. Cookie Sales only last from February to March in my area, and should everywhere else.

From cookies, I fund my community service endeavors, such as buying materials to make blankets for the pediatric ward of my hospital. It also helps with events my troop hosts.

And some troops do focus on outdoors, but I find it very rare.

Girl Scouts appears to be organized such that girls primarily interact with girls approximately their same age. What experiences have you had working with girls who are 2+ years older or younger than you? As an older Girl Scout do you have any responsibilities that include younger girls?

Personally, I have no responsibilities with extremely younger girls. My troop has members that are sophomores, so we work with each other fairly regularly, and that's fairly easy.

I can't stand being with daisies and brownies for more than half an hour because I always play the babysitting role when I'm trying to have fun as well. They're cute, but they give me a migraine. Its actually discouraged me from having any kids in the future lol.

Serious question, does anyone at school make fun of you for still being in Girl Scouts? I quit when I was 11/12 because it wasn’t considered cool and it was seen as being something you did if you were immature. I quit because I felt like the association was demeaning. I also remember my troop members being pretty snobby and there was a lot of silly competition over badges and cookie sales that it wasn’t fun for very long. Cookie moms were nightmarish. I think of how “lame and baby-ish” it was to be a girl scout when I was 11 I can only imagine how mean high schoolers would be about it.

In middle school, they did, but now it's just great shock for people. "Oh my god you're a girl scout, that's cool"

There's always snobby cookie moms, but there's just snobby moms in general.

There's trouble in being a middle schooler, when trying to "fit in", but now I am accepted for who I am, so its not a big deal to be high school girl scout for me.

Wait, Scouts in the US really sell the cookies? And there are people who compete over sales? I thought it was a movie-thing only.

It's really real!

My daughter is a Brownie. I'd love to see her stick with the program through high school, but at the events we've attended, like her bridging ceremony, there are far more younger girls than those about to head off for college. What advice do you have for parents that might help the young ones stay enthusiastic about scouting as they get older?

Always push for and find activities that she is interested in. If she wants to play with legos, try to find a lego robotics class. If she wants to go horseback riding, find something that offers that. If it seems expensive to do something, help her make and keep a goal for it. Even an I want to go to Disneyland can be turned into a goal to sell cookies to fund it.

And if she really loses her enthusiasm and finds something else like soccer or cheer leading, that is okay. The experiences she has now will be with her forever.

Are you disappointed that you didn't think to use the name 12YearsAScout?

Now I am

Why do girls, having the Girl Scouts, feel the need to want to be a part of the Boy Scouts?

I mean, that's what the Girl Scouts is for, right?

In my (former Girl Scout) opinion, the Boy Scouts do a lot more outdoor ("manly") stuff and the Girl Scouts do a lot more inside ("womanly") stuff. But this disparity isn't necessarily due to the organization, but due to the individual troops and their leaders.

Scouting, in general, is fairly loosely organized. The national group sets up special events, and creates badges and honors you can obtain, but it's the individual troops and leaders that decide which events and which badges to attend/obtain.

As a whole, when you have 10 girls and their mothers planning a fun weekend, you'll end up with something different than if you had 10 boys and their dads plan it. Besides interest, there's a dispairity in the leader's skill levels in different activities. When I earned my sewing badge, my mom and our leaders already knew what they were doing. When we insisted on earning our camping badge, first our leaders had to go learn to camp so that they could teach us.

IMHO, Girl Scouts ( the organization) has everything in place to be just as outdoorsy as the Boy Scouts. They just need more outdoorsy leaders and more outdoorsy mothers to guide them. Unfortunately, a lot of girls are joining the Boy Scouts as a more realistic option.

Damn. I think I just talked myself into leading a Girl Scout troop.

I really encourage you to. We're always looking for people with different skill levels to be troop leaders!

I may be a bit late to this, but here goes. As an Eagle Scout (c/o '16) I have to congratulate you for coming this far in Scouting, and I wish you the best in earning your Gold Award, it is a great honor. Now for the question: the general public views scouts (both genders, and programs) as travelling salespeople, pushing cookies and popcorn respectively. What would you say to a member of the general public that would convince them that Girl Scouts is more than just vests and cookies?

I normally explain to them the many volunteer experiences I've had and talk to them about how it has made me into a stronger young woman.

I love talking about the time I donated toys and blankets to the pediatric ward of the hospital and saw the kids' faces light up. It really shows what we do besides cookies and vests.

Former girl scout here (made it all the way to my last year as a junior!) What has given you the motivation to continue to be so passionate about girl scouts after so long?

I've just always loved the program and what it's done for me. I always have a new opportunity and experience ahead of me, so I stick to it and find it!

I made it to my silver award and then dropped out, so major props to you for making it to the end.

My questions: what kind of college scholarships are you being offered? And where do you want your career to go? Your gold award project sounds seriously awesome.

I've not been offered any scholarships yet to be honest. I plan on becoming an emergency care veterinarian. And Thank you!

Hello! I was in Girl Scouts all through high school myself, but it's been about 10 years since then.

When I was a scout, my troop leader had to get EXTREMELY creative to allow all of us to have the same meeting time, as we had a mixed age troop (about a 4 year span from youngest to oldest) - something that was decidedly frowned upon by our Neighborhood Council. She would do things like create a separate troop for a couple of years until we were all within the the same level rank again.

I was also fairly envious of my brother's boy scout experience, as they encouraged this mixed-age grouping and RELIED on it for the older boys teaching skills to the younger boys. Many of their activities also seemed to foster a sense of community, and the troop endured before and beyond the time-span my brother attended - something that was entirely impossible within my Girl Scout troop. As such, even though I was grateful for the group of girls I was with and everything my troop leader did for us, I had wished I could have been a boy scout instead. I wanted the same sense of community, and access to previous, successful leaders who had accomplished silver and gold awards before. I wanted to be able to have a wider selection of activities/badges than what the other girls wanted to do sometimes as well. (After we hit highschool, they much preferred not doing anything outside anymore, for example.)

My question is this: Has this policy changed at all? Are mixed-age troops more available? Has anything changed regarding making troops more enduring than just the small-ish set of girls that attends them, so that it builds a sense of community and has older girls teaching younger girls, like Boy Scouts has?

There are many mixed-age troops, but they tend to be super troops with many co-leaders. They do very well and actually do rely on older girls teaching younger girls!

I don't know about any policy changes about creating a troop besides it needing a trained leader and co-leader and the girls that show up.

My daughter just started Girl Scouts a couple weeks ago. She's only 6, but any helpful advice I can offer to her as she grows in the scouts? Also, anything noteworthy that your parents did for you along the way (or that you wish they did for you along the way) that I should consider as a dad?

Support what she wants to do. I would want to participate in activities that my troop hated, so we'd do it as a tag-a-long to another troop. If she wants to try to build legos, try to find a lego robotics class. If she wants to do rock climbing, maybe there's something nearby you guys.

If she wants to go to Disneyland, encourage her to reach that goal and help her get there. If its encouragement to sell cookies for troop funding to that goal, then work get her there.

Samoas or Carmel deLites?

They are called Caramel deLites where I am.

We use ABC Baker, not Little Brownie Baker!

When will GS be selling cookies again? I’m hungry for thin mints😰

My council starts selling at the beginning of February every year, but each council has different times. Try to find what your local council is and it may be easy to find it then.

Those are always a very popular cookie!

I hope this isn’t too late, I was a girl scout from kindergarten to sixth grade and I loved every minute of it. I actually regret quitting. At my school all of the girls who participated were bullied relentlessly. Which was awful because it was an educational group and plenty of fun.

That unfortunately resulted in all of us dropping it before high school. Have you experienced similar treatment or are people at your school just in general, kinder people? Also, we used to get to go on trips with our troop, what was your favorite kind of troop activity?

In elementary I was bullied a lot for it, and some in middle school, but now it's the common shock and awe at my involvement, followed by asking for free cookies.

I loved when my troop went to our local hospital to donate blankets and toys to the pediatrics ward. I always remember the kids' smiling faces.

Hi! I'm a new GS volunteer and serving on our council's Gold Award Committee where I'm currently mentoring one girl. I know you're early in your Gold Award process (awesome project, btw), but what advice do you think you could give mentors to help lead girls to finish the project successfully? Sometimes I feel like I'm not as involved with my girl as much as I should be, but the project has to be girl-led, so it's a tough line to walk, Imho.

For mentors, stay involved. It's always great to be helping. A lot of it is check-ups. "How's the project doing?", giving small tips or suggestions. I was stuck on how to get businesses involved, and how to make it sustainable until I was suggested to use online forms by my mentor. I can bet it's hard to be a mentor, but one thing I've heard is the butterfly story.

When butterfies hatch from their cocoons, they seem to struggle, wiggling back and forth to get out. Sometimes it even seems that they are stuck, but they get out eventually. If you help a butterfly get out, they will fall to the floor, unable to fly, and they will pass away. That's because their struggle helps them get stronger. They're pumping blood to their new wings. And once they emerge, done from the hard work they've done, they can't see their wings. A butterfly can't see how beautiful it truely is.

What is the easiest cookie to sell?

Definitely the Thin Mints!

I just wanted to say Thank You for being an awesome person. But apparently I have to ask a question.

What has been your most rewarding experience in the girl scout program?

The community service I've done. The experiences I've had are unforgettable.

I went the the pediatric ward of the hospital and donated blankets and teddy bears to patients. Watching their faces light up was simply incredible.

Hi! I used to be a Girl Scout— I finished when I graduated and worked for my local Council for a few years in college.

What’s your favorite meal to cook over a fire? ;) and do you have any awesome spins on a s’more? I always used Reese’s instead of chocolate when I was a camp counselor— we’d hide Reese’s in our backpacks and eat our PB s’mores when the kids were occupied.

We use Thanks-A-Lot Cookies instead of Graham crackers and chocolate. It's really good to add sprinkles to them too!

Was the inclusion of homosexual staff members, or scouts as big of an issue with the Girl Scouts as it was with the Boys scouts?

No actually. We've had a diverse staff for a long time. I think it was a big issue for boy scouts because of how long it took them and their big pushback on both sides.

Wait what? Girl scouts isnt just a cookie company? Seriously?

Seriously!

9 years a scout in Norway, and fondest memories were from the summer camps. Do you have all GS camps exclusively, or is coed common? Meeting scouts from around the world (ok, Europe) was great fun, but you don’t get that many foreign visits, do you?

We don't have many foreign visits, but when I was in Ohio, I met scouts from Italy and Germany.

Our camps only have girls unless it is a father-daughter camp.

Hi there! I did girl scouts through fourth or fifth grade. There seemed to be a lot of attrition once my troop hit middle school years, and I don't think anyone in my troop did it much past sixth grade. What can we do to keep young ladies involved, and what has been your best/favorite experience in all of your years of scouting?

I believe there needs to be more programming for older girls, but the majority of the time, when a girl has lost interest, there's not a way to get her back involved.

I love the community service I do with my troop. We donated blankets and toys to the children in the pediatric ward, so watching their faces light up was simply amazing to see. It made my whole year.

I was a Boy Scout for 45 minutes. I got sworn in and after about 45 minutes I left and never came back. Didn't feel the urge to tie knots, do community services, go camping, or sell popcorn.

But when I was 24 I donated my hair for the first time and the company gave me a girl scout badge for hair donation. It is currently on my Build a Bear, Girl Scout Thin Mint Bear.

Why does Girl Scouts seem so much more fun than Boy Scouts? You seem much more into the community than Boy Scouts. Why is that? Why do we never hear about Boy Scouts?

I have one of those bears too!

Boy Scouts, in my opinion hasn't done much in communities lately, besides cause controversy.

I really love Girl Scouts, it is so much fun to be honest, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the energy we have!

I feel the best way to be involved is to give back to the community I'm from, and I find a lot of people agree.

I thinks it’s pretty lame to be a Girl Scout in the 12th grade. What made you do something like that for so long?

I think it's pretty fun to be a Girl Scout in 12th grade, that's why I've done it for so long.

Why do you support child labor? Don't you think children giving up thier day to sell cookies should get paid?

Cookie sales are 100% optional and lots of girls sell none or just to family members. But it's a fundraiser, a percentage of the profits go to your troop, a percentage goes to the girl in the form of "cookie dough" money she can spend at the Girl Scout store, or towards summer camps and as you get older your cookie sales can be used to earn a college scholarship through Girl Scouts, most of the young girls just want the catalog prizes you can earn like with every fundraiser ever

Not that I'm agreeing with the whole idea of girl scouts being child labor nonsense but the cookie dough girl scout store this g really does remind of company store scrip lol

I always thought the cookie dollars were stupid but that is probably how they avoid any child labor complaints, if they started straight up paying the girls to sell cookies i could see how it might seem ethically concerning, by awarding them prizes essentially it's still just a fundraiser instead of child labor. I always used my cookie money towards summer camp though. Our troop sold a lot of cookies and we were able to use that money to go on tons of cool trips and do all sorts of fun stuff

My region allows girls to "bank" the dough to later be used when you apply to use it. I've paid my entire senior package, and am going to pay for college application fees with it, and with my last cookie sale, pay for college books. :)

Girl Scouts of the United States does not support child labor. Children volunteer their time to booths and get paid, but not in the way that you think. For one, there are rewards to selling cookies, both in a monetary sense, and in other physical items.

Girl Scout troops receive money from each box sold. There's a pdf on this page that shows How the Cookie Crumbles. The part that says Girl Rewards goes towards funding what is shown on a pdf found here labelled 2017 Girl and Troop PGA Awards.

What is labeled as troop proceeds goes towards funding experiences, such as community service or fun trips girls go on, that they decide to use. My troop uses our proceeds to pay our membership dues and buy uniform essentials.

Programming/Membership/Camp/etc. goes to funding our camps that girls go to, by selling cookies and using troop proceeds to attend, and keeping cost of membership down, train our adults how to run their troops and keep Girl Scouting fun for the girls.

Thank you for your question!

Would you marry a guy who wasnt in the boy scouts?

Yes. I actually dated a guy that was in boy scouts, and we just butted heads on everything,and every experience I've had with one as a friend hasn't been that great.

Its more of a sibling rivalry thing more than best friends.