5 Powerful Ways to Mentor Young Girls

Having powerful role models to show them the way can have a profound impact on young girls. Programs that pair older women with young girls serve to teach these girls about self-esteem, job and career possibilities, and life skills. If you’re thinking about mentoring young women and girls, here are some tips to keep in mind.

Take Your Daughter to Work

Credit: The Guardian

Sometimes, a person doesn’t know what she doesn’t know, until it’s pointed out to her. That is often the case when it comes to future jobs. The Guardian highlighted a program that introduces young girls to professions, like law or engineering, showing them that women can work in any profession they choose. If you’re mentoring a girl, the best thing you can do for her sometimes is to take her to work. This small act just might open up her whole world.

Teach Her Not to Put Up With Others' Negativity

Credit: Independent UK

Self-respect is vital for anyone we teach people how to treat us. Many girls, especially those who have grown up with family violence, don’t understand that they don’t have to allow people to mistreat them. Xyngular suggests that if you are mentoring a girl, teach her to identify those negative thoughts in herself and in others and to transform them into positive thinking. She does not have to put up with others’ negativity. Doing this may help her break out of old family dynamics and to go down a newer, more emotionally healthy road.

Be Consistent

No mentoring program can be successful without consistency. New York Metro Parents reminds mentors that long-time mentoring organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters embrace consistency as a foundational aspect of mentoring. If you’d like to be a mentor, make sure you can be consistent in the amount of time you devote to the girl you’re mentoring.

Give Her Perspective

Problems that mean almost nothing to an adult can feel overwhelming to a girl who doesn’t have the same life experience yet. A good mentor can give her charge a different perspective, based on her life experience. The best mentors can even help the girl see all sides of the situation, which often leads to the development of compassion.

Credit: Grove Dental

Decision-Making Skills

As Psychology Today points out, it’s not a mentor’s job to make decisions for the person she is mentoring. It’s better to teach the young woman how to make right choices. Talking to the girls about their values helps them make decisions now, and in the future, when you’re no longer around to advise them.

Mentoring programs pair an older, more experienced woman, with a girl who needs a bit of guidance in life. If you’re thinking about joining a mentoring program for girls, keep a few things in mind. First, a girl needs to know she teaches people how to treat her. If she knows she doesn’t have to take crap from others, she is less likely to bullied and to have greater self-respect.

Other essential gifts to impart to the girl you’re mentoring include perspective, decision-making skills, career advice, and consistency. If you bring this to your mentoring program, it’s likely that you’ll see this young girl blossom.

For more resources on how to help empower your daughter, sister, or young woman in your life, check out our resource page!