Forever friendships are a powerful thing. It’s what gives Girl Scouts the confidence to be themselves. It’s what makes them feel safe enough to try new things and cheer each other on in tough times. It’s the support that can get them up on tough mornings, help them raise their hand in class, and even climb to the top of a mountain.

Our Program

Girl Scouts prepares girls to empower themselves and promotes compassion, courage, confidence, character, leadership, entrepreneurship, and active citizenship through activities involving camping, community service, learning first aid, and earning badges by acquiring practical skills.

Girl Scouts is a way of life that brings out the best in your girl, even in the most challenging of times. While they're learning about STEM, the outdoors, entrepreneurship, and important life skills, Girl Scouts are also discovering new ways to make their family and community stronger, kinder, and better for everyone.

Girl Scouts helps girls influence the world around them. One of the fundamental tenets of Girl Scouts is that it builds girls of courage, confidence, and character – all skills that can benefit a girl as she grows into adulthood by giving her a foundation for leadership.

Explore What Girls Scouts has to Offer

Badge Activities

Take action with a variety of new badges and skills.

Camps & Outdoor

Explore outdoor adventures and camps.

Explore More

Find your next adventure in the great outdoors and space!

Cookies & More

Discover a whole new world of deliciousness and be an entrepreneur

Girl Scout Programs

Develop leadership skills through our unique programs.

Highest Awards

Got a vision for a better world? You can create lasting change.

Why Girl Scouts?

The Girl Scout Impact Study confirms that Girl Scouting has a strong, positive impact on girls, helping them develop into citizens who are responsible, caring, engaged – and prepared for a lifetime of leadership. Program participation has contributed to the development of a stronger sense of self among girls, greater confidence, character building and the courage to be themselves.

What Girl Scouting Does for Girls toggle arrow

As a national organization, Girl Scouts is 2.5 million strong—1.7 million girls and 750,000 adults who believe in the power of every girl to change the world. We’re the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. And with programs from coast to coast and across the globe, Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure, and success.

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience is a one-of-a-kind, proven leadership development program that pairs girls with strong, caring female role models and mentors who prepare them to take the lead from age 5 to 18 and into adulthood.

Studies show that all-girl environments help girls become more confident, independent, and willing to share their opinions and ideas. In Girl Scouts specifically, girls:

Develop a strong sense of self
Learn positive values
Seek out new challenges
Build healthy relationships
And learn how to solve problems in their communities.

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) toggle arrow

Girl Scouts gain valuable skills in a girl-led program that stresses learning by doing and working as a team with the guidance of supportive adult mentors.

Girl Scouts look at our world and take action to change it for the better. They make friends, challenge themselves with new experiences, write their own stories, and develop the skills and confidence to say. "I know I can do this!"

We do all this and more through the Girl Scout Leadership Experience, and it's what makes Girl Scouting a unique experience for girls.

Female Leadership and Leadership Pipeline toggle arrow

From the boardroom to the courtroom to the caucus room, the need for female leadership has never been clearer or more urgent than it is today—and only Girl Scouts has the expertise to give girls and young women the tools they need to empower themselves and assume their rightful role as leaders.

To create more female leaders, we need to start young and make sure today's girls are acquiring the courage, confidence, character, and other skills they need to take the reins of leadership in the 21st century. Girl Scouts understands this vital connection between youth and future success and offers programming specifically designed with girls in mind.

Women bring invaluable perspectives to the courtroom, the classroom, and the caucus room. If the United States is to maintain its competitive edge in the fast-paced environment of today and tomorrow, we must leverage the full potential of our workforce. Girl Scouts, the best leadership experience for girls in the world, brings more than a century of experience in helping girls unlock their potential and unleash it in our world.

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When girls participate in Girl Scouts, they benefit in 5 important ways:

Strong Sense of Self - girls have confidence in themselves and their abilities, and form positive identities.
Positive Values - girls act ethically, honestly, and responsibly, and show concern for others.
Challenge Seeking - girls learn to take appropriate risks, try things even if they might fail, and learn from mistakes.
Healthy Relationships - girls develop and maintain healthy relationships by communicating their feelings directly and resolving conflicts constructively.
Community Problem Solving - girls desire to contribute to the world in purposeful and meaningful ways, learn how to identify problems in the community, and create "action plans" to solve them.

Girls experience these benefits through participating in age-appropriate activities that are girl-led, cooperative, and hands-on. This means girls and adults:

make decisions together about what to do and how to do it
work collaboratively as a team, and
learn by actively reflecting on experiences that are relevant to them.

Why do these five outcomes matter?

When girls exhibit these attitudes and skills, they become responsible, productive, caring, and engaged citizens. But don't take our word for it. Studies show that the development of attitudes, behaviors, and skills like confidence, conflict resolution, and problem-solving are critical to well-being and rival academic and technical skills in their capacity to predict long-term positive life outcomes.

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The Girl Scout program provides engaging and worthwhile activities that respond to the needs of today’s girls, with flexibility that respects their busy lives—and yours! We deliver programming that challenges your girl to uncover hidden passions and learn more about herself than she ever thought possible.

Everything a Girl Scout does centers around STEM, the outdoors, the development of life skills, and entrepreneurship, and is designed to meet her where you are now and to grow along with you. Whether you're building a robotic arm, building a shelter in the backcountry, or volunteering at a local food bank.

STEM
A brighter future for us all can be a reality, thanks to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Research shows that girls are keenly interested in STEM and excel at it. Yet, for a variety of reasons, girls often don’t pursue STEM—starting as early as elementary school.

Girl Scouts lets your girl see that STEM can help her make the world a better place! When girls participate in focused STEM programs, they are more interested in STEM and careers in tech—including app development, robotics, coding, and cybersecurity—and they:

Become better problem-solvers and critical thinkers (OR learn to think scientifically to solve problems)
Have confidence in their STEM skills and abilities
Get excited about STEM subjects and want to learn more about them
Learn the importance and relevance of STEM to people and society and options for their own career paths

Outdoors
Studies show that girls today are not spending nearly enough time outdoors. Technology and structured activities leave less time for girls to get outside and enjoy nature. But as a Girl Scout, she’ll have plenty of opportunities to create her own outdoor adventures and develop a lifelong appreciation for nature and the out-of-doors—whether with her troop, at camp, or with friends and family.

And that’s great news—because when Girl Scouts get outside, they

Discover that they can better solve problems and overcome challenges
Develop leadership skills, build social bonds, and are happier overall
Become team players and care more about protecting our environment

Life Skills
Girl Scout badges covering topics like civic engagement, healthy living, and communication skills help Girl Scouts grow in confidence as they develop the skills to lead their best life!

Whether by exercising and staying healthy, developing strong relationships with family and peers, advocating on behalf of others, protecting our environment, or exploring careers that can truly change the world for the better, girls:

Gain the skills and the inspiration to accept challenges and overcome obstacles
Develop greater confidence and a stronger sense of self
Are happier overall and display more positive values throughout life

Entrepreneurship
Research shows that girls are actively interested in becoming entrepreneurs, developing financially stable futures, and using their skills to make a big impact on the world.

But there are stumbling blocks on a girl’s path, including fear of failure, concerns about bringing big ideas to life, and the perception that men are more likely to be entrepreneurs than women. While entrepreneurship may not be right for every girl, every Girl Scout will benefit, and maybe even discover a future career path, by learning to think like an entrepreneur.

As an important part of learning vital business skills, girls will:

Discover how to set and achieve realistic goals in their lives and future careers
Make better decisions and build stronger interpersonal skills
Develop a valuable work ethic and a sense of empathy for others

Psychological and Physical Safe Space toggle arrow

At Girl Scouts, girls find a safe haven—a girl-inclusive space where they're free to be themselves without the pressures and social anxiety that can result from a mixed-gender environment.

Our leadership model is designed to meet girls' interests and needs because it’s collaborative and values a diversity of perspectives.

At Girl Scouts, everything we do—from troop meetings, cookie sales, and camping, to STEM and beyond—is girl-led and girl-focused and takes place in the safe space of an all-girl environment.

The girl-only, girl-led, and all-around girl-defined aspects of Girl Scouting are crucial to what we offer because not all girls have access to the single-gender environment of, for example, the private school system.

The emotional, girl-inclusive safe space offered by Girl Scouts fosters collaboration instead of competition, and promotes support among girls, enabling them to stretch beyond their limits and transfer valuable knowledge and skills to any environment, both now and in the future.

Highest Awards toggle arrow

The Girl Scout Gold Award and the National Young Woman of Distinction honor are the most prestigious recognition in Girl Scouts.

Girls typically spend one to two years on their Gold Award projects and must create long-term sustainability plans that benefit the community.

Girl Scout Gold Award recipients rate their general success significantly higher than their peers and report greater success in reaching their goals in many areas:

Higher education and career
- Gold Award recipients stand out in the college admissions process, earn college scholarships, and enter the military one rank higher than their peers.
Additionally, Girl Scout alumnae experience much greater lifetime benefits. They:
- Have more successful careers
- Are more active as mentors and community volunteers
- Vote more regularly
- Are better educated, and enjoy higher household and personal income

Learn more about Highest Awards for girls.

Faith Based Awards toggle arrow

Girl Scouts is proud of its more than 100-year history of inclusiveness and openness to girls of all faiths.

However, we do not align ourselves with or offer programming through the lens of any one religion's beliefs or institution.

Our programming encourages girls to explore their personal faith and develop a deeper understanding of the role it plays in their own lives.

As with academics, Girl Scouts seeks to enhance a girls' personal faith journey.

Pledging to serve "God and my country" is part of the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

We aren't here to dictate what a girl's faith should be or to encourage her to incorporate any particular practice or belief into her life—we believe matters of personal faith are best left to families.

Find out about Girl Scouts' faith-based awards.

The Family Experience

You are an important part of the Girl Scout Experience. Make us a part of your Family.

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Our Program

Explore What Girls Scouts has to Offer

Why Girl Scouts?

When girls participate in Girl Scouts, they benefit in 5 important ways: