Ryan (Current Ambassador)

“The most important thing I think Girl Scouts teaches girls is that whoever you are, it is okay to be yourself.”


13 years ago, Ryan’s mother, a former Girl Scout, learned that the girls at her child’s elementary school were creating a Girl Scout troop. It was then that she decided that her child would become a scout. He missed the meeting that year, so it was only next year that Ryan became a Brownie. Now, all these years later, Ryan is still a scout, now in Arizona.

When he moved to Arizona, Ryan found notable differences between the council there and the one he had previously been under in New York. Here, there were more girls who wanted to be in troops then leaders who wanted to lead troops. Thus, there was a waiting list to get into Girl Scouts.

Ryan’s first troop leaders were the type of people who believed that the most important aspect of Scouting was the craft aspect. They taught him how to sew, to make bracelets, to iron, to hot-glue, to fold things (like sleeping bags) and to cook. Ryan learned how to use a Dutch-oven to create pies, pizzas and more. This was an especially useful skill when he went camping.

His troop didn’t as much go camping as a troop as they went camping as friends. They would stay up late talking, telling stories and making boondoggles. However, Ryan’s favorite memory with his troop was visiting the Discovery Center. The scouts simply ran around, playing together and having fun.

Every year, Ryan’s troop takes part in a program called Troop to Troop, but they don’t do it the same way as the council does. Instead of taking donations with which the council sends cookies overseas to soldiers, they found soldiers from their area and asked their families if they could send them cookies. If the family said yes, they would send a care package with a note, Girl Scout cookies, and a few extra items.

Ryan didn’t earn his Bronze or Silver Award, but he is currently working on his Gold Award. Ryan’s plan for his Gold Award is to create a website for helping people who suffer from mental illness and self-injury. He says that a website such as the one he is creating would have been very beneficial him. He wants to fill the website with words of comfort, help, videos, methods to help resist urges, etc. Ryan says that as now, more people are aware of self-harm, he is not as afraid of confronting the stigma associated with it.

From his experiences with Girl Scouts and the world, Ryan has kept the values of leaving a place cleaner then he found it and helping anyone who seems to be in distress close to his heart. He tries to do everything in his power to make the world a better place. Everyone he meets, he treats as his equal, regardless of if they are two or hundred years old, they are all his equals.


Ryan can be found at his tumblr.

Correction: The original draft had Ryan under a different name and pronouns. As of 2015, Ryan came out as a transgender man and I decided to change the pronouns and name in this post to reflect that.