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.

Special Post 2: Ariadna P. (Young Pioneer; 70s Romania's Response to Scouting)

When Ariadna was five she had the honor of the joining the ranks of Romania’s Young Pioneers. At the time she was a Young Pioneer, Girl Scouting/Guiding did not exist in Romania and the Young Pioneers were the Romania’s version of scouting.

As a Young Pioneer, Ariadna wore a blue skirt, a white shirt and a red scarf in the shape of a triangle. Through the Young Pioneers she also participated in many things like Young Pioneer Choir, competitions and summer camps.

As a Young Pioneer, Ariadna sang many songs about equality, the beauty of her country and the pride of being a Young Pioneer. Since Ariadna had a good voice, she was allowed to join the Young Pioneer Choir at her school. They had a very good teacher who often translated different songs for them to sing, including the Ode to Joy. As a choir they entered many competitions and even got second place once in a national competition.

As a pioneer, she also partook in competitions dealing with math and science. When she was old enough, Ariadna also learned how to shoot a gun and entered shooting competitions.

During the summer, Ariadna and her fellow pioneers went to summer camps. There, they would play games and sports like volleyball. At camp, they didn’t really have many contests though.

When Ariadna was 14, she graduated from being a Young Pioneer. She feels that being a Young Pioneer gave her a greater sense of pride for being part of her country.

Diana S. (Past Girl Scout, Age 10 - ?)

Many years after Diana graduated from high school and got married, she took a trip to Georgia. While she was in Georgia she got to see something that reminded her of her time in Girl Scouts, she got to see the Wayne-Gordon House or the birthplace of Juliette Lowe.

When Diana was ten, the group of friends she hung out with decided to become a troop and that was the beginning of her Girl Scout career. Diana’s troop kept themselves together throughout the first few years of high school, and then they disbanded.

From that time, Diana remembers earning badges for sewing and cooking, as well as getting her green vest and selling cookies.

Like most people, her favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Thin Mint, but she still fondly remembers the cookies she sold when she was a scout. She recalls the chocolate cookie with white filling (Oxfords/Chalet Crèmes) that is now retired and the ever-popular Trefoil cookies. Compared to the cookies that existed when Diana was a Girl Scout, today’s cookies seem healthier in comparison, but lack the same amount of butter and sugar that Diana remembers in her cookies.

She also remembers that her troop went camping. They started out in someone’s back yard, cooking s’mores over the fire. Later, they began to travel to the Girl Scout House in Catalina. The Girl Scout house was large dorm with a cooking faculty. The dorm was like a classroom with bare bunks. They would spend a lot of their summer there.

None of her children were Scouts when they were young, but Diana still remembers the qualities of honor and truthfulness that Girl Scouts taught her.

Madison Z. (Girl Scout Adult)

At Madison’s school, joining Girl Scouts was like joining a club or sport. Girl Scouts was just one of many choices, at the time kids her age were participating in sports, art classes or Girl Scouts. It was some kind of event that involved other groups of children, so it became a social event with community service mixed in.

An example of some of the community service Madison did with Girl Scouts was visiting an old age home. At this home they did caroling and they also made rag dolls for the women at the home (earning their sewing badge in the process).

Madison’s favorite memory from Girl Scouts was their trip to Lake Lakota. While they were there they learned how to camp, they learned some new songs, they did trust games and also did some bonding games. Madison remembers late night talks and pillow fights as well.

Lake Lakota was just one of the many trips that Madison’s troop did. Her troop did trips almost every chance they got, during school breaks of all seasons.

Madison has all three of the metallic (Bronze, Silver & Gold) Girl Scout Awards. She earned one of the awards by adopting a fire station. What this meant is that Madison would often be in and out of fire station 99. She constantly visited and went on tours with them and in return they taught her what a day of work was like, how to preform CPR and how to do first-aid.

Girl Scouting has affected Madison’s life in many ways. It has given her the physical and mental skills that place her a cut above the rest. When Madison has done jobs babysitting and tutoring, many parents chose her above others due to her Red-Cross certifications. When Madison’s class went on a camping trip and no one knew how to pitch a tent, Madison took the lead and taught them all how. She can sew and cook, but she can also do many things that people don't expect a girl to be able to do. Madison feels very empowered and being a Girl Scout is a large badge of pride for her.

One of the biggest things Girl Scouts has given her is self-confidence, whether it is confidence that she can survive on her own, save a life, cook for herself, protect herself in the wilderness, stich a blanket or work in a hospital, she has it.

Madison is currently a junior in college, she is a third generation Girl Scout and she’s living the dream.

Kotoe K. (ことえ) (Ambassador)

Kotoe has not only been a Girl Scout in Tokyo Japan, but she has also been a Girl Scout (American Girl Scout Overseas) in Seoul, Korea and a Juliette in the UK.

As young child in Japan, Kotoe’s parents sent her to an International School in Tokyo. When Kotoe was in third grade she joined the Brownie troop at her school. As a “Japanese Girl Scout” (part of Japan’s Girl Scout Association) Kotoe wore the Japanese Girl Scout uniform. Her uniform consisted of a light blue beret, a white shirt, a light blue skirt, a navy blue belt, navy blue knee high socks, black shoes and a red scarf (the color specific to Brownies, when she became a Junior she began to wear a brown scarf). Despite being a Japanese Girl Scout, Kotoe earned the American Brownie Try-Its and sewed them on her uniform.

Kotoe's first overnight camping happened during her time as a Brownie. During their trip it rained so hard that they couldn’t light a fire, so they lit candles. When it was time for sleep Kotoe remembers they had to “put the light away” with their fingers.

In fifth grade, Kotoe quit Girl Scouts. In the time when she was absent from the Girl Scout organization, she moved to Korea and proceeded to go to another international school. In seventh grade, a Cadet Girl Scout Troop was formed at her school and Kotoe joined it. Kotoe’s troop was made of the daughters of expats from Bolivia, the UK, Australia, Italy, the USA and Japan (Kotoe). Kotoe’s new troop often took trains to different parts of Korea to do different activities. Once they made sandwiches for the homeless of Seoul. Another time they took a trip to the army base in Seoul. Yet another time they rented snowboards and went snowboarding together. They tried to earn the Lady Baden-Powell Badge together but they couldn’t complete the camping part of it due to the fear that they might catch swine flu.

As was mentioned above, Kotoe is considered part of the American troop and her troop occasionally did joint events with the local Korean Girl Scouts. To communicate they mostly used English with the Korean girls who knew English translating for those who didn’t. They also used a good deal of hand-motions and shows of emotion.

Besides learning about the culture of her host country, Kotoe also learned about the different cultures of the countries of the girls in her troop. The troop would often go to different girls houses to do different activities (like once they baked Christmas cookies at the Bolivian girl’s house) and while Kotoe was at the houses of her fellow scouts she would often learn a bit about their native country due to the food her fellow Girl Scouts served or the decorations that adorned their walls.

When Kotoe was in elementary school in Japan, she was never the outdoorsy type but that all changed when she got the opportunity to go to Girl Scout camps. She attended camps during her summer breaks from school in Korea and later from school in the UK.

The first camp she ever went to was located near Amalu’s hometown in Okinawa. It lasted for around a week (the longest time Kotoe had spent in a tent up until that time) and consisted of the normal camp things like singing and games. Some of the songs Kotoe knows like Five Little Angels, The Princess Pat, The Guiding Light (learned from an Indian Girl Scout) and Taps, were learned at that original camp.

The second camp was at a place called Tama Hills. Kotoe’s campsite was parked at the top of a tall hill. It took half an hour to get up or down the hill. Kotoe thinks they spent at least two hours a day going up and down the hill. They had to go down the hill to eat meals (breakfast and dinner (not lunch)) and to do some activities. They traveled the hill so often that they got blisters on their feet.

At almost all the camps Kotoe went to, it rained. It rains so much that generally, by the end of the week, all the Girl Scouts are huddled in a cafeteria or craft room of the camp due to the unfortunate fact that their tents and campsites are flooded. Tama Hills was no exception to this common occurrence.

At the time she did this camp (the first Tama Hills experience), Kotoe was 15 and she was the odd one out since all the other 15-yearolds were P.A.s. At the time Kotoe didn’t even know what a P.A. was but when she found out, she decided it was something she wanted to do. The next year Kotoe did the camp she came back as a P.A. and she loved it. Teaching younger girls how to do crafts, sing and more has given Kotoe the chance to build her confidence and communication skills. At her school, Kotoe interacts with younger and older girls alike in many ways, if Kotoe hadn’t been a P.A., she might not have had the skills and guts to become the head girl at her all girls boarding school in the UK.

Due to Girl Scouts, Kotoe went to the same Mt. Fuji Leadership program that Amalu did. At the program, Kotoe learned a variety of things; to sew, to make cosmetics from food (Kool-Aid to lip gloss), do orienteering and how to be a leader. To Kotoe, leadership is not just the job of the “appointed leader”, it is a job shared by everyone. Everyone is a leader in her own way.

Another Girl Scout event Kotoe went to was one located in Iwate, Japan. Kotoe and some other scouts took a bus to visit Japanese Girl Guides in Iwate whose homes were affected by a tsunami. They taught the Iwate Girl Guides American Girl Scout songs and games, and they even shared a meal of classic PB&J, a meal some of the girls had never tasted before in their lives.

Kotoe also recently visited the WAGGGS gender equality event in Tokyo called The World We Want for Girls. The event discussed the different examples of gender equality around the world and possible ways to reduce the gender inequality in some places and improve the life of women around the world. Kotoe was especially touched by a Girl Guide leader from Maldives. In her country girls are married in their late teens and have children in their early twenties. Love is not even a factor in their marriages. Kotoe had heard stories like this before, but hearing it from one who had actually experienced it meant way more to her then the stories she had read or seen in the news.

Kotoe has just graduated high school and the road of her life is ahead of her. When she goes to college in the UK or in Japan, she plans to become a Girl Scout leader. Kotoe wants to share the opportunities, skills and knowledge she has gained. One of the final things she mentioned in the interview is that Girl Scouts taught her that happiness is contagious. As a Girl Scout, one does many good deeds, and each one, no matter if it is small or large, is bound to make at least one person happy. That one person will spread their happiness to countless other people. This will improve our world one person at a time.