Welcome

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power.  You just take it. 
~Roseanne Barr

Hello, and welcome to Howling Girl.  This is a space specifically designed for power, enlightenment, and positive energy.  This space recognizes the strength, courage, creativity, and tenacity of teenage girls (and women of all ages, for that matter).  Howling Girl came as a direct retaliation to a society that likes to tell you that teenage girls are shallow, boring, obnoxious creatures whose only concerns are popularity and consumerism.  I am hear to tell you, they are wrong.

Years ago, when I was still a teenage girl, I was driving in the car one day and heard a story on the radio.  The story told about a cable channel that was specifically created for women, with a game show for teenage girls.  The game show was created to support the truthful nature of girls: they are smart, competitive beings with a voice of their own.  However, through a series of mis-steps and a lack of faith, the game show became like all other media and portrayed girls as vapid, boy-crazy fools.
The moral of the story, as the reporter put it, is that sometimes you want to make something great that really just isn't.  As they put it, you want to show girls as being smart and powerful, but really they're just not.

While this was many years ago, I still remember the force of my outrage.  I was livid.  Here we were again, the media telling everybody, including all the girls listening, that they were worthless.  Girls should just give up already, it said, since everyone knows how pointless an entity they are.  Another pound had been added on the scale against teenage women.  
For there are many pounds against you.  There are magazines, books, clothing lines, makeup industries, sports teams, parents, peers, teachers, a whole SOCIETY telling you who you are and what you care about.  And honestly, they don't think much of you.  
I knew then and there that I was tired of this barrage against girls.  I knew the true nature of girls (after all, I was one of them) and I knew what we are capable of.  I knew the possibilities awaiting us, and I knew (even if I couldn't quite believe it about myself) that we are one of the most powerful and capable groups on this planet.   I resolved that day that I would create media, in any way that I could, that would support real girls, that would help them become the greatest form of themselves, and that would show them a path to amazing womanhood. 
Then, time passed.  My resolve started to wain.  I still wanted to do all the things I had decided that day that I could do, but I was scared.  I shrank down into the being I was told to be, and I consumed instead of created.  I let my voice ring out only as far as my ribcage.  I settled.

But, the great lesson of life, and one we often like to forget, is that time moves forward, and opportunities are always present.  It is never too late to do anything.  It may have taken me a couple of years, but here I am, creating my dream.  With the support of good friends, I have found the courage and the resolve.  Without them, it never would have happened.
Here it is, January 1, 2011, and here is my New Year's Resolution: to create Howling Girl, media for the modern girl.  Not propaganda, not advertising, not faux-support while really pushing you back down, but an honest resource for girls to become AMAZING! 
I plan on Howling Girl bringing you a variety of information.  Some of it will be personal, some of it global, some of it fun, some of it deathly serious, some of it informative, some of it entertaining, but all of it positive, useful, and true.  Because I believe in you.  I really do.  I believe you are magnificent.  I believe you are smart, savvy, and fascinating.  I believe you are curious, hopeful, and above all, POWERFUL.

I cannot do this alone.  I will need your help and support.  I will need your comments as well as your contributions.  I will need your questions and insights.  I cannot do this alone, but I am finally doing it.  Because, after all, nobody gives us power.  We just take it.

-eliza