In 2006 Beth Mooney created Girls Take Charge and uses it as her vehicle to “pay it forward.” In the three years since, Girls Take Charge has touched the lives of more than 1,200 girls in over 10 states. Mooney’s ultimate goal through Girls Take Charge is to offer programs in all 50 states.

The workshops that make up the Girls Take Charge program are one to three days long and engage young women in highly interactive, energetic seminars focused on how women are taking charge, creating success and making a difference. Girls Take Charge explores and develops the inner-self by helping to shift girls’ focuses away from their physical appearance toward building self-confidence from within. The program gives young women the skills and confidence to be true to—and proud of—who they are. To extend the impact, the participants are encouraged to become mentors and inspirations to other girls, and to lead worthwhile programs in their schools to encourage even more socialization and community service.

In May 2008 Mooney came one step closer to driving meaningful change and creating a better tomorrow for her Kennett Square, Pennsylvania community. She was named the winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash-award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She was among the first Hello Tomorrow Fund winners to be selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Mooney’s award supported the launch of the Baltimore, Maryland chapter of Girls Take Charge.

Corrosive messages through media and other sources have become so powerful that they play a role in the negative self-worth that young girls develop that affects their potential for success. Research shows that while boys’ confidence levels continue to soar from 7th through 12th grade, girls’ self-esteem at the same age decreases, a time when girls spend up to 85% of their time thinking about their external appearances. Today’s young women face an uphill battle as they begin to discover and define themselves. Girls Take Charge reaches young women at a time in their lives when they are most susceptible to a negative self perception.

Beth graduated from Bucknell University with a double major in economics and education. She earned her Masters Degree from Loyola College in Education. Afterward she worked in higher education and corporate America before stopping both to realize her dream of “paying it forward” and “backwards” to all those who had served as mentors and role models along the way. Beth lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband Colin and three small children, Keelyn, Joseph and Klaire.