EVANSTON — The Evanston Youth Club held its inaugural Live #LikeAGirl Conference on Saturday, Feb. 23, when a few dozen girls, fourth graders and up, spent a couple of hours sharing, supporting one another and basically celebrating sisterhood. 

The keynote speaker for the event was Evanston teen Sydney Lyman, who spoke about what living like a girl means to her.

“Living like a girl means everyone has her own perspective but we still have a community,” she said. “It’s more than knowing your own self-worth, it’s helping guide others.” 

In her enthusiastic talk, Lyman shared what she feels is important for young girls to keep in mind.

“It’s easy to look around and feel defeated,” she said. “Change is hard. Progress is hard. But everybody is a puzzle piece in their community. Living like a girl isn’t about not recognizing troubles. It’s about being positive and showing people you care. Look outside yourself. Changing your own corner can change your community and change your world.” 

After the keynote address, the girls in attendance split into two groups for breakout sessions. One session was conducted by the Evanston Soroptimists, including Tammy Koncitik, Katie Beppler, Jessica Kendrick, Bailey Snyder, Sheron Cox and Julie O’Connell. 

The Soroptimist presentation focused on self-image, turning perceived flaws into strengths, positive affirmations and treating others with kindness.

“Everybody feels like they’re not enough,” Beppler said. “We can build ourselves up while building others up.” 

With a mirror exercise, Soroptimist members took turns saying negative things about themselves in the mirror, after which fellow Soroptimists turned those perceived flaws into strengths. The girls then broke into smaller groups to discuss different flaws and practice turning them around into positives. 

After the group met back up, girls were given notecards to write down what they believed their own flaw to be. They were asked to keep those cards in a place where they would regularly see them as a reminder to turn the negative into a positive and that everybody has something they feel insecure about. 

The Soroptimists also provided the girls with positive affirmation cards and each girl in attendance was allowed to select one Conscious Ink temporary tattoo of an inspirational statement. 

In the other breakout session, Youth Club Program Director Cecilia Adams also spoke with the girls about positive self-esteem and the way in which negative thoughts can weigh a person down and make it difficult to progress. Adams helped the girls visualize that weight by having one of the girls carry around actual weights on her shoulders, in her pockets and with a weight ball in front of her to slow down her movement. 

Girls were then asked to write positive “me” statements, followed by making bead bracelets to symbolize what the girls like about themselves. 

During the final 30 minutes of the conference, girls spent time taking pictures with Polaroid cameras, dancing and decorating the Youth Club girls’ locker room.

Youth Club Executive Director Holly Slade-West told the girls, “I love being a girl and a woman. We see the world differently than men, not lesser but unique.” 

Slade-West said she grew up surrounded by incredible women.

“I had a sisterhood, and here at the Youth Club we have a sisterhood,” she said. “We have a pact that we support each other, and we share that support with others, even if they’re not Youth Club members.” 

Girls who attended were treated to a breakfast bar and snacks, a T-shirt and a swag bag filled with donated items. 

Slade-West said the conference was successful and is something the Youth Club will continue in the future, along with launching a separate boys’ conference.

“We strongly feel that we need to actively and intentionally provide positive opportunities for our youth to combat the negativity and barriers they are facing,” she said. 

“Our first girls’ conference, “Live #LikeAGirl,” was our way of supporting, empowering and letting our girls know that being a girl means something great.”