Middle school girls in Redmond now have a place to turn when struggling with issues common to their age.
Jillian Roels, a junior at Redmond High School and a top ten qualifier in last year’s Miss Washington Teen USA pageant, has opened a Redmond chapter of Girl Talk, a mentoring program for middle school girls.

The Girl Talk program, a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, was founded in 2002 by a then-15-year-old, Haley Kilpatrick. The idea was to create a program that would help girls get through their challenging middle school years, with the help of high school girls, according to desiretoinspire.org, the Girl Talk website. Today, Girl Talk reaches 30,000 girls in 41 states, with more chapters being started by high school girls, like Roels. Washington state has three other Girl Talk locations in Lacrosse, Longview and Spokane.

“For me, having someone to turn to is a huge deal because in middle school I was cyber-bullied and dealt with that a lot, so I know where a lot of the girls are coming from,” said Roels. “I also know that there aren’t a whole lot of outlets for girls to go to if they’re dealing with problems like that besides their parents, but some of those girls can’t talk to their parents.”

Topics that will be covered include a broad range of issues including, gossip, underage drinking, texting and driving, bullying, abstinence and body image. Roels must follow a curriculum given to her by the organization, but she gets to decide what lessons she wants to discuss based on the concerns she receives from her girls.

“I will be going over with the girls, how to deal with these things, how they feel about it and also share my personal experiences with them, to let them know that they aren’t alone and they can come to me with anything,” said Roels.

Roels is an active volunteer in the community. She has volunteered for numerous organizations including Race for the Cure, the Boys and Girls Club, and Special Olympics of Washington. 

“I love helping my community and being in pageants helps me do that more often. I hope to get other girls involved in things I like to do,” said Roels.

Every Girl Talk chapter has an adult adviser to supervise the discussions because some of the issues require extra guidance. Marylou Roels, Jillian’s mother, acts as the adviser for this chapter and will be present at all meetings and able to communicate any concerns to the parents, if necessary.

“Even on the adviser side there is a program, because I will be hearing all of it too and if it is getting to the point where a parent needs to be involved, there are booklets that we can give to the parents,” said Marylou.

Girl Talk Redmond is scheduled to start Thursday, March 3. The meetings will take place every Thursday at the Remax office at 16310 NE 85th St.

“I think help should be everywhere; girls shouldn’t have to search for a program that can help them,” said Jillian.

For more information about the Redmond chapter of Girl Talk, call Marylou Roels at (206) 478-7003.