Students and teenagers in today’s world think in extremes- they believe there is only arrogance, or self hatred. This is far from true. Self love is impertinent to success, both in school and in personal life. So many people nowadays think degradingly of themselves and don’t understand what it means to take pride in their abilities, confusing it for cockiness or simply believing that they aren’t worth it. 

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We created The Empowerment Project in response to these ideas. Our goal is to help correct and guide this thought process into soon-to-be-adults, who are just entering the realm of finding their identities. We believe that everybody has immense value, even if they don't see it themselves- and we aim to create this positive image in the minds of our youth. 

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What started as a high school impact project (called the Big Idea Project) has now become our mission. At the end of the day, we realized that we need to reach out to more than just the people in our community; we need to get this message to the entire world. And while this is, of course, idealistic, it all starts with just one person. One project at a time, one school at a time, and one person at a time, we hope to make a difference. 

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My name is Autumn Sorrentino. I'm the team leader, and the one wearing blue on the far right in the picture up above. I was inspired to do this project the second that we were told our assignment was to make a difference after noticing the negativity that surrounded our generation. Everybody around me kept talking about how they were too fat, their hair was too stringy, they couldn’t play their instrument well enough, they were stupid… The list went on and on. Eventually I thought to myself, “Who am I to think better of myself?” So I started to focus on my flaws. I discovered that there were far more things that I could find that were wrong with me than were right, and I hated myself for it. It got to a point where every time I passed a mirror, instead of admiring what I used to find attractive in myself, I’d hide my face from the reflection because I thought I was disgusting. I started eating less, I stopped performing in front of people unless necessary, and I was angry with myself for any grade lower than a B. For my entire eighth grade through tenth grade, I had this mentality that I wasn’t enough. One thing led to another, and it threw me into varying intensities of situational depression as the years went by. My optimism plummeted. My outlook on the future was bleak. I felt like a lost cause, and all the people telling me it wasn’t true were outnumbered by the voices in my head screaming the opposite. Finally, I sought counseling on my own time, realizing I couldn’t do it on my own; and it was there I learned the value of self love. Low self esteem can lead to everything from insecurity to thoughts of suicide, and I wish someone had been there to tell me that at the start. Now, I want to give others the chance I never got. In a world that focuses increasingly on the negatives, I want to show them the positives about themselves; and give them the hope and belief in themselves that they so desperately need to grow as a person.

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I am Lauren Kettler. I'm the communications liasion, with the grey shirt in the far left in the picture up there. I felt called to do this project because through Girl Scouts I'm working toward my Gold Award (which is the highest award in Girl Scouts). Through my Gold Award I have learned about the bullying that happens throughout the world. Interestingly enough bullying and self-confidence go hand-in-hand. A more confident person is less likely to bully other people. I have been a club swimmer since 6th grade. On my club team no matter how hard I worked, I would always see people become faster than me, even if they didn’t try. There have been many times at swim meets where I wasn’t as fast as my friend, and would end up feeling like a failure. Even though I am in good health I have worried that I don't look as strong as I should be, for how much I have swam. As I have gone through school it have been one of my main priorities to have good grades. For me a 3.6 is not good enough. So any time I see that someone got a better score, I question why I'm not as smart. This self -doubt causes me to think that I will never be good enough for my dreams, and that maybe I should dream just a little smaller. Throughout this project I would love to see a change in each person's heart, I want each person to always remember that there is no end to how wonderful each one of us is. Always believe in yourself and what you do!

 

I'm Kyra Ellison. I'm the videographer, standing in the middle of Autumn and Lauren. Although I personally never struggled with issues of confidence, I spent years watching my sister go down that path, and it was really painful. It was hard on my sister and everyone around her- her friends and family and everyone else who cared about her. She had several learning disabilities, and she let that define her. She saw herself only as her failures instead of her many, many successes. Though I do not have my own self-confidence issues, there are many people in the world, like my sister, who struggle with the way they see themselves. They don't understand how special they are in their own incredible way, even if it isn't the same as somebody else's way. Oftentimes people aren’t even aware that they have an issue with self-confidence because it’s a mindset that they get into and it’s incredibly difficult to get out of it. So, I wanted to take a stand- if not for everyone else, for my sister.

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The movement starts with us. It starts with you, and it starts with everyone. Make the change, and people will notice. 

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"A young girl was walking along a beach when thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for quite some time when a man approached her and said, "Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can't save all these starfish. You can't begin to make a difference?"

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, "Well, I made a difference to that one!"

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved."

-Adapted from The Star Thrower

By Loren C. Eiseley