The SmartGirl Pledge

Recently, we crafted a SmartGirl Pledge. We made it because we're opening up SmartGirl to a lot more discussion, adding comments everywhere and just really encouraging everyone to speak their minds. That being said, we still want SmartGirl to be a safe place where everyone can feel welcome. If we disagree on something, we want to be able to talk it out and learn something about each other and why we feel differently about the same thing.

So we wrote this pledge. Here's what we got so far:

• I promise to keep an open mind and withhold judgment
• I promise to learn more about other people's experiences and ideas
• I promise to share my own opinions, even if someone will challenge them
• I promise to ask for support when I need it
• I promise to be supportive and encouraging when I can tell others need it
• I promise to make my own decisions by being informed
• I promise to take responsibility for the choices I've made and the future I'm making

What would you add to this pledge? What other promises would you make so that SmartGirl is the best that it can be?

SmartGirls Get Real

Hey Volunteers!

We're looking for some opinionated SmartGirls to write essays on important topics that today's girls care about. We'll publish them in a new article section called "SmartGirls Get Real."

The idea is to get girls talking about things they don't usually get to talk about with other girls who really care what they have to say. We'll all have our voices heard, our opinions challenged, and hopefully we'll learn something, too.

So. You've been in this world for a long time. What do you stay up late thinking about? Contact Boowee at admin@smartgirl.org with your SmartGirl Gets Real topic idea, and soon you might see your first or fake name as an author on our new blog!

SmartGirl Reviews

More changes are happening on SmartGirl! As things with the Real Life section are coming together (we just updated SmartGirl Boy Advice to look like the Issues section so now you can leave comments), we're starting on the Reviews section.

The reviews section has been broken for a long time. You can submit reviews, but the way to publish them stopped working. We're finally rewriting this section so that your issues can make it out to the world! So, over the next few weeks, we'll be adding several new reviews every day, both classic reviews and new reviews with our brand new questionnaires. There's new categories that cover more things, new pages to sort through the reviews, and new looks to the review pages themselves. Right now it's in a draft stage, so check back often to see how things progress!

Most importantly, if you are messing around in the reviews area and you think something could be improved -- or if you love it A LOT -- leave us a comment and let us know! We love to hear your thoughts!

SG Reviews

We overhauled SG Authors. Then we overhauled SG Peer Advice. Now we're working on SG Reviews!

It's been a long time coming, and it's about time. We're rewriting the surveys to take out the silly questions that no one ever answers, we're updating the formatting so it's easier to read, we're condensing some categories that overlapped, and we're adding new categories so you can speak your mind on new stuff!

So, expect to see some new reviews posted on SmartGirl (finally). If you want to help out, submit a review today so we can tweak the new template for published reviews!

While we're working on them, do you have any suggestions? Have you ever used SG Reviews before? What's missing? What do you love and don't want taken away? We're listening.

New Look for SG Peer Advice

SG Peer Advice is one of the newer areas of SmartGirl. First, SmartGirls apply to be mentors. Then I send them issues that were submitted by other SmartGirls and they respond. Our SG Peer Mentors are dedicated, thoughtful, caring, and really want to help.

However, after a few months, we realized that the way we were running SG Peer Advice just wasn't good enough. SG Peer Mentors felt disconnected from SmartGirls even though they were responding to real questions. The problem was that there was no interaction. There was no way to know if what they had to say was helping anyone at all.

Now, if you've ever read one of our Advice Polls, you know that if an SG has an issue, there's another SG out there who can totally relate and has something to say to help. That's because even though all these issues are unique and special, the feelings are universal. That's why even though our submission form is anonymous and we may never know how the person who submitted the issue feels about SG Peer Mentor advice, their advice can still help tons of people who relate to it.

So how could we connect to all those people who felt touched by a certain issue, had something to add, or wanted to offer advice of their own? We wanted these issues to start discussions, share knowledge, be supportive, and all that great stuff. Our current format wasn't going to cut it. It was too rigid. We needed something brand new.

So we built it! You can see it, right now! Renamed Issues, it's based off of our SG Authors book structure. Each issue has its very own page and comments section, so you can leave comments on questions. Offer your advice and your support and get to know other SmartGirls who care about the same things.

We hope you like the changes!

Designing a Webpage

Have you ever tried to use our HTML Tutorial to learn how to design a webpage? What did you think?

Today going through our "Contact Us" mail, we got a letter from Juliet, aged 10, that said our HTML Tutorial was confusing. We're sorry that this happened, and we would love to fix it!

So we're wondering: what could be improved? How far in were you when you got confused? We'll go back and try to fix it up and make it easier to understand.

You can leave your comments here or email us with your suggestions directly to admin@smartgirl.org.

Also, here's a shoutout to Sifi, age 18, who said our website was fun! Thanks, Sifi!

Interviews

It's the week of the interviews, I guess. Erika's book, Beneath the Cobblestones, is finally available to purchase on Amazon. It's been a long time in the works, and we can't wait to read our very own copy!

But what's super cool is that Erika is willing to let SmartGirls ask her lots of questions about her success as a writer getting published at such a young age. We set up a page so you can submit your interview questions:

http://www.smartgirl.org/writing/interview-erika.html

Next week, we'll send her your questions and she'll pick some out and answer them for you! Send her serious ones, fun ones, and whatever you're curious about.

Also, we didn't tell you this, but we've been interviewed, too! Amiko from My Unfastened Diary (M-U-D) has a blog where she is interviewing web designers and giving advice and sharing stories submitted by tween girls. You can check out her blog and our interview here:

http://myunfasteneddiary.blogspot.com/

We had never done an interview like this before, and it was actually pretty fun. I tend to like to talk a lot though, so it was hard to keep things short!

Have you ever interviewed someone or been interviewed by someone? What was it like? Any especially memorable moments?