License to Thrive

Girls Are Champions inspires!

Girls Are Champions inspires! A brand new website and TV show (GAC) shines a spotlight on female athletes and everyday active girls to entertain and encourage healthy living. GAC empowers with a capital E: Girls write and produce content for their peers, encouraging leadership and positive teen role models. The fun images and powerful messages of girls playing sports and exercising resonate with their audience.

It was May 2007 when this grass-roots effort leapt into the internet and TV airwaves. The website, www.GirlsAreChampions.org, and Girls Are Champions TV show, launched in Northern California via Athletic Girl Productions, an up-and-coming non-profit organization. The website features first-person stories, articles, and interviews about all kinds of athletes—runners, cyclists, volleyball and soccer players, surfers, yogis, lacrosse and tennis players, and more. On the site girls can enter a writing and drawing contest, find fiction stories and poems, and submit pictures in the “Land of Champions.” Plus, issues and organizations,  like Title IX, Girls for a Change, and the Women’s Sports Foundation grace the pages of the website to promote success and equality for females. But best of all, any girl can write for the website! Even become a “Stringer,” a leading voice for GAC.

On the Girls Are Champions TV program, a kind of a website-comes-to-life, 30-minute magazine show, a variety of guests and field segments hit on interesting topics. A few of them are: How to be a Leader on and off the Field, Competition: Advantages and Disadvantages, and Sports Injuries: How to Treat and Prevent Them. Two of the key aspects of the show are the  presence of high school athletes sharing personal anecdotes, and sports and health professionals giving useful information. They engage the audience through challenges in physical activities and ways to “thrive” in everyday living. GAC also reaches girls through popular social utilities, Facebook, My Space, and You Tube pages, where anyone can become members and view the Girls Are Champions TV show.

How did this all begin? It started with NCAA All-American gymnast and former Stanford University gymnastics coach, Lisa Izzi. With a college sports Hall-of-Fame Induction in her pocket, some years in Hollywood, and earning an MFA in Writing, Lisa writes,  produces, and hosts the TV show with her enthusiastic co-host, Alexa Maremaa, a former dancer and graduate in Communications and Italian from USC. The two gals together connect with their guests and have a true passion for girls, sports, and fitness.
 

It all adds up to cool stuff, right? Well, with obesity and low self-esteem issues for  girls today,these inspiring programs really are important. And a big thrill was when "License to Thrive" called and invited Girls Are Champions to be featured on the L2T  website and the upcoming ESPN2 television special—boo-yah! Go Girls!

So we’re all pretty jazzed. And in case you’re wondering, GAC welcomes smart and spunky people (like you) to get involved. View the TV show here: www.YouTube.com/GirlsAreChampions. And to contact Lisa, write to Lisa@GirlsAreChampions.org. And come on, tell us about you!

To view video about Girls Are Champions, go to http://licensetothrive.org/video.