Essay: Building women leaders – the importance of pouring into young girls and women
Editor’s note: Names of the three campers in this essay have been changed to protect their privacy.
I first met Lylah, Grace and Josie when they were 14.
Each girl bounded up the stairs into the circle of cabins with wide smiles on their faces, clamoring to get inside and choose their bunks for the week. They were bursting with excitement to be back at Camp Hertko Hollow. It was 2022, and it was our first summer returning to camp after two years away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Camp Hertko Hollow is a camp for kids with Type 1 diabetes, founded in 1968. The camp is a week-long session held at the Des Moines YMCA camp in Boone. Children with the chronic illness, like these three, gather for a week of regular summer camp activities while being cared for by trained medical staff as well as counselors who often, like me, have Type 1 diabetes as well.
The Girls Index 2023 survey by Ruling Our Experiences shows that the confidence of girls in fifth through 11th grade dropped 13% in six years, and 79% of girls reported feeling they were under so much pressure they “were going to explode.” Couple that with the 180 extra health-related decisions people with Type 1 diabetes make every day, and you realize that young girls with this disease are overwhelmed. At camp, they get a break from thinking about their bodies 24-7 and just get to simply be. Camp is a place where they can share that burden with people who understand them, especially adults who have experienced the same thing.
I know this to be true because I was these girls, once.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was 5 years old and attended camp from ages 7-15. At home, I was the youngest of four children. Our lives were busy. I often felt like I was on a different page than kids my age, which I now understand to be from how quickly I had to grow up to take care of my health. It led to a lot of anxiety and insecurity, and feeling like I didn’t fit into my skin.
While I lived almost exactly like any other regular kid, I always recognized that no one else around me had to take an extra minute when playing sports, jumping in the pool or eating a snack to consider what it might do to their blood sugar. No one except the friends I made at camp.
I also got to see the type of woman I could be some day in my counselor, Abby. Abby was my cabin leader from ages 12-14, those formative years when I felt uncomfortable in much of my life. She had lived with Type 1 diabetes for nearly her entire life, and she had still gone to college, pursued her dream job, traveled the world – proof that I could do all of these things, too, if I wanted. I remember asking her once if she had a boyfriend, and she responded, “No, girl. I have things I want to do first.” She encouraged us to take ownership of our bodies. She believed in our capabilities to care for a disease that is unpredictable, and she never let us believe otherwise about ourselves.
She didn’t just lead us to have fun and enjoy camp; she led us to knowing our self-worth.
This is the impact I’ve hoped to have as a leader at camp myself for the past eight years. I had the privilege of witnessing the difference I’ve made last month when I had Lylah, Grace and Josie in my cabin once again.
I worked with our 16- and 17-year-old campers through our Leadership in Training program, alongside my friends Karyn and David. Our Leadership in Training campers spent their week doing team-building exercises, learning about leadership and practicing how to contribute to our loving, joyous camp environment. These kids prepared to say goodbye to this important part of their childhood and enter their next phase of life at camp.
When I first spent a week with these three girls, they were just beginning their teen years. They were bubbly and fun and still had that pre-high school innocence. They had questions about their diabetes and needed more help managing their insulin pumps. They were picky eaters and needed more help with keeping their blood sugars in range.
To see them grow up is a beautiful reminder of why we should always be pouring into young girls and women behind us. My relationship with them didn’t stop after that first year I was their leader. These girls came to our family camp weekends with their moms, and we’d talk about their lives and what they’d accomplished at school. I continued checking in with them in subsequent summer sessions when they were with other leaders in their cabin, reminding them to come to me if they needed anything. I made a conscious decision to ensure they knew they had a trusted adult in me.
Now these girls are just as bubbly and fun, but they know themselves. They aren’t afraid of their diabetes. They are confident and silly and incredibly kind to every new camper they meet. They’ve learned more about how their body works and they don’t need as much help with their blood sugar. They don’t need me to guide them like they once did; they want me to stand beside them in support.
One day, I sat beside Josie as she was placing a new insulin pump on her leg. She moved so quickly through the process, a seasoned expert. She asked me to hand her an alcohol swab.
“I used to not use these, but once you said how much it helped your skin heal, and I’ve used them ever since,” she told me. I had shared something from my own life that helped her care better for herself. This is why I do this.
A different day, Lylah, who had struggled with her blood sugar levels the first time in my cabin, looked at me from her bunk.
“Macey, it’s crazy that after so many years at camp, I think we’ve finally figured out my blood sugars!” she said. We figured it out, together – we were a team, and she knew she could trust me, and herself. This is why I do this.
On Thursday and Friday afternoon of the Leadership in Training program, our campers spent time with cabins of kids who were younger than them and shadowed their counselors. It’s their first taste of leadership at camp, and they get to practice all of the skills they learned that week.
I watched these three girls walk and play and laugh with the younger kids, bounding with the same energy they had when they ran into our cabin in 2022. They learned each campers’ name. They danced and sang and showed these younger campers just how exhilarating camp can be.
And when they return as leaders over the next few years, they are going to show the next generation of campers that they are a trusted adult that wants to help them grow.
The legacy continues.
