.Best Girl Scouts Alternative

Selling cookies and learning to quilt is cool and all, but for modern day Bay Area youth, that kind of life training just isn’t going to cut it. Oakland-based educators Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Holinquest know that, because they know what it’s like to grow up as a girl of color in a confusing world in which women are told that they’re not good enough, and children are told that they won’t understand. That’s why, at the end of last year, they started the Radical Monarchs (then known as the Radical Brownies), a troop for girl-identified children of color, ages eight to eleven, that meets twice a month to learn about crucial topics, including current events, self-love, and social justice. Although the only existing troop is currently full, Martinez and Holinquest aim to expand their curriculum to be adopted by other groups across the state and the country — and many communities are already requesting information. Eventually, there will be Radical Monarchs fluttering out of every city in America, and we’re more than okay with that.