due to overwhelming demand (we love you, too!!) we’ve extended our deadline for SPARKteam apps until this Friday, May 24th, at Midnight EST!

As a reminder, here’s what we’re looking for from applicants:

• be between the ages of 13 and 22.
• have great writing skills and an interest in blogging and organizing.
• be passionate about fighting back against sexualization of girls and women in media.
• have between 15 and 25 hours a month to dedicate to SPARK.

And here’s what you get: 

• A supportive environment of girls and women who love to collaborate, communicate ideas and support each other.
• The chance to learn how to plan and execute both local and national activist campaigns.
• Writing experience! You’ll be a published blogger with a repertoire of online work.
• Online trainings and workshops to help you hone your feminist knowledge.
• Real and valuable experience in the world of activism.
• The opportunity to make your voice heard.
• Money! We pay $25 per blog/action.

Holla at us! 

Y’all have been asking us for MONTHS and the time is finally here! From today until May 19th, we’ll be accepting apps to join the SPARKteam. We are looking for:

• girls (including trans girls!) between the ages of 13 and 22
  
• who are into blogging, activism, and organizing 
• who want to join a team of activists making local and national change
• who are located anywhere on this beautiful earth 
• who have 15-25 hours a month to dedicate to the cause

We can offer you: 

• A supportive environment of girls and women who love to collaborate, communicate ideas and support each other.
• The chance to learn how to plan and execute both local and national activist campaigns.
• Writing experience! You’ll be a published blogger with a repertoire of online work.
• Online trainings and workshops to help you hone your feminist knowledge.
• Real and valuable experience in the world of activism.
• The opportunity to make your voice heard through media appearances, speaking engagements, and more—SPARK girls have given TED talks, testified at the UN, and been on Nick News, among other things. 
• Money! We pay $25 per blog/action.

Click through for deets & to apply! 

So this is cool, right? Nick News taped a Women’s History Month special featuring a panel of teens from across the country—girls and boys, feminists and non-feminists—to sit down and have a chatty with Gloria Steinem about whether or not we still need feminism. We are ultra excited about this special, and not just because 3 SPARKteam members are on it! It airs Monday April 1st at 8pm, and we’re hosting a twitter livechat to coincide with the east coast broadcast. Click thru for deets—we hope you can join us!

We are launching a new project focusing on girls’ experiences with sexualization, and we want your submissions! Inspired by works like The Vagina Monologues, we want to curate 20 monologues/poems/songs/standup comedy acts/literally whatever for a theater piece to be performed annually across the country & the world. Submissions are open NOW and go until March 15th, 2013. Get on this! 

Our girl Alice wrote this great piece about coming to terms with the fact that we live in a world where if you’re not careful, you’ll be consumed with 24/7/365 anger. We’re big fans of righteous anger—it’s powerful, it can be productive, and it’s something a lot of girls are taught to deny in themselves—we know that feeling nothing butanger isn’t a sustainable way to live, so we’re big fans of this piece, too. Check it out.

Kanye asked and we answered: is the word “bitch” ever acceptable? Read some highlights from the SPARKteam below, then click through to read the whole piece and add your input:

“ To be honest, my main problem with the word bitch is the way so many people use it to perpetuate the myth of girl hate - we’re often encouraged to resent girls who work hard or are leaders, because, as we’re told, for a girl to be so successful automatically makes her a bitch, right?” - Georgia

“People need to stop saying “bitch” when we refuse to talk to them or answer their calls or respond kindly to their street harassment. People can’t call us bitches to dominate us or hurt us or murder us or disempower us or ruin our swag. They’re using the word wrong. And it’s our job to be bitch enough to fill them in.” - Carmen

“I think that if women were equal to men in every way possible referring to women as animals probably wouldn’t even be a thing anyone would consider doing.” - Ty

“Yet this word that made me feel like a terrible person, by being called a bitch or naming someone a bitch, a few years ago now makes me feel empowered; the look of surprise on people’s faces, especially on the faces of androcentric, misogynist men, when I openly call myself a bitch, it deters people from calling me or other women bitch.” - Jenny

We’ve got a great discussion topic, a killer lineup, and a hookup on airfare—the only other thing we need to get to SXSW is you! Vote for our panel SPARK Change: Young Feminism & the Body at the link above, and here’s the kind of stuff we’ll get to talk about in front of an audience: 

• How sexualization impacts our lives negatively, and the tools we use to fight back
• How bodies (and other people’s opinions about bodies) inform feminism
• Our own body/feminist stories
• How we reconcile movements that are on some level about bodies (like feminism) with activist spaces where bodies aren’t actually present (like the Twitter or Tumblr)
• How being young activists has shaped our activism, our politics, and our lives

Please vote & share! We’re so so excited about this, but we can’t do it without you.