Girlguiding UK

‘It’s kind of like a little sisterhood. It feels like family but it’s outside of your actual family.’

Emma Tinson

Girlguiding is the UK’s largest girls-only youth organisation, empowering over 400,000 girls and young women across its age groups. First established in 1910, Girlguiding is now over one hundred years old. When the official founder of both the Girl Guides and the Boy Scouts (Robert Baden-Powell) was asked who had started the movement (since his sister Agnes Baden-Powell was closely involved as joint-founder), he declared that the girls had, in fact, ‘started themselves’. Girl-led decision making has remained an important value in the organisation ever since.

In 2010, 50% of women in the UK had been involved in Girlguiding at some stage in their life. This may have been in one of Girlguiding’s four age sections – Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers – or as a volunteer or Guider. Most girls who have been involved in Girlguiding say that it has had a massive positive impact on them and their life. Some famous former Girl Guides include Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, author and philanthropist JK Rowling, Nobel Prize chemist Dorothy Hodgkin, Olympic athlete Dame Kelly Holmes, actress Emma Thompson, Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds, television presenter Clare Balding, actress and television presenter Cat Deeley, politician and former Paralympian medalist Tanni Grey-Thompson, and many others.

Although started in the UK, the Girlguiding movement has been so popular that it’s spread across the globe. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) now represents ten million girls in 150 different countries. It is the world’s only movement open to every girl and any girl, sharing the same core values as a sisterhood. WAGGGS supports and encourages these girls and young women to reach their full potential as leaders and active citizens of the world. This includes fun, adventure, friendship, and the space to discover their potential.

‘[Through Girlguiding, girls] go to their first ever sleepover, canoe on rivers, learn about body confidence, and lead their own camp. Or sometimes they simply have fun and try new things with friends. Girls take what they do in guiding with them as they grow up. Everything from working in a team, to taking the lead, to speaking out on issues they care about. It helps them develop the skills and confidence to become the young women they want to be. And to make a difference to the world around them.’

Girlguiding UK website

Rainbows

The youngest section of Girlguiding, Rainbows are aged five to seven. It’s a fun and exciting programme all about developing self-confidence, building friendships, learning new things and having fun. Girls get their hands dirty with arts and crafts, get in touch with nature, and play games – it’s all about learning by doing. Rainbows were started in 1987 after pilot groups had been a success. The name Rainbows was chosen to unite the diversity of uniform colours that had developed among the pilot groups, as well as being fun and colourful like the young girls.

Brownies

The largest and most popular section, Brownies are aged seven to ten. It’s about trying new things that teach girls about themselves, their community, and their world. Brownies introduces girls to a world of new opportunities, challenges, and fun. Girls go along to camps, holidays, day trips, and sleepovers. They get together with their friends at regular meetings where they learn new hobbies, get creative, develop skills, and have outdoor adventures. Brownies was set up in 1914 after the younger sisters of Guides wanted to join, but were too young to keep up with the long ‘field days’ of their elder sisters. At first they were called Rosebuds but the girls didn’t like that and demanded a new name! Instead they became Brownies, named after the magical creatures of folk tales that did secret good deeds when no one was looking.

Guides

The original section of Girlguiding and the one from which the other sections have expanded, Guides are aged ten to 14. It’s an exciting and varied programme designed to inspire and challenge girls. Guides take part in lots of exciting activities at regular meetings as well as at special events and on trips away. They have different badges and awards that help them learn new skills and try new challenges, some of which they can do on their own and others they’ll do in groups at their regular unit meetings. Girl Scouts had existed from the earliest days of the Scouting movement in 1907. They were then officially set up as the Girl Guides in 1910, after several hundred girls decided to gatecrash a Boy Scout rally at Crystal Palace in London. Generations of girls since have been glad that they did! They were named Guides after the pioneering Guides of India, by whom Robert Baden-Powell had been greatly impressed.

Rangers

The eldest section, Rangers are aged 14 to 18. It’s all about taking the lead and finding new challenges. As girls prepare for adulthood, Rangers gives them the opportunities to try new things, have fun, travel the world, learn to lead, raise their voice, and give something back to their community, whilst also building an incredible CV through gaining skills and awards. Senior Guides were first set up in 1917 to deal with girls who were outgrowing Guides but didn’t want to leave. They became known as Rangers in 1920 to create a distinct identity for them and to separate them from the Guides, allowing the younger girls the chance to lead for themselves. They were named Rangers because this reflected the desire for them to range wide and explore a larger area than the younger girls could, both physically and intellectually.

‘When you are a Guide, you see the ones [leaders] that are the younger ones, so they’re in their twenties, and you look up to them. “Oh that’s what I would like to be like if I was that age,” and the things that they’re doing seem so fun when you’re that age because that’s what you want to be able to do yourself. But I think that also, with the older ones [leaders] it’s a mother figure or sometimes even a grandma figure, and it’s just a different group of people to speak to that aren’t connected to your school and they aren’t your family. And I think that when you’re going through all those things you feel as a teenage girl, having someone that’s completely unconnected to the rest of your life to speak to about those things – especially in Guides some of the younger leaders, they’re only actually three or four years older than you… and they can kind of influence you without them appearing to give you advice because you look at them almost as a friend.’

Cat Talbot