ANDERSON — Tannesha Samuels will be starting her freshman year of high school this year, but she’s new to the Anderson area.
On Saturday morning, she decided to attend the Girls Summit put on by Sistas of Royalty.
“They just make me feel very safe and familiar,” Samuels said.
Part of the summit includes break out discussions. It serves as a place for girls to have open and honest conversations.
“The main thing with high schoolers is [them] not being true to themselves,” Samuels said.
Sistas of Royalty is a non-profit organization created to help girls ages 11 to 18 find mentorship and stay on the right track.
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The program provides guidance through the issues they may deal with on a daily basis.
“Students face mental health problems because they are not in an environment to be safe or to be who they are,” Samuels said.
Veronica Watkins, founder of Sistas of Royalty, says they also discuss body image, self-confidence and self-worth.
“We didn’t have social media at our fingertips as they do. I feel like this generation is so influenced by what they see on TV and social media,” Watkins said. “The bullying with this generation is 10-times worse than what it was when we were kids. We would get bullied at school, they get bullied at school and on social media.”
Watkins hopes girls who attend the summit will learn that they are enough.
“We are all unique. We are all specially made and we’re all different for a reason,” Watkins said.
For more information on Sistas of Royalty, click here.
