For high school junior Lizzi Kehoe, the feminist movement is all about support.

“Sometimes, girls are afraid to speak their minds or reveal the struggles they’ve been facing due to the stereotypes placed upon women in our society. I’d like to think The G.I.R.L.S. Club is a place where those stereotypes dissolve,” Kehoe said.

Every other Wednesday, The G.I.R.L.S. Club meets in Ms. Sanders’ classroom at Metairie Park Country Day School. Three high school juniors, Lizzi Kehoe, Madison Tufts and Avery Fortenberry, founded the “Girls In Real Life Situations” Club this year.

The club’s faculty advisor Kristin Sanders is a former Loyola professor. Sanders taught creative writing, intro and advanced composition and freshman seminar at Loyola from 2010 to 2013. This is her first year teaching English at Metairie Park Country Day School, and she said is thrilled to be The G.I.R.L.S. Club advisor.

“I think it’s wonderful that high school students are engaged in women’s issues, both globally and in our local community,” Sanders said. “Teenage girls are far more connected to feminist issues than I was at that time of my life.”

As of now, there are roughly 30 students in The G.I.R.L.S. Club, who congregate in Ms. Sanders’ classroom. The club has discussed a variety of feminist topics including body image, self-confidence, women’s depictions in media and social pressures that women face.

Co-founder Madison Tufts said her favorite part of the club is providing a welcoming place for herself and her peers to empower each other.

“This is such a major time in our lives where change is happening everyday — and it’s not an easy change either,” Tufts said. “Girls at our age are very vulnerable, and we want to create a safe environment where all of us girls can come together and talk about our own personal experiences, then show how we have become better and stronger from them.”

The club not only facilitates a feminist dialogue, but also digs deeper to analyze what’s really behind these words. Sanders stresses that media literacy is key to understanding the media’s portrayal of women.

“High school is the perfect age to start thinking critically about the media’s messages to girls: to be beautiful, adventurous, intelligent, driven, but also intent on pleasing everyone and to be a sexual object,” Sanders said. “I think we live in an era where girls are getting very confusing messages about who or how they should be, especially with regard to social media.”

It is this pressure from mainstream media that plagues young females across the nation, Sanders says. According to the “Keep it Real” Campaign, 80 percent of 10-year-old American girls have been on a diet.

As gender ideals continue to be engrained in the minds of America’s youth, Sanders and her students agree that it is important to keep a united front for all women.

“Everyone feels some sort of pressure — but for young girls, the pressure is often heightened,” Kehoe said. “Although the support system at Country Day is amazing, during my freshman and sophomore year, I never really felt like I had a place to go and share the struggles that I knew we were all facing together but battling alone.”

On Friday, March 6, two Loyola student feminists spoke with Country Day’s G.I.R.L.S. Club to exemplify the strength of a feminist community in college, as well as commend the high school students on the progressive work they’ve done so far.

“They are curious about safety on college campuses, activism and whether feminism is more accepted in college,” Sanders said.

At Loyola, Student Advocates for Gender Equality was founded with the purpose of breaking down gender stereotypes and social expectations. The club focuses on topics relating to men, women and non-binary conforming expressions of gender.

The president of SAGE, Lauren Stroh, English writing junior, stresses the importance of feminist exposure for young adults.

“I definitely think it’s important to have these sort of outlets in high schools. Personally, most of the feminist subjects I learned about in high school, I had to seek out on my own,” Stroh said. “It would have been much easier to have a group committed to the empowerment of women, especially at that age.”

Karla Rosas, philosophy and pre-law senior, attended Country Day to represent the feminist movement in college. As is true for most college feminists, Rosas said she was first formally exposed to the movement through college courses.

“I wish I’d been exposed to that system of thought much earlier. I totally would’ve been into feminism in high school if I had it demystified for me,” Rosas said. “As far as what I’ll tell The G.I.R.L.S. Club: I think it’s important to be aware of yourself as a young woman. Don’t be ashamed of yourself and your sexuality – I think that’s really important for young girls to talk about.”

As for Tufts, she is determined to make a change.

“I won’t stop until women have all the same opportunities, rights and treatment as everyone else in the world,” Tufts said.