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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?

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Speaker 1: From housetop works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is Molly slightly under the weather, which is why

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Speaker 1: I might sound a little a little nasally. And this

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Speaker 1: is Kristen and I am in the peak of health

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Speaker 1: until my germ's get to her. But before that happens,

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Speaker 1: christ and I have a quick question for you. All right, Shoot,

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Speaker 1: were you ever a girl Scout? No, Molly, I was

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Speaker 1: not a girl Scout Um, to be completely honest with you,

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Speaker 1: I was actually in um sort of a fringe group,

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Speaker 1: if you will, girl scout esque um. It was a

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Speaker 1: like Christian organization. Instead of earning badges, we would memorize

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Speaker 1: Bible verses and instead of selling cookies, we've played Tug

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Speaker 1: of War. Doesn't really sound like the same thing at all, Christy,

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Speaker 1: Now I had a blast, Molly. All right, So I

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Speaker 1: was a girl Scout for many years. I loved it,

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Speaker 1: which is why I was very surprised to see an

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Speaker 1: article in the National Review, famed conservative publication UM by

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Speaker 1: Katherine Jeane Lopez that basically accused me of as a

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout being kind of a godless heathen, a lesbian,

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Speaker 1: enduring a teen pregnancy, and or having an abortion. Well

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Speaker 1: it's pretty surprising because the Girl Scouts seemed pretty squeaky clean.

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Speaker 1: I mean, even more so than the Boy Scouts that

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Speaker 1: came under a lot of scandal um in the past

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Speaker 1: few years. Girl Scouts seemed to have kept a pretty

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Speaker 1: pretty good image. You know, apparently Girl Scouts are feminist soldiers,

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Speaker 1: feminist foot soldiers. Well maybe I don't know that Juliette

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Speaker 1: Gordon Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts, would really agree

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Speaker 1: with that. What do you think, Molly, you're the Girl

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Speaker 1: Scout expert here. You know, it's hard for me to

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Speaker 1: communicate right now at the spirit of Julia Gornlowe, because

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Speaker 1: even though my parents promised me we could go see

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Speaker 1: her childhood home, we never did, but we went to

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Speaker 1: Disney World instead. Well, um, speaking of her childhood at home,

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Speaker 1: that means you must have been in Savannah, Georgia and Savannah, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and they told us the vacation was going to be

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Speaker 1: in Savannah, but it was in Disney World instead. I

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Speaker 1: think you're the only child in America would have been

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Speaker 1: upset about going to Disneyland instead of Savannah. All I

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Speaker 1: know is I had really built myself up to communicate

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Speaker 1: with her childhood spirit, to see where I come from

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Speaker 1: as a girl Scout, and it was all dashed to pieces.

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Speaker 1: For it's a small world after all. But I do

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Speaker 1: know this, even though I didn't get to take the tour. Um.

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Speaker 1: Julie gardlow was raised in a well to do Southern

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Speaker 1: American family. You know, she got a great education. She

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Speaker 1: hit a bump in the road with a very unhappy marriage,

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Speaker 1: and after the marriage, she you know, wanted to do

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Speaker 1: something a little bit more meaningful with her life. And

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Speaker 1: so she did, as all divorced women seemed to do

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Speaker 1: these days. She went abroad and she went to she

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Speaker 1: went to England. Yeah, and she met a guy there. Um.

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Speaker 1: No romantic comedy or anything, but she met Sir Robert

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Speaker 1: Baden Powell. Um. And he was the guy who had

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Speaker 1: had the idea for the boy Scouts and the girl

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Speaker 1: Guides which were in England. Yeah, and she, uh, Juliette

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Speaker 1: Gordon Lowe like the concept so much she brought it

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Speaker 1: back across the pond and started girl Scouts in uh

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, right with eighteen girls in her hometown

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Speaker 1: of Savannah, Georgia, and UH basically started just teaching girls

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Speaker 1: how to develop leadership skills and like outdoor skills, building

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Speaker 1: camp fires and the like. And it kind of sounds like,

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Speaker 1: you know, those basic things of uh, you know, outdoor skills,

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Speaker 1: socializing with other girls really hasn't changed that much and

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Speaker 1: um and all the time since unless you're a reporter

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Speaker 1: for the National Review, I guess. But let's let's talk

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Speaker 1: more about what a girl scout it. Okay, there are

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Speaker 1: more than fifty million Girl Scout alums, of which I

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Speaker 1: am one, and then every year about two point seven

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Speaker 1: million girls um and nearly women in adults who helped

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Speaker 1: them participate in Girl Scouting activities. Really, so that's that's

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Speaker 1: a pretty big, pretty big number. Yeah, I think I

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Speaker 1: saw somewhere that it's something like Girl Scouts reaches out

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Speaker 1: to about um ten percent of American girls between the

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Speaker 1: ages of like five and seventeen ages to be a

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout. But you know, if you've ever been a

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout, you know that there are certain levels within

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Speaker 1: girl Scouting that you can be if you are between

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Speaker 1: five and six. You're a daisy scout, you know. And

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Speaker 1: I didn't know before I read how girl Scouts work.

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know about daisy scalps. Yeah, they're the

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Speaker 1: cutest of the girls. And the petals instead of badges,

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Speaker 1: it's all very flower oriented. Yeah, it's very sweet. Um.

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Speaker 1: So if you're more familiar with like the girl Scout

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Speaker 1: badge thing, they're just ordering earning pedals. Um. Like let's

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Speaker 1: say they help like with the garden. You get a pedal.

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Speaker 1: It's adorable, but you don't start actually getting uh. Then

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Speaker 1: then you starting patches when you're a brownie. These are

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Speaker 1: like things they give you to sort of, um, recognize

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Speaker 1: that you tried something. They're called try. It's it's adorable. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you get a patch just for try. You don't

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Speaker 1: have to succeed, you just have to try. And that's

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Speaker 1: for the brownies, right, Brownies. They're like six to age um.

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Speaker 1: As you might imagine, they do wear brown um and

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Speaker 1: they do things like learn a magic trick, complete a

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Speaker 1: timeline of your life there. Try it's for like computer

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Speaker 1: skills about learning about the earth. And they also do

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Speaker 1: service projects like maybe they'll babysit like for a pta

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Speaker 1: meeting or something. Okay, so let's say you're eight in

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Speaker 1: a lot between eight and eleven. Then we're finally after

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout badges and Kristen. This was my thing. I

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Speaker 1: was anal retentive about earning badges. I did badges on

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Speaker 1: my own time. I was always pushing the leader to

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Speaker 1: do more badges and less service projects because I needed

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Speaker 1: a visible sign of my triumphs. Did you ever wear

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Speaker 1: your your Girl Scout vest when you weren't actually doing

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout related activities? Yeah? I did. I have to

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Speaker 1: say my proudest moment was probably when they were giving

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Speaker 1: out badges and everyone else got like four and I

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Speaker 1: got twenty. Wow. That's probably why I didn't have many

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Speaker 1: friends when I was anyway, So these are the same

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Speaker 1: sort of themes they're working on. They're working on things

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Speaker 1: like computer skills, first aid, um, adventure sports, all sorts

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Speaker 1: of great things to prepare you for life later on.

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Speaker 1: I remember trying to earn some auto badge. Didn't really

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Speaker 1: help me in in this age, but I did at

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Speaker 1: one point learned how to change oil. Now. One thing

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Speaker 1: that I do like about all the Girls Scouts that

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Speaker 1: that if I had been a girl Scout. This is

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Speaker 1: probably the route that I would have taken. I probably

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Speaker 1: would have been a Juliette all right alone will an

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Speaker 1: alone wolf. Juliet's named after Juliet Gordon Lowe, the founder.

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Speaker 1: UM are girls who do Girls Scouts all on their own.

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Speaker 1: They are a troop of one. You can just you know,

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Speaker 1: participate in different activities, UM all on your own. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you don't live near a troop. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, and there were times when I want to

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Speaker 1: sort of speed from my troop and take things into

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Speaker 1: my own hands. UM. Anyway, if you're about my age,

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Speaker 1: then you'll remember that once your past junior, you become

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Speaker 1: a cadet, senior, or ambassador Girl Scout. They've renamed that

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Speaker 1: UM a name I'm not wild about. It's now called

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Speaker 1: Girl Scouts A love and to set teen. I would

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Speaker 1: have preferred to have been a cadet, and I actually

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Speaker 1: gave up girl skying after after I was a junior. Now,

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Speaker 1: I gotta say one thing that I'm kind of impressed

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Speaker 1: with with the Girl Scouts in general is that UM

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Speaker 1: it has maintained popularity over the years. From everything that

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Speaker 1: I've been able to find, all my sources tell me

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Speaker 1: that the numbers have remained pretty consistent over all of

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Speaker 1: these years, which I was kind of surprised to find out,

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Speaker 1: because I thought that they would have had a pretty

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Speaker 1: big dip in numbers, because you know, girls now are

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Speaker 1: interested in you know, they're on their iPhones and watching

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Speaker 1: reality TV. You know, I just you just don't. I

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Speaker 1: don't feel like I see that many girl scouts out anymore. Well,

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Speaker 1: I wonder if maybe those numbers would show a dip

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Speaker 1: at the same age for every girl when you do

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Speaker 1: actually get a little bit more interested in that sort

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Speaker 1: of stuff as opposed to going to chat to your

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Speaker 1: your troop meetings. Yeah, I think it's traditionally, Uh, they

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Speaker 1: have always kind of had a drop off around middle

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Speaker 1: school when you as you sort of get interested more

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Speaker 1: in boy is than making smores. So let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the actual girl scout life. You know, isn't it all

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Speaker 1: just about camping? I mean it's it's pretty much the

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Speaker 1: same types of things that Juliet Gordon Lowe was doing

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Speaker 1: out in the woods of Savannah while original troops, yes

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Speaker 1: and I didn't excuse me, spend quite a bit of

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Speaker 1: time in the mountains of North Carolina at Girl Scout

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Speaker 1: camp every summer. It was awesome. That is one thing

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Speaker 1: that I always wanted to do. I was always jealous

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Speaker 1: of my friends who went to girl Scout camp. Seemed

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Speaker 1: pretty awesome. It was pretty awesome, so that I went

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Speaker 1: to a resident camp, which is basically where you've got

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Speaker 1: the established camp site. Mine actually had covered wagons which

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Speaker 1: were awesome, um facilities for cooking and bathing and dining

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Speaker 1: hall um. But other people, you know, we're a little

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Speaker 1: bit more hardcore than than my troop was. You can actually,

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Speaker 1: you know, just go straight out into the woods. Some

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Speaker 1: girl Scouts do like trip camping, which is where you

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Speaker 1: bike from campsite to campsite or canoe or horseback between

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Speaker 1: those locations. That was a little bit more outside activity

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Speaker 1: than I wanted. I could basically just handle this smoor

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Speaker 1: aspect of the outside world as a girl Scout, but

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Speaker 1: some girls do that, and camping is one of the

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Speaker 1: used to be three season Now it's the five seas

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Speaker 1: of Girl Scouts, which is uh with your crafts, camping, cooking,

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Speaker 1: and now the two new editions computers and careers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: as we were mentioned, you can get like try it

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Speaker 1: some bades for all sorts of computer skills. There are

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Speaker 1: lots of programs that get you to shadow someone who

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Speaker 1: has the career you're interested in. And also we're gonna

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Speaker 1: talk more about cookies, of course, because you can't talk

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Speaker 1: about Girl Scouts without cookies. But I have this new

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Speaker 1: theory that the Girl Scouts returning young girls into like

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Speaker 1: this this class of capitalists, because they're all these ways

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Speaker 1: to learn how to sell cookies better, like public relations, marketing. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's just a lot of science into selling these cookies

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Speaker 1: for these girls. Well, it all started out cookie sales

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Speaker 1: in nineteen two. Well, the first the first girls Girl

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Speaker 1: Scout cookies were sold in nineteen seventeen by local troupe.

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Speaker 1: But then in nineteen twenty two, there is an article

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Speaker 1: published in the official Girl Scout publication, The American Girl

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Speaker 1: UM describing how you could make Girl Scout cookies for

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Speaker 1: a profit, So you might be honest thing. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they they had recipes for um, six or seven dozen

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Speaker 1: cookies that would only cost you, say, a quarter to make,

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Speaker 1: and then you can sell them for um a quarter

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Speaker 1: a dozen. So already you can see girl Scouts are smart.

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Speaker 1: They know how to turn a profit. In nine four,

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Speaker 1: a troop in Philadelphia became the first troop to sell

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Speaker 1: cookies that have been baked by a commercial baker because,

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Speaker 1: as we know, yeah, outsourcing, because if you have bought

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Speaker 1: Girl Scout cookies in the past, oh, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: like twenty years or something, they have these really you

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Speaker 1: know sweet boxes. They come in. They're all plastic wrapped,

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Speaker 1: and you know those little little Girl Scouts as little

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Speaker 1: Daisy Scouts weren't making those at home. No, they're I mean,

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Speaker 1: when you see green, you know to run because you

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Speaker 1: know they have thin mints left minus Samoa's purple box. Really,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm thin mint. I'm not gonna lie. UM. I

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Speaker 1: liked though that during World War Two, instead of um,

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Speaker 1: instead of selling cookies because of like all of the

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Speaker 1: food shortages, they sold calendars. I think I did sell

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Speaker 1: calendars one year. See. The thing about it was is

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Speaker 1: eventually you had to have a fall fundraiser and a

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Speaker 1: Spring fund raiser. Spring was always cookies and Fall was

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Speaker 1: usually something lame like nuts or calendars that never sold

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Speaker 1: as well as cookies. I think the fundraising was another

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Speaker 1: thing that kept me out of Girl Scouts. It was

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Speaker 1: a lot of pressure. Yeah, not a big fan. Well,

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Speaker 1: speaking of pressure, Girl Scout cookie sales are always kind

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Speaker 1: of controversial because of uh, you know, some some mothers

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Speaker 1: in particular might get a little over zealous with helping

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Speaker 1: their children sell. And um, there's this great story about

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Speaker 1: this one mother who set up a sale stand while

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Speaker 1: her daughter was in school and ended up selling a

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Speaker 1: record breaking seventeen thousand, three hundred and twenty three boxes

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Speaker 1: of Girl Scout cookies. But maybe you're wondering where all

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Speaker 1: the money goes, and I can tell you that basically

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Speaker 1: seventy percent of the money stays within the local council

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Speaker 1: and councils you know maybe oversee a few you um

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Speaker 1: troops and their main three percent goes the bakery for

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Speaker 1: all that hard work, um, seventy percent of the council

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Speaker 1: receives each troop receives their funding for the year, and

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Speaker 1: they get about twelve to seventeen percent of what they

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Speaker 1: sold in the cookie sales. UM. So, and then they

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Speaker 1: can use that money to have activities, to have snacks

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Speaker 1: that might help send a girl to Girl Scout camp.

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Speaker 1: So it really does. It's not just you know, girls

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Speaker 1: out on the street. She'lling cookies for no reason. But well,

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Speaker 1: it's good to know, Molly that the Girl Scout money

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Speaker 1: is on the up and up that, UM, you know,

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Speaker 1: we aren't all those cookies that we buy and eat

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Speaker 1: aren't just a huge sham had the pockets of Girl

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Speaker 1: Scout troop leaders. But that doesn't mean that the Girl

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Speaker 1: Scouts have been completely controversy free. I mean, they've kept

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Speaker 1: things pretty clean, but like you mentioned at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the podcast, with this National Review article, UM, they

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Speaker 1: have gotten flak from more conservative parents for things that

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Speaker 1: they've done right. I mean, basically, the reason that the

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Speaker 1: Girl Scouts aren't as controversial as the Boy Scouts is

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Speaker 1: because they have more of an open door policy, UM,

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Speaker 1: where the Boy Scouts, you know, try and regulate who's

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Speaker 1: coming in the door. UM. But that's where it leads

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Speaker 1: to this perception by some conservatives, UM, that the organization

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Speaker 1: is run by these radical and militant feminists and lesbians.

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Speaker 1: According to this article. Now does that have something to

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Speaker 1: do with, um, the alteration to the Girl's Scout oath. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's one part and the Girl Scout oath may I

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Speaker 1: quote on my honor, I will try to serve God

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Speaker 1: in my country, and UM, the Girl Scouts came back

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Speaker 1: pretty recently and said, you know, if you want to

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Speaker 1: say God and your Girl Scout oath, you can or

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Speaker 1: you know, we recognize that God or deities whatever are

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Speaker 1: different to every every person and it's a very individual thing,

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Speaker 1: so you can replace God with whatever. Yeah, you can

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Speaker 1: say whatever word you want there. So yeah, that's one

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Speaker 1: part of it that's not gonna make conservatives that happy. UM.

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Speaker 1: Another thing is just some of the programs they'll do UM.

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Speaker 1: The nationale of the article talks about UM diet hills,

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Speaker 1: UM eating disorders and how you know, when the Girl

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Speaker 1: Scouts talk about this, it sort of puts idea is

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Speaker 1: into girls heads. I guess, UM, you know you can

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Speaker 1: work do these exercises as a as a team. That

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Speaker 1: talked about how you can support the decision to pull

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Speaker 1: a life support system from a dying relative, or high

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Speaker 1: could support someone who's designed to end their pregnancy. So

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Speaker 1: that gets into the whole abortion issue. Well, I know

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Speaker 1: that there was also in two thousand four UM there

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Speaker 1: were Girl Scout boycotts. I think specifically in Waco, Texas

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Speaker 1: that I saw they had cookie boycotts because of UM

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Speaker 1: controversy surrounding UM planned parenthood. Sponsoring. I think it was sex,

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Speaker 1: said seminars that a certain troop was holding in. Parents

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Speaker 1: were outraged thinking that the Girl Scouts was promoting, you know,

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Speaker 1: premarital sex and abortion and things like that. So and

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Speaker 1: also making the conservatives none too happy. Was a book

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Speaker 1: that came out in called On My Honor Lesbians reflect

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Speaker 1: on their Scouting Experience, which had an essay entitled all

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Speaker 1: I really need to know about being a lesbian I

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Speaker 1: learned at Girl Scout camp, and it talks about how

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Speaker 1: all know this girl into camp and all her counselors

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Speaker 1: were lesbians, and that, um, you know, there was an

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Speaker 1: estimate in the book that one in three Girl Scouts

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Speaker 1: paid professional staff for lesbians. So if you're a mom

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Speaker 1: and maybe a small town conservative, Girl Scouts don't seems

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Speaker 1: so squeaky clean. But at the same time, Molly, that

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Speaker 1: also reflects, like you said, the non discrimination that's really

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Speaker 1: embraced by the Girls Scouts. I was reading an article

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Speaker 1: in the New York Times, I think that came out

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Speaker 1: maybe in two thousand and six or two thousand seven,

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Speaker 1: about how specifically for Muslim girls, Girl Scouts has been

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Speaker 1: a really good way to kind of assimilate into new neighborhoods,

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Speaker 1: particularly given you know, more of the kind of discriminatory

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Speaker 1: climate against Muslims after the nine eleven attacks, and how it's, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, really good outlet for these girls to feel

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Speaker 1: accepted and like they're you know, a part of a community. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, in my opinion, I think it's really I

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Speaker 1: think it's really good that the Girls Scouts is so

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Speaker 1: open and you know, advocating character and leadership skills. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I know, it's not like you know, they you know,

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Speaker 1: it's not like they have a try at badge for

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Speaker 1: being a lesbian, right right. The Girl Scouts really have

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Speaker 1: devoted a lot of time and resources to molding their

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Speaker 1: programs to the challenges that girls face today. For instance, um,

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Speaker 1: they do a lot more programming with self esteem and

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Speaker 1: things like cyber bullying and what to do if you

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Speaker 1: find out, you know, if your friend is cutting yourself obviously,

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Speaker 1: things that Julia Gordon Lowe probably was not talking about

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Speaker 1: around the camp fire in nineteen twelve. And um, also

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Speaker 1: one thing that amused me a little bit when you're

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Speaker 1: talking about badges, uh, to to sort of see how

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Speaker 1: how the programs have evolved for today's girl Scout. For instance,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen, girls would earn mature and housekeeper badges,

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Speaker 1: and in order to earn a matorn housekeeper badge, girl

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Speaker 1: scout had to learn how to either use a vacuum

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Speaker 1: cleaner or clean glass or this is my favorite, No.

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Speaker 1: Three cuts of meat and the prices of each um.

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Speaker 1: And thankfully today that has been replaced by the misfix

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Speaker 1: It badge UM, in which girls demonstrate how to repair

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Speaker 1: a leaking toilet or help with some painting. Um, do

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Speaker 1: you maybe no less um fifties housekeeper type of chores?

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Speaker 1: It seems like, um, you know they're really trying to

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Speaker 1: just stay relevant. But you know one thing that's never changed, Kristen,

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Speaker 1: What's that The Gold Award. The Gold Award, it's the

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Speaker 1: highest pinnacle and girls Scouting. And I'm going to guess

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Speaker 1: that you went for the Gold Award. I didn't and

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's haunted me ever since. It's a huge

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Speaker 1: regret that I did not get the Gold Award. Um.

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Speaker 1: But if you're between the ages of fourteen and eighteen,

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Speaker 1: you do this project. Basically, you keep a journal where

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Speaker 1: you work for thirty hours and leadership role you do

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Speaker 1: forty hours of career exploration, and then you choose a

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Speaker 1: community service project that you design and carry out all

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Speaker 1: on your own. You make a final report. I know,

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Speaker 1: it's right up my alley thesis project. It is. And

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Speaker 1: just because you do all this work doesn't mean you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get the Gold Award. What only five point five

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Speaker 1: or sent of eligible Girl Scouts get it? Cut throat.

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Speaker 1: It is cut throat, but you know we've got standard

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Speaker 1: of excellence. You can't give everyone an oscar. It's true,

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Speaker 1: It's true. You know the girls, the Girl Scouts does

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Speaker 1: maintain high standards. Um. They've even got a a lobbying

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Speaker 1: group in Congress advocating specifically for healthy living for girls,

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Speaker 1: positive media images, safety, financial literacy. I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: they really are working from the bottom up um to

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Speaker 1: enhance girls girls lives in the United States. And it

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Speaker 1: sounds like we're giving Girl Scouts the thumbs up at

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Speaker 1: are no matter what the national of you would have

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Speaker 1: us believe. Maybe it's just the cookies talking though, that's true.

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Speaker 1: Sugar high, Well, Kristen, once you come down for your

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Speaker 1: sugar high, why don't you hen over and learn more

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Speaker 1: about how the Girl Scouts work. Because I know you

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Speaker 1: weren't one, and I know it's very sad for you,

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Speaker 1: all painful, but you can learn all about them at

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready, are you