WriteGirl offers immersive creative writing workshops for middle and high-school girls in Los Angeles (WriteGirl/Neon Tommy)

A number of youth-oriented writing programs operate throughout the city to encourage fledging authors who may feel held back by any number of barriers―race, gender, language, socioeconomic status―to put pen to paper.

One such program is WriteGirl, a creative writing mentorship program for high school aged girls in Los Angeles. After getting matched with mentors, girls participate in writing workshops and are provided with the kind of support and one-on-one guidance that they may not receive in many of the city’s overcrowded high schools.

About half of WriteGirl participants are Latina, many coming from households in which English is not the first language, so not only does WriteGirl aim to foster a love for the written word, it also focuses on opening up all channels of communication.

“Often, we see girls arrive at WriteGirl with their guard up, or shy and withdrawn,” says Katie Geyer, WriteGirl communications coordinator. “Within just a few months, girls become much more outspoken and communicative. It sounds like a cliché, but we see this happen, over and over, right in front of our eyes.”

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In addition to fostering a love of writing, WriteGirl also attempts to keep girls on track in high school, prepare them for college and introduce them to possible careers such as journalism, public relations and publishing. The program boasts that 100 percent of its graduating students have gone on to enroll in college.

"This program is an amazing supplement to school because it is such a nurturing, encouraging environment to learn," says WriteGirl alumna Kelly Ching, who came to the program as a sophomore in college and is now a television writer at Boston University. "When I was in WriteGirl, I was sort of surrounded by women and other girls who are all telling me that anything is possible, so long as I am writing."

WriteGirl thrives mostly from the dedication of its volunteers, training 150 professional female writers each year, so that students are interacting with poets, songwriters, screenwriters, novelists and everyone in between.

“We leverage the creative writing skills and expertise of these professional women writers,” Geyer says. “Mentors are often matched with a girl throughout her middle school and high school years, shaping the girl as both a writer and an individual.”

The non-profit program partners with organizations like MOCA, The Autry Museum, The Los Angeles Times and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to produce monthly creative workshops in L.A. During the nine-month WriteGirl season, each monthly workshop focuses on a different creative writing genre, presented in a fun and interactive way, sometimes involving music or props in order to connect with different styles of learning.

Geyer says that the way in which the workshops are presented, and the fact they take a multi-genre approach, is part of what distinguishes WriteGirl’s creative writing teaching from other programs, or a traditional classroom setting.

“We sometimes refer to the program as ‘literacy in disguise,’” Geyer says. “The girls think of WriteGirl as a program full of fun activities, but we know the academic rigor that is embedded in every workshop.”

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Also, unlike the way in which creative writing is taught elsewhere, the full-day immersion into writing provided by the WriteGirl program allows for girls to forget about the outside world and full focus on writing for a while. “Our girls face some tough challenges both at home and at school,” says Geyer. “WriteGirl provides a sanctuary for these girls to work one-on-one with professional women writers and share their experiences, hopes and dreams through creative writing.”

WriteGirl received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award in 2013 (Katie Geyer/Neon Tommy)

For Ching, who was raised in the suburbs outside of L.A. by parents who encouraged her to write, meeting other young writers from different backgrounds in the WriteGirl program was eye-opening.  

"I have met so many different girls from varied cultural backgrounds just in L.A. through WriteGirl that there is no doubt in my mind that this program is diversifying literature," Ching says. "It not only diversifies the types of writers, but it also diversified what those writers' stories are about. I have a better, more inclusive view of different people and the world through meeting these girls."

Founded in 2001, WriteGirl is now in its 14th “season,” which concludes each year with WriteGirl mentors and mentees publishing an anthology of writing. Geyer says that through the annual WriteGirl publications, as well as the promotion of student work on the WriteGirl blog, young writers who may not have the opportunity to have their work shared in other ways can still find a footing in the literary world.

 In November 2013, WriteGirl was even presented with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest honor for after-school and out-of-school youth programs across the country, by Michelle Obama.

“Diversity in literature has come a long way, but programs like WriteGirl can help ensure that diverse voices become more prominent in the mainstream literature,” Geyer says. “We celebrate accomplished woman writers from diverse background and we invite them to workshops to help our girls see the potential in themselves.”

According to Geyer, many girls continue writing in some capacity even after their time with WriteGirl ends, through college newspapers or literary magazines, or television writing like Ching and fellow alumna Jeanine Daniels, who is writing a television series for HBO.

Unlike some other youth writing programs, WriteGirl is offered to girls between 13-18 in Los Angeles completely free, though there is an application process, and the program also offers internships to high school and college students.

For professional women writers interested in becoming mentors, WriteGirl is currently accepting applications for new volunteers through Jan. 10, 2015.

Reach Staff Reporter Olivia Niland here. Follow Olivia Niland on Twitter @olivianiland.