It’s all about girl power.
Ashley Wiles is out to build the confidence of tween girls in Squamish, and in the process, stop them from pinching their natural body fat in disgust.
In 2012 Wiles, 30, saw Amanda Todd’s video in which the young woman talked about the bullying she had experienced that ultimately led Todd to commit suicide.
Wiles recalled her own lack of confidence and body image issues as a young woman.
“Just not understanding why my body was different from other people’s, and I thought my legs were fat and just not really feeling good in my body,” she said.
Wiles decided to take action and launched Sole Girls empowerment courses for girls aged 8 to 12. The program has been expanding ever since.
The nine-week course is coming to Squamish for the first time this September.
There are two fundamentals to the program: exercise through training for a five- kilometre fun run, and building community, Wiles said.
“Those two things combined with tools to be able talk about the stressful things and the things that are kind of the elephant in the room like, ‘Oh, my friend is being mean.’ OK, let’s talk about that and what kind of values do [those friends] have,” she said.
Mentors from Squamish will be brought in to inspire the girls and various topics such as nutrition. Confidence and goal-setting will be tackled in an open and positive way, according to Wiles.
“Having these deeper conversations at a younger age can be really powerful,” Wiles said.
She acknowledged that a nine-week course can’t change an entire culture that objectifies young women, but she said it can start the change.
“Giving one girl tools to be able to use her voice more powerfully, both in her friendships, and her relationships – she has the power to influence her friends and the people around her so I don’t think it is just about one girl, I think it is about the whole world,” she said.
Squamish’s Sole Girls program runs at the Squamish Public Library Sept. 12 to Nov. 7. For more information, go to solegirls.org.
