Texas Girls Are Not Okay
Having spent my career advising companies through moments of reputational risk and complex societal issues, I don’t use the word crisis lightly.
But the latest findings in the State of the Texas Girl Report by Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) are exactly that. A crisis for my home state of Texas.
I’ve had the privilege of working with GSNETX, and Genuine Article who helped bring this report to life. What makes the report powerful isn’t just the data, but what the data reveals about where Texas is falling short for our girls.
And it is alarming.
Texas ranks 41st in the nation for girls’ overall well-being, and dead last for physical well-being. Nearly a quarter of girls spend more than four hours a day on screens. And perhaps the most troubling: fewer than 1 in 3 girls can read proficiently.
When it comes to emotional health, the numbers are just as stark -- 57% of teen girls report feeling persistently sad or hopeless, nearly double the number of teen boys.
As a mother of three girls, this data is personal. I see the problems highlighted in real time in my own home and in the lives of my daughters and their friends.
My girls are active. They play soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, and dance. But as Jennifer shared at the report preview last week, unless a girl is on a path to pro competition, many are pushed out of sports before junior high. This comment hit home as we pay the tuition for Club sports for our 8- and 11-year-old…seemingly the only way to stay in competitive sports after the first few years of elementary school. That’s not a sustainable, or equitable, system for keeping girls physically active and engaged.
The same is true for the data on screens. Even with strong boundaries at home, the reality is unavoidable: screens are everywhere. At school. At friends’ houses. In moments we don’t see, like one of our girls sneaking off with an iPad and jailbreaking YouTube (which happens too often in our house).
Not only do screens offer a steady dopamine drip from the comfort of the couch, but they are also setting up a constant, complex social comparison loop that is shaping how our girls see themselves, with serious impacts on how they build confidence.
Perhaps the moment that really brought this report to life for me — in the days before the report launch, my daughter’s school held a ceremony for the students who participated in the district UIL competition. Girls were vastly underrepresented in chess, math, and STEM categories. Bright, capable girls opting out, or never opting in, despite tremendous talent and aptitude for these subjects. My daughter included.
Texas is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Women make up nearly half of the workforce and contribute significantly to our state’s $2.7 trillion economy.
But if these trends continue, we are failing to build the next generation of confident, capable women prepared to lead our economy and contribute to our communities.
This is a pipeline problem with real consequences. And it demands immediate action from all of us.
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas has long understood how girls learn best: through hands-on leadership, community, and confidence-building experiences. Their programs are not just extracurricular, they are foundational to helping girls develop new skills, resilience, and a sense of belonging.
But Girl Scouts cannot reverse these trends alone.
Throughout my career, I’ve seen how powerful it can be when organizations align strategy around real societal challenges to help solve them. The State of the Texas Girl Report offers tremendous insights for decision makers across business, policy, and education. We need to ask each other, what can you, or your organization, do to reverse these trends?
I fully believe the future depends on the well-being of our girls. And right now, we have work to do.