Waking up to roosters, hearing the crashing waves, carrying five-gallon jugs of water, and surviving in 90-degree humidity may be normal life in Sayulita, but it was not normal for me.

The rain, thunder and lightning did not slow me down. I was carrying this canoe for a reason, and so I kept going. Everything had led me to this point.

Every day, girls face exclusion and isolation as a result of social media, cliques in school, and a culture that tells them: be beautiful, be skinny, be quiet.

The most powerful and challenging form of empathy hands problems back to kids, over and over again, in the most empowering act of love: “What do you think you’re going to do about that?”

In the early 2000s, a small group of people had a dream—a dream based on the belief that girls would find joy in the same wilderness trips and in-camp experiences offered to boys at Camp Kooch-i-ching.