Young women on Girls State: "The most life-changing week of my life"

At a time when so many of us feel so bitterly divided, we thought, why not a reminder of how politics could be?

"Sunday Morning" came to Angola, Indiana, for a week that will change 300 girls' lives. It's the summer before their senior year, and they're the latest participants in Hoosier Girls State, where for 82 years, young women have learned about government, and what it means to make laws and campaign.

Right now, 15 of them are running for governor, the highest office at Girls State.

Attendees are split into two fictional parties, the Federalists and the Nationalists.

We sat down with four of the candidates for governor: Asha Adhikari, Priscilla Smith, Ivy Zhen, and Ella McGrath.

I asked, "How long did you have to introduce yourself to people who you would hope later would vote for you?"

"We got here Sunday afternoon," said Smith, "and then if you wanted to run for governor, I think it was Monday, sometime in the morning we had to file. So, we barely had any time. And then we could start campaigning, I think, at noon on Monday."

"Did any of you come because a career in public service might be in the cards for you?"

"I definitely want to be a public servant," said Adhikari, "because I've seen that nothing is more powerful than giving back to others."

Asked if they thought young women are more supportive of each other, all agreed: "Yes, 100%."

Every summer, all 50 states hold versions of Girls and Boys State, programs with alumni like President Bill Clinton and Texas Governor Ann Richards, Bruce Springsteen and Rush Limbaugh … and 16-year-old me! I was a governor of Hoosiers Girls State, which was one of the stunning honors of my life. 

I still remember the elation, and all the nerves I had that week in Bloomington, Indiana 57 years ago. Back then it was the height of the tensions of the '60s. Today, these girls say they feel divisions, too.  McGrath said, "I feel like in the world we live in now, it's hard to put your beliefs out there and what you stand for without making other people upset, either, like, losing friends or making family members upset."

"It's kind of difficult to, like, really be able to vocalize your ideas," said Zhen. "You would describe it as, like, cloudy, kind of like downcast with people being kind of scared to go out and, like, really say what they feel."

But at Girls State, there's a place to air it out. Two summers ago, Girls State in Missouri was captured for the 2024 Apple TV+ documentary "Girls State."

Among the participants then: Emily Worthmore, a candidate for governor. "People at my school don't know if I'm conservative or liberal, and I kind of like that," she said in the film. "I don't wanna say what I am and then have half the room stop listening before I even get a chance to speak. But I'm really hoping that, coming out of Girls State, I'm going to be just openly, I'm conservative, let's talk about it."

Now a college sophomore, Worthmore was asked if the experience was transformative for her. "I would say that Girls State is the most life-changing week of my life," she replied.

Jesse Moss and his wife, Amanda McBaine, directed "Girls State" (and before that, the 2020 documentary "Boys State").  "It's really participatory democracy for young people to figure out, 'How do we do this thing?'" said Moss.

Asked why now seemed the right time to make films about Boys and Girls State, McBaine replied, "We're parents of teenagers. I think that's part of our investigation; it's personal. How are kids coming of age politically in this kind of incredible moment we're in in our country? We're very divided. How do people talk to one another when their politics are so divided? How do people from big cities meet people from small towns? We all have our silos, on social media or whatever."

I asked Worthmore, "How do you think politics would be different if attending Boys State or Girls State was a requirement for all students?"

"If there was a way to make that happen, then we would be in a lot better of a place," Worthmore replied. "People would be voting more, and that's just the most important thing, right?"

Worthmore didn't win the election, but she tells us the experience at Girls State will shape the rest of her life. "What the program stresses is, left or right, just participate. Participate in democracy. Who's representing your city? Who's representing your county? Who's representing you? There'd be a lot more representation of women. It would help more people get out and exercise their voice."

      
For more info:

• Girls State, sponsored by the American Legion Auxilary
• Hoosier Girls State
• Watch "Girls State" on Apple TV+

     
Produced by Sari Aviv and Lucie Kirk. Editor: Steven Tyler.