Shelby Bryant’s senior project is really just the start of a life long mission.

Bryant, a senior at Tahoma High, founded a nonprofit called Girls Integrating Relationships and Leadership Skills (GIRLS) in September with the goal of helping young girls become strong young women.

Already active in community service, Bryant had been thinking about the idea since her junior year, especially while watching her younger sister grow up.

“It’s crazy to think about all the problems that girls have and the pressure they have to deal with,” Bryant said. “I refuse to see my sister go down the path of eating disorders and lack of self confidence that plague so many teenage women.”

She wants to help girls avoid those issues, which can cause problems not just in adolescence, but throughout their lives.

In her research while preparing to found her organization, Bryant discovered that while those in the United States come in No. 1 in confidence levels, that two out of three Americans don’t believe in themselves.

“I refuse to see the next generation of girls go through that when I can do something about it,” she said.

After founding GIRLS, she decided to offer leadership and self-esteem camps, and spent considerable time planning the first one which was held on Jan. 8. She learned about other successful programs for girls and women such as Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and the Girl Scouts of America.

She found young women in that Tahoma School District who were willing to serve as counselors at the camp.

“I had great feedback and I actually had a documentary filmed about it,” Bryant said. “We had a community screening (of the film) at the end of January. About 200 people showed up. I received a lot of comment cards. People were thrilled and excited and it seemed to generate a lot of interest and support.”

In fact, the documentary screening was so inspiring Bryant said, two people who attended passed word on about it to friends in other parts of the country and GIRLS will soon have chapters in Georgia and Florida.

“We are now a national campaign,” she said. “I’m kind of shocked it happened so fast.”

Bryant is hosting another camp Saturday, March 12, in the lecture hall at Tahoma High. A parent information night will be on March 8.

During the camp there will be a range of activities, Bryant explained, such as ice breakers then they will move into small groups, “and having discussions that we’re too afraid to talk about on a daily basis in real life that gives them a safe environment where they’re not going to be judged… to give them the freedom to be who they are.”

A counselor at her first day long camp told Bryant that the event had a significant impact on her as well, explaining “that for the first time in her life she talked about things she never talked about before,” and decided to make changes as a result.

In addition to the camps, Bryant plans to start up a mentor program to pair women in the community with girls to provide a role model, a person to talk to regularly and meet with at least once a month.

It’s important to Bryant to be strong and empowered as a young woman. She said learned that she can’t let her age get in the way of accomplishing her goals, a lesson she learned after the death of her friend, Sabrina Roberts, last year.

Roberts was one of the reasons she started the organization. She was inspired to live life to the fullest.

“It made me realize you can’t put things off,” she said. “I know that even though I’m a high school senior, I know that I can be strong and be the change that I want to see in the world.”

After graduation in June, Bryant said, the plan is to go to Green River Community College then transfer to Eastern Washington or Central Washington to pursue a degree in education because “teachers are so important in the shaping of children today.”

Staying close to home will allow her to continue to grow her non-profit, something she said she would have done regardless of the requirement for a senior project at Tahoma High.

“This isn’t just something I’m going to do for now,” Bryant said. “This is something I plan to do for the rest of my life. This is something I plan to make my lifelong missions, this is the reason I’m here, this is my job.”

Reach Kris Hill at khill@maplevalleyreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.

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