Secret Keeper Girl

Last night we had a fantastic time with over 500 moms and daughters at our Secret Keeper Girl Event at Harvestfield Church in Rainbow City, Alabama! The church was buzzing all day as volunteers came pouring in to help with anything and everything, and special shout-out to my amazing balloon-blowing crew!! (Sorry about any sore fingers you might have…) The excitement level was just great all night, which helped to pump up Secret Keeper Girls’ newest interns, Cali Galloway and myself, Sarah Andersen. The girls at the event even got to find out that these interns are kind of quirky; I mean Cali used to drive an ice cream truck (how cool is that?!) and I am Australian with no accent!

It was a great night of full of laughs and learning, and crowd participation that rocked! We even had a whole Girl Scout troop from Hokes Bluff looking super cute in matching tie-died pink t-shirts who sat front and center enjoying the show together! Thanks to everyone at Harvestfield Church for making it such a great Secret Keeper Girl event, and we hope that you all keep in touch!

Some of Georgia’s finest moms and daughters turned up at our Secret Keeper Girl event at the Ingleside Church in Macon Georgia tonight! We had a blast at our second southern stop this weekend, and are absolutely loving all of this good ol southern hospitality! (and some members of our team, aka Susie, can’t get enough Sweat Tea) We just knew it was going to be a good night when we had our first ever ‘Grandma’s Only’ part in our kick-off scream competition and one grandma was almost louder than all the moms combined. Now we know where the little girls get their piercing screams from!

And from then on we just kept meeting great ladies with passionate hearts. There was one lady who shared a great idea with me- she uses our Secret Keeper Girl Kit #2-8 Great Dates for You and Your Daughter as a small group bible study for tweens that she mentors. She told me they have had a blast doing the dates together as a group, and one time they even got all dressed up in beautiful gowns and had an amazing meal and tea at a very fancy local Bed and Breakfast! What a fun idea! Check out some of these cool pictures below to get a little taste of our super fun evening together!

Our hometown stop in State College was a great hit!  Autumn Gresh made her first appearance at a Secret Keeper Girl event. Dannah shared the exciting story of adopting Autumn two years ago. She shared how the Lord miraculously provided the money to bring the then thirteen-year-old home. The Greshes needed $25,000 to pull off the eleven month adoption. A family friend offered them $12,000. The remaining $13,000 seemed impossible, but the family friends and friends of the ministry prayed. The week that they prayed, Dannah’s accountant discovered that she’d be reporting her royalties incorrectly. The IRS owed her $13,060! Within just a few weeks, she had the check and the paperwork to go get Autumn. After a moving video of the family meeting for the first time, Dannah appeared on stage with fifteen-year-old Autumn and simply said, “This is my daughter!” Tears flowed and one mom posted on her facebook page that God can “move mountains” in response! We say: “Yes, he can!”

The rest of the show was extra special, too. Lucy Mylin gave the greatest moment of SKG tea-cup drama in the history of the show. Lily Sublett stopped the show in her fantastic  layered fashion. (See below.) Laurel Mench, Kelly Rider, Janet Mylin and Chizzy Anderson danced their way through the spotlights in the history of fashion show and gave it a big finale.  And one mother/daughter team went home with a $100 shopping spree!

The return to New Philadelphia began 3 years ago. Not too long ago in a not too far away land there was a woman named Mandy Hooper. Mandy decided to take her daughter Emily to an Secret Keeper Girl event in Gahanna, OH. At this event Emily made a decision to give her heart to Jesus.  Mandy was so excited to see the change in her little girl that she decided that SKG needed to come to her church and community. One year later SKG made a stop in New Philadelphia, Mandy and Emily’s hometown. Seeing the change in her church and the impact on the moms and little girls from that one night Mandy thought, “I need to have them back again”.  There were more people in her community who needed to hear the message found in a SKG event.  So she booked an event for August 15^th 2009.  Hence our return to New Philadelphia Saturday night!

Sometimes we talk about the girls we meet at an event or a moment created during the show but this time I want to talk about the people behind the event. In order for a SKG event to be “successful” we need people like Mandy who are passionate about modesty, inner beauty, and seeing other girls and moms grasp onto the truth found in God’s word.  We would go nowhere if we didn’t have those people who believed just as much as we do that the next generation of women can make a difference and that they will have the tools to fight messages of the skin-is-in culture. It takes the support of a community, the dedication of a coordinator and the love of our Creator to continue Secret Keeper Girl. Thank you Mandy for your hard work and persistence.  

Here is a look into the return to New Philadelphia…

Secret Keeper Girl Tour is on the road again! Our first stop for the fall tour was Friday night in Pikeville, KY, the home of the Hatfield and McCoys. (ask your mom for a quick history lesson if don’t know who these people are and you may just learn a lesson about forgiveness).   We are super excited to be out on the road again meeting all you awesome Secret Keeper Girls.

Joining our team this fall is our new road manager Katie Haskell.  Within 24hrs. of meeting her we’ve learned a few of her, hmmm how should I say this…quirky habits. I thought I’d share a few of those with you to get you acquainted with the newest member of the team.  First, she has a habit of singing what she wants to say. For example she will sing the time, the name of the restaurant we are going to eat at, superfluous words, the animal crossing the street…your starting to get the picture.  Katie also has the perfect cure for hiccups. I found this out last night as I struggled to get rid of mine! She also knows every Disney song in the book. I guess that comes from managing a tour with the Rubyz and pure-nrg gang.  The last snid-bit of info I found out about Katie is that she likes to blast the air conditioning in the van because if she gets even remotely hot a wave of motion sickness will hit her. (The rest of the team decided they needed to pack more sweatshirts). So when you see Katie on the road give her a high five!

Check out some of the highlights from the Pikeville event below.�

Ok moms, here’s an abstinence t-shirt you don’t want your daughter to wear. Candies—the popular clothing and shoe brand— is at it again. A few years ago, they released a t-shirt to “promote abstinence” that read, “Be Sexy: It doesn’t mean you have to have sex.” Here’s the new t.

 Can you say “mixed message?” The t-shirt tantalizes more than it reinforces a message of abstinence. (And that’s not just my opinion.) The Medical Institute of Sexual Health and the American Psychological Association (APA) have link skimpy clothes to a higher risk of sexual activity in teens. So, maybe the Candie’s Foundation (who says it’s goal is to prevent teen pregnancy) should do a little research before they hit it big with a message as dumbed-down as this one. Sorry for the bluntness. I’m a little ticked. And more motivated than ever to make our Secret Keeper Girl Shop ‘Til You Drop Event a great success in October. What is that? Well, there are over 10,000 moms who’ve signed the Bod Squad Petition requesting that the fashion industry read the findings of the APA report on the effects of sexual clothing on girls. On October 23 & 24, we’re going to shop at three national retailers who have consistently provided age-appropriate clothing for tweens. We want to say thank you! In fact,—here’s a little scoop—last Wednesday the Bod Squad Advisory panel discussed over 100 nominations for our top three to thank. One of them was nixed for one reason: Candies. One of the advisors mentioned that the store sells Candies hard and that sometimes the messages are overtly sexual. This news (which is new to me today) confirms that we made a good choice. Help  us! We need you to plug this blog into your facebook pages, send a link in your emails. We want to stay positive, but it is critical that we send a message to the fashion industry.

As for your daughters, I considered whether I should put this image in this blog. We do have some younger girls who get on the blog from time to time. I decided yes. Do you want to  know why? There is no better time to show this photo to her and discuss the bad choices that some teens will make in wearing it than when she is small. Ask her thoughts. Discuss how the picture makes her feel and what messages it sends. BUILD a foundation of purity into her when she’s eight, nine or ten by open conversations. Reap the rewards when she’s sixteen and Candie’s has come out with their next “abstinence” tank! 

We hope to get 20,000 signatures by October. Can you sign now?

Posted by Dannah Gresh, Creator of Secret Keeper Girl If there’s a huge fashion challenge that frustrates me, it’s this: the little black dress. It seems that whether you’re buying for a formal event for your five-year-old or yourself, there’s always less fabric and that sultry feel to the design. Call me crazy, but I think modesty is beautiful and tasteful and I like it even at a wedding, thank you! It took me about five years to find the perfect summer “sun” dress. I had to have something with shoulder fabric! Well, as you plan for fall fun, look no further. I found a really great resource and I’d like to share it with you. Just check out at Shabby Apple dot com. You’ll find fun and modest dresses for your little girl, your Secret Keeper Girl, and for YOU! I get emails weekly asking me to post a link to yet another clothing site. It takes a LOT for me to endorse one. The fact that Shabby Apple is showing up here at all, means I LOVE IT! (I have a few dresses picked out that I’d love to try on!) In the interest of full honesty, there are a few that I felt were a little tight on top. (Just avoid those.) But overall, this site gets the Secret Keeper Girl of approval. Don’t believe me their cute? Would you believe one of the dresses is named “Not Your Mama’s Mumu?” Now, that’s cute! Until the end of August, Shabby Apple is offering TEN PERCENT OFF to our Secret Keeper Girl Bod Squad moms and daughters. All you have to do to take advantage of this offer is enter this code at check out: bodsquadblog10off. Keep an eye out, we might be doing a giveaway with Shabby Apple soon! Here is my favorite tween dress. It’s called GI Jane and has a kind of rugged army feel to it.