WOW Girls Festival

WOW has created four inspiring Activity Packs that will be available from 6 October for education providers and community leaders to use. They have been co-designed with and for young people to link to the national curriculum and offer creative activities and thought provoking stimuli to bring the issues of mental health, safety, relationships, community and finance to life.

Evidence shows that girls are consistently facing additional barriers as a result of their gender. Our packs are girl-led and designed through this gender equity lens, but are for everyone to participate in and contribute to. They are fully digital, with a full set of ready-to-use resources that include inspirational voices through video, easy to replicate creative ideas, fun ways to learn and myth bust, as well as lesson plans and extension activities. All packs will include suggested adaptations for young people with additional needs.

Are you passionate about gender equity? Are you creative? Are there changes you’d like to see to make your community a better place?

Then hop on board The WOW Bus and tell us what matters to you!

The WOW Bus will take WOW workshops and activities to all corners of the UK, reaching young people from all backgrounds in the heart of their own communities. With a focus on girls, but including all young people, activities from the Bus are designed to build resilience, wellbeing and good mental health.

Funded through a partnership with BBC Children in Need, the WOW Bus is an interactive space created with and for young people, working with Getaway Girls in Leeds and artist/designer Emma Hardaker. Throughout the WOW Bus, you can take part in a creative exploration of gender equality, through play, reading, digital experiences and a recording studio. Alongside this, the WOW Bus will also host facilitator sessions, WOW Think Ins, WOW Speed Mentoring and panel talks and discussions in locations around the UK.

The 2023-24 WOW Girls Festival Tour is being shaped alongside partner organisations. Current planned stops are:

• 11 October - London Eye
• 12 October - Gravesend, Kent
• 13 October - Brixton, London
• 17 November - Mold, Flintshire
• 18 November - Anfield, Liverpool
• 19 November - Pier Head, Liverpool
• 20 November - Speke, Liverpool
• 23 November - Stormont, Belfast
• 24 November - Newcastle, County Down
• 25 November - Ulster University, Belfast
• 7 February - The Workshop in King's Lynn, Norfolk
• 8 February - The Garage in Norwich, Norfolk
• 9 February - The Lighthouse in Attleborough, Norfolk
• 12 February - Platform Arts Centre in Easterhouse, Glasgow
• 13 & 14 Feburary - Perth, Scotland
• 29 February - Levenshulme, Manchester
• 1 March - Aviva Studios, Manchester
• 2 March - Impressions Gallery, Bradford
• 3 March - Keighley, West Yorkshire
• 4 March - Shipley, West Yorkshire
• 5 March - Little Horton, Bradford
• 6 March - Bradford College and Bradford University
• 8 March - Newham & General Gordon Square, Woolwich, London
• 9 March - Neasden Temple, London
• 11 March, Bloomberg, London
• 12 March- Buckingham Palace, London

On International Day of the Girl (Wed 11 Oct 2023) WOW hosted a morning of live events on London’s South Bank that included the first outing of The WOW Bus, WOW Speed Mentoring on the London Eye, and live talks and workshops.

WOW Speed Mentoring on the London Eye is a unique experience for both mentors and mentees who share their stories, dreams and ambitions as they soar over London. This year's event offered 150 girls and non-binary people (13-19-yrs old), from 30+ schools / community groups across London and beyond, the opportunity to meet 150 highly influential and inspiring women and non binary people including award-winning poet Joelle Taylor, author Ify Adenuga, author and activist Charlie Craggs, novelist, journalist and broadcaster Elizabeth Day, author and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project Laura Bates, Founder of Own It Crystal Mahey-Morgan, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Bishi, award-winning journalist, public speaker and author Poorna Bell and Barbie 2023 Role Model Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Each student was matched with three different mentors for 15-minute sessions during which they shared their dreams and ambitions during two complete rotations of the lastminute.com London Eye.

Mentors came from a wide range of professional backgrounds and industries including leaders from global corporations such as Standard Chartered, Nike, Path Financial, Amazon, Google and Bloomberg, women who are founders of charities and campaign organisations, as well as journalists, athletes, theatre makers and more. Crossing sectors including science, tech, finance, arts, politics and media, the students are given a unique snapshot into the ways in which women and non-binary people are paving the way for the future.

Previous mentors for WOW Speed Mentoring on the London Eye have included radio presenter and DJ Clara Amfo, actor Gillian Anderson, Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, Refuge CEO Ruth Davison, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and comedian Ruby Wax.

They're changing the world. Will you?

The WOW Young Leaders Directory was launched in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic. Each year since then WOW has worked with our global partners to identify girls and non-binary young people aged 11-18 from across the globe, who are demonstrating extraordinary leadership in activism and leading campaigns for change in their town, city or country. Their passions are broad, encompassing climate justice, LGBTQIA+, eradicating poverty, access to education and many others. The WOW Young Leaders Directory is a mechanism to platform their activism, including a profile of each leader, describing their leadership journey.

Earlier this year we published Girls to the World: Letters for Change, an anthology of letters by our Young Leaders and other young activists.