Chosen for her passion and positivity, twelve-year-old Lola challenges mental health and bullying head-on by creating ‘Wonder stones’, positively painted stones used to spread messages of hope and inclusion in her community. The programme brought Lola to downtown Auckland for two days of workshops, led by social entrepreneur Alexia Hilbertidou, who at the age of 16 founded GirlBoss NZ. At the end of the programme, Lola was asked what impact she wanted to have when she grows up, and replied that she wants to remind girls they are unstoppable – and that nothing is impossible.
Lola’s participation comes at a time when new research from the LEGO Group has found that three out of five girls aged 5-12 feel the pressure of perfection and worry about judgement on their creative ideas. Seventy-one percent of Kiwi parents surveyed said girls were more likely to hold back developing their ideas because of those pressures, and 68 percent agreed that society takes males in creative industries more seriously than their female counterparts. Girls are seven times more likely to hear those around them call them “sweet”, “pretty”, “cute” and “beautiful”, while terms like “brave”, “cool”, “genius” and “innovative” are twice as likely to be attributed exclusively to boys.
GirlBoss NZ runs workshops at secondary schools to encourage young girls to work in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Since its inception in 2016, it has grown to 17,500 members, and implemented programmes in more than 100 schools across New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands..
