“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”. Franklin D Roosevelt

One in three teenage girls suffers from anxiety or depression, which is a rise of over 10% in the past ten years. Why is this?

If you have any experience of girls as a parent, guardian or teacher, you will have noticed that the challenges of 21st century life are increasing. Social Media is raising our children, and contributing to the women they become. Instagram is teaching them that life is all about perception of perfection, and that how they look is more important than the contribution they make to this world. They feel that they must all strive to fit a perfect ideal, as to be different is a negative thing.

The Shona Project is a non-profit organisation which provides a website and school workshop aimed at challenging the culture of rivalry, negativity and pursuit of perfection. We provide advice and guidance on the challenges teenage girls encounter such as; bullying, anxiety & depression, body issues, relationships, stress and boys.

We have developed and tested a  number of workshops, primarily aimed at reducing bullying in schools. These workshops are informed by a number of experts, who deal with teenagers every day and bring a wealth of experience to the organisation.

Perhaps more importantly, we offer girls a chance to share their stories. Our contributors have all said that they found writing for us to be cathartic, as it helped them verbalise their own feelings. In addition, all have received excellent feedback which has done wonders for their confidence. For the girls that read our posts, they realise that they are not alone and that others are experiencing the same issues.

You can read more about our workshops here.

If you have come across a girl who would like to share her experience (anonymously) with us, please email info@shona.ie or call 087-9842505.