{"id":252047,"date":"2026-04-30T04:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252047\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:16:15","slug":"st-pete-based-girl-reports-elevates-underserved-women-globally-through-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252047\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete-based Girl Reports elevates underserved women globally through journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Girl Reports founder Vanessa Martinez in Nepal in 2015. Credit: Girl Reports\/Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Across the globe, Nepalese student Gauri Gupta has years of journalism experience under her belt, from features on community events to stories centered around issues affecting Nepal\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n

But for Gupta, those bylines mean more than just experience or pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Nepali society, women and girls are dominated in every sector like education, employment, entertainment, etc.,\u201d Gupta said in her 2020 article on women\u2019s liberation through academics. \u201cSo, there are few chances of girls\u2019 schools or extra opportunities for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gupta wrote that those opportunities are usually cut short by the country\u2019s custom of early marriage, which often happens before girls turn 18<\/a>. But for more than a decade, a local program has pushed girls between 13-18 to continue their academics. And the program\u2019s forerunner\u2014a Tampa native based in St. Pete\u2014wants to keep it going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Girl Reports<\/a>, a nonprofit organization founded by Vanessa Martinez in 2015, teaches journalism skills to girls in global communities that traditionally discourage them from finishing their education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martinez, who is also executive director of the program, said that the effort began in Nepal, where she lived in a Buddhist nunnery that was next-door to a girls\u2019 school.<\/p>\n

As a frequent visitor and volunteer for a grassroots nonprofit there, Martinez enjoyed working with the students\u2014and she noticed how some were especially \u201cbright\u201d and inquisitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my time there working with them, I thought, \u2018What can I do to get all these girls in the same room?\u2019\u201d Martinez told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. \u201c\u2018What can I do with them to get them to work together, to push them, to mentor them, sort of give them a higher level training than they get in their own classrooms?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Nepal\u2019s devastating earthquake months earlier, Martinez started the program in her second year living there. And the girls enjoyed what she had to offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, Martinez said when she decided to move back home to Tampa in 2017 to be with her family and support her grandparents, she saw that students didn\u2019t want the program to end. They were determined to take more journalism courses and create their own magazines\u2014and Martinez wanted to continue that effort too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, Martinez established the organization\u2019s U.S. headquarters in St. Pete and registered it as a nonprofit in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than a decade later, Girl Reports continues to operate with the support of interns and volunteers, alongside Nepalese schools and the Lumbini Social Service Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The program currently provides girls a seven-unit journalism curriculum that Martinez said \u201cwill never really fully be done\u201d as it expands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those seven units include an introductory course, which Martinez said mostly eases students into the program and builds rapport. The last six units dive into understanding journalism and honing newsroom and multimedia skills, including photojournalism.<\/p>\n

Martinez has no background in journalism; she\u2019s an applied anthropologist. But she said she wanted to center journalism in the girls\u2019 curriculum, mainly to inspire them to express themselves and inquire about the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Girl Reports\u2019 site states that by providing that platform to underserved girls, the program also \u201chelps them see they have the right to be in rooms where decisions are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted a framework that would really empower them in that way, and I felt like journalism was just such a good fit,\u201d Martinez told CL.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For students, that framework has been essential to educating Nepalese girls beyond the usual path they\u2019re pressured to take, Martinez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Girl Reports\u2019 first issue, student journalists have written about specialized topics, from local sports activities and holiday traditions to the mental and physical health of citizens and violence against Nepalese women.<\/p>\n

Girl Reports also teaches girls to conduct their research \u201cin-country\u201d instead of basing their findings in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just a question of, \u2018How can we collect the most accurate data possible in a culturally relevant way?\u2019 And there\u2019s no one more qualified to do that than someone who\u2019s local,\u201d Martinez told CL.<\/p>\n

Martinez said the efforts of students don\u2019t go unrewarded, as the program also promotes the economic benefits of education. Girls are paid a flat fee they could bring home to their parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd those parents are thinking, \u2018Wow, you are contributing economically to the household,\u2019\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIt really elevates the status of those girls at home. It\u2019s planting that seed of information in the minds of the parents and the community that education has an economic value.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Martinez, the essence of physical media like magazines also helps further legitimize the girls\u2019 work, as it\u2019s a \u201ctangible product that the girls can put in the hands of their parents\u201d and of their community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really helps them to understand a little bit more what those kids are spending their time on,\u201d Martinez told CL.<\/p>\n

Martinez said she\u2019d love opportunities to host field trips to news stations and district offices, but the program needs more funding to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

She hopes to see Girl Reports \u201cblossom\u201d further, as it is entirely volunteer-based and always seeks collaborators. The organization kicked off its first annual fundraiser on Saturday, April 11\u2014and the site regularly accepts donations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a graduate during the Great Recession who struggled to find opportunities for career growth\u2014and continued to at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, years later\u2014Martinez said the program has fulfilled her through giving others those resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like building my own thing was going to be a really rewarding challenge in that sense, that, \u2018OK, if no one\u2019s giving me the opportunity to lead and to create something myself, then I\u2019m going to do it,\u2019\u201d Martinez told CL. \u201cAnd in that sense, professionally, it has offered me tremendous growth, to be able to take an idea from its inception and create something real out of it that impacts people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n

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This article appears in Apr. 23 \u2013 29, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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