COCONUT CREEK, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s not easy growing up, but a new state report suggests it can be especially rough for girls.<\/p>\n
A panel of experts gathered in Coconut Creek Saturday to discuss how parents and society can help girls handle the pressures they face today.<\/p>\n
Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe have to give them every opportunity possible,\u201d said one panelist.<\/p>\n For more than a century, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has focused on helping girls \u201cbe prepared.\u201d Moms like Emilia Vilaire-Monchery appreciate the support.<\/p>\n \u201cTo show my girls that they are not alone, and the challenges that they may face or are facing, there is a whole host of girls out there but that there is also a whole host of support,\u201d Vilaire-Monchery said.<\/p>\n Vilaire-Monchery is also the senior director of community impact and education initiatives at the United Way of Broward County. She said she knows what her girls want most.<\/p>\n \u201cOur children want our time, they don\u2019t always want our presence and our money, but they want our time, they want our attention,\u201d Vilaire-Monchery said.<\/p>\n The new state Florida Girl Report found among high school girls:<\/p>\n 52% feel sad or hopeless.1 in 4 seriously considered suicide, twice as many as boys.Compared with boys, twice as many girls are victims of cyberbullying.<\/p>\n Vilaire-Monchery said one finding stood out.<\/p>\n \u201cOur girls are feeling higher pressures to perform well academically, but are actually underperforming on tests and things and I think anxiety is at play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For attendees, listening to the panel was a Saturday well spent. The report said girls in Florida face higher levels of violence, higher rates of substance use, and growing mental and emotional health challenges.<\/p>\n So how can parents help?<\/p>\n \u201cIf we start from the root of the problem and we start with breathing exercises and even just little words of encouragement, that can really help someone,\u201d said Girl Scout teen Gabriella Daise.<\/p>\n Daise also shared a tip for girls.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s start with the positive, let\u2019s say ok maybe I didn\u2019t do so well today, lets try to do better next time to see how I can improve on, instead of just negative negative negative,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Read the full report here:<\/p>\n Florida Girl Report Single Pages Compressed Compressed 1 <\/a> by Ryan Mackey <\/a> <\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COCONUT CREEK, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s not easy growing up, but a new state report suggests it can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-106013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}