Eve Ensler's newest work, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, was released in book form by Villard/Random House on February 9. Made up of original monologues about and for girls, the book aims to inspire girls to take agency over their minds, bodies, hearts and curiosities. V-Day has developed a corresponding targeted pilot V-Girls program engaging young women in our "empowerment philanthropy" model, igniting their activism and giving them a voice.I Am an Emotional Creature chronicles the stories inspired by girls around the globe. Girls today often find themselves in a struggle between remaining strong and true to themselves and conforming to society's expectations in an attempt to please. I Am an Emotional Creature is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be.
Among the girls Ensler creates are an American who struggles with peer pressure in a suburban high school; an anorexic blogging as she eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Bulgarian sex slave, no more than fifteen, a Chinese factory worker making Barbies; an Iranian student who is tricked into a nose job; a pregnant girl trying to decide if she should keep her baby.
It is through these varying voices and experiences that V-Day hopes to nurture the future activists of the world. I Am an Emotional Creature will be a vehicle to empower girls and inspire activism. In 2010, readings of the book will be staged in twenty pilot locations, where teen girls will engage in the creative process, accompanied by a specially written curriculum addressing the issues in the book.
Through the V-Girls Program and I Am an Emotional Creature, we can come to understand the universality of girls everywhere: their resiliency, their wildness, their pain, their fears, their secrets, and their triumphs. I Am an Emotional Creature is a call, a reckoning, an education, an act of empowerment for girls, and an illumination for parents and for us all.
I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls will be a vehicle to empower girls and inspire activism. Through the newly created V-Girls program, young girls can participate in the V-Day movement. The goal of V-Girls will be to engage young women in our empowerment philanthropy model, giving them a platform to ignite their activism.
V-Day believes that girls are the future of our movement. Women are the primary resource of our planet. It is imperative to educate and nurture future activists so we can see our vision of a world free from violence against women and girls come true.
About V-Day - V-Day is a global activist movement shattering taboos, raising millions and transforming communities to end violence against women and girls. Annually, activists stage thousands of benefit productions of Founder/playwright Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues and other works. Working at the intersection of art, social action and politics, V-Day empowers grassroots activists to become leaders, turning pain to power. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $70 million, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 11,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Egypt, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan and South Dakota. V-Day was named one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities" in 2001 and Marie Claire's Top Ten Charities in 2006. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. http://www.vday.org