I am contemplating volunteering to be a writing mentor at a Los Angeles-based nonprofit called WriteGirl. Launched in 2001 by Karen Taylor, #WriteGirl provides weekly one-on-one mentoring, schedules monthly workshops on a variety of writing genres, shares mentee work in public meetings, and publishes books with writings by its mentees. Where do WriteGirl mentees come from? WriteGirl mentees come from high-density public middle and high schools in central Los Angeles. These girls are recommended by their English teachers and are both low and high achievers. Where do I fit in? WriteGirl searches for professional women writers and women with strong communications skills who use writing in their careers in all genres – some like me, who work in multiple genres – who will volunteer to mentor these teen girls. I first heard of WriteGirl at a friend’s birthday party. My friend asked for donations to WriteGirl instead of gifts and hosted WriteGirl staff, volunteers, and … [Read more...]