Written by Ashlyn Chidsey |

Have you ever been caught in a situation where you feel you are the target in your friend group? Or have you ever found yourself making fun of someone based on how they look or what they are wearing on social media, your phone, or in person? The bottom line is girls are mean to each other; it is time to do something about it. 

If you said yes to either of the questions, then you have been involved in relational regression. Relational regression is the interaction with other females in a negative manner to make one feel better about herself. Guidance Counselor Jan O’Brien is very worried about what is going on in this school, “In recent years, I’ve seen a rise in females being mean to other females. It’s concerning to me because we are in this school together. We all have a part in the school climate.”

So how has our school been trying to make strides into moving away from these harsh actions? Mrs. O’Brien, along with Andrea Kaye, Marie Pinnete, and Guidance Counselor Christie Williams-Kahn, organized a program called G2G, Girls to Girls,. Twenty girls, ranging from popular girls to those who may have been involved in some of the girl issues, were selected to participate.   Starting this year, these girls will meet three times a year with girls from surrounding schools. Junior Jamie Corcaran provided feedback on the first session. “I thought the first session was effective.  It was a good eye opener so you can see the problems.” Jamie claims that she is not in places where bullying may occur such as social media, but she can see why such sources could create an issue.

The second session was led by Ms. Williams-Kahn, and the girls talked as a group about body image and confidence and watched a video on the media and how it has an impact on women. Sophomores Lauren Bousquet and Juliana Ragonese feel as though the session was effective. Juliana gave feedback explaining, “It was a big pick me up. No one was mean to each other, and no one hated each other. It was a good program because right in the beginning they set rules and expectations so we were all able to talk as a group and speak our mind.” Lauren gives further wishes on the future of our school,”I do see the need to compete here at our school; I think we should bring in an assembly with a video similar to what we saw today. Everyone is always going to feel lower than someone else.  We need to pick up women as a whole.”

The program is a great program to have for a school and a community to help boost the spirits of girls. We hope that G2G continues to grow here at Morgan so we can make a difference within our school.