There is something incredibly magical that happens when girls and women get together for slumber parties, sleepovers, and sleepaway camp. The veils thin, vulnerability and silliness increases, the stars and pjs come out, bonding in relationships accelerate, fairy dust appears, and a shared experience is created which only this group of girls truly understand. Girls experience a felt sense of belonging, connection, and like they are part of something larger than themselves. It’s a safety net, a sisterhood, a family! When girls feel seen for their true selves, connected, and feel a sense of purpose and community, their nervous systems are regulated, their self-worth is increased, and there is a general sense of safety.

We dreamed about creating a sleepaway camp for girls and after countless conversations about the girls we worked with and, of course, our shared love for the movie, Parent Trap, we developed the idea of Camp Sisterhood—a sleepaway camp for girls. Our vision for Camp Sisterhood centered around two core intentions: authenticity and belonging. It was important to us to incorporate and support the yin and yang of life as a young girl—the lightness of play and joy and the darkness of sorrow and unworthiness. We wanted to make sure there were no stones unturned when it came to creating a space where girls could be REAL and share all their parts. We wanted to create an environment where girls could be accepted for their true, unsuppressed selves while also feeling a deep sense of connection, trust, and sisterhood. Given that we are therapists and spend much of our week working therapeutically with girls of all ages, we felt it was deeply important to create a camp vision and program which took girls’ developmental, social, and emotional needs into consideration in a big way. We wanted the silliness, laughter, games, water fights, marshmallow roasting, and skits to exist right alongside the harder conversations about friendship conflicts, self-worth, the transition from girlhood to young womanhood, puberty and menstruation, body image, darker emotions, and family conflict.