Girl Scouts go for new look

Since she was 5, Patti Duncan has faithfully attended weekly Girl Scout meetings, earned badges for taking care of pets and sold lots of those famous cookies.

But each year, fewer and fewer of the 14-year-old's fellow troop members returned. This year, Patti and her mom couldn't even find four other girls in their large suburban Phoenix, Ariz., neighborhood to form a troop.

"They didn't want to do the badge work and just wanted to hang out with their friends," Patti said.

The Girl Scouts have an image problem with older girls. It seems the 91-year-old organization -- known for service, leadership development and, of course, Thin Mints -- becomes uncool with the 11-and-older crowd. Of the Scouts' 2.8 million members ages 5 to 17, 88 percent are younger than 11.

That number made it clear to Girl Scout officials that they needed to offer something different to attract -- and retain -- teens like Patti and "tweens" or preteens. After much research, a new program called Studio 2B was launched earlier this year.

It arrives in Southeast Missouri in March, with a kickoff at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park. The event will focus on self-esteem, beauty, peer pressure and personal safety. It's sort of like a women's show for teens, said Denise Stewart, executive director of the Otahki Council.

The Studio 2B program is so new that area leaders are just beginning to get training and learn how to implement it here, Stewart said. "It's just beginning to trickle down," she said. But the program has "created quite a buzz" in the metro areas where it was first implemented.

The new program is radically different and is based on research about tweens and interviews with those girls about what they like and didn't like about Girl Scouts.

"Everything was tested with girls," said Harriet Mosatche, senior director of research and program. "It is very much a 'by girls, for girls' approach."

Studio 2B doesn't have girls wearing uniforms, earning badges or going to weekly meetings. Instead, girls plan what they want to do when they want to do it, with advice from a college student or young adult. They can earn "rewards" if they want.

Patti said she prefers traditional scouting but is interested in Studio 2B.

"You plan something that you want to do," she said. "You think it over and decide whether it's a good idea or not."

Stewart expects the program to be a hit with area girls because they'll have more control over program choices. "It can be about more issues that girls want to learn about," she said, citing career exploration as a possible topic.

Many drop out of scouting because of other activities. Stewart understands that, but she said she feels worse about the girls who leave and have no other activity or group to join. She hopes that Studio 2B can help keep them interested in Girl Scouts.

Studio 2B's Web site makes no direct reference to Girl Scouts. Its content is the stuff found in teen magazines: advice columns, guides to skin care and planning for the future.

Features editor Laura Johnston contributed to this report.

On the Net

Studio 2B: www.studio2b.org

Girl Scouts: www.girlscouts.org