As the year comes to an end, all of us here at Girl Up have been looking back on the most amazing 2010 moments. We realize that so many of our most incredible memories came from you! 

This year, for our 10th birthday party, my twin sister Sydney and I decided to have our first GirlRaiser to support Girl Up. We went on GirlUp.org and started our GirlRaiser team, "Jersey Girls Rock!" We needed our mom and dad to help us get organized, but the rest was pretty easy. 

I recently moved to Arlington Heights, Illinois. As the winter season approached, our family was invited to join the neighborhood of 550 houses to decorate a Christmas tree with little white lights and display it in our front lawn. This is a tradition that dates back 40 years in Arlington Heights.

Sometimes the hardest part of anything is getting started, so we’ve put together a little list of 25 ideas so your GirlRaiser team can have fun while giving High Fives! This is the second set in a series of five in our GirlRaiser Ideas series so keep checking in for more ideas!

Imagine you are in a class with 40 other children, trying to learn and understand the lesson. Now, imagine you had no pencils or notebooks. Girls in developing countries like Malawi are forced to learn in extreme situations like these every day.

My name is Jenna, and I’m a Girl Up Teen Advisor. I’m writing to wish you all happy holidays and to remind everyone of the importance of giving during this holiday season!

Wow, what a year it has been for Girl Up! I cannot believe we started this campaign just a few months ago.  We all know time flies when you’re having fun!There are so many things we’ve done and achieved this year, but before we start 2011, we want to share some of our favorite moments of 2010!

If you want to help start a revolution to help the world’s girls, look no further than “Girlution” in New Orleans!

As a senior at Ashley Hall, an all-girls school in Charleston, South Carolina, I am required to complete a senior project before graduation. The senior project gives students an opportunity to discover a passion and explore it deeply. I found my passion with Girl Up!

Sometimes the hardest part of anything is getting started, so we’ve put together a little list of 25 ideas so your GirlRaiser team can have fun while giving High Fives! This is the first set of five in our GirlRaiser Ideas series so keep checking in for more ideas!

Want to see what a Girl Up Pep Rally is like? Watch this video of Girl Up's Jen Kim Field where she was live at our Unite for Girls Tour in Denver to hear all about the awesome girls (and boys!) who attended to learn how they can unite to change the world!

Today, we’re giving a huge “High Five” to the U.S. Senate! Last Wednesday, a bill that will protect kids from being married off before they are old enough to know any better passed in the Senate unanimously.  This is the first time that the Senate has backed legislation related to this issue.

In countries like the U.S., you have the right to marry who you chose to, but in some developing countries, girls are becoming brides as young as age five!

You and I know that in the U.S., school girls like you grow up to have so many opportunities – think of your moms, aunts, or our government leaders! But girls in other countries like Malawi don’t always have that chance.

Earlier this month I stepped (way) outside of the United Nations and nonprofit world in which I live and spent a couple of days with the leadership and employees of Henkel North America at their campus in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Since the UN Foundation launched Girl Up earlier this year, we’ve been amazed at the support you’ve shown for girls around the world like you.  You have really made this a “for girls, by girls” movement.

Today is World AIDS Day. Did you know that young people between the ages of 15 and 24 make up 40 percent of new HIV infections globally?

I recently had the privilege (and fun!) of speaking at the Posey Leadership Forum at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Over the past few weeks, you may have seen some of our blogs on violence against girls. Every day, a woman or girl is a victim of violence. Did you know that violence kills or harms as many women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer?

This week, we are talking about the issue of violence against girls and what Girl Up is doing to help make a difference. Some of the most at-risk girls are forced into marriage or relationships when they are still young children.

The day before the Louise S. McGehee School campaign was set to launch, students of the “Global Issues” class had finally decided on a name for their project.

I grew up in the U.S., in a small house with a backyard and a dog, in a safe neighborhood (as a kid, I thought it was kind of boring) in Tampa, Florida. I knew the basic rules about safety — don’t talk to strangers, never get in a car with someone you don’t know, look both ways before you cross the street, and as I got older, there were of course all sorts of rules about boys.

I had a very cool opportunity to attend a Girl Up pep rally in Seattle today. Over 150 girls came through to learn about the life of some of the girls in Africa and Latin America. I carried jugs of water with girls today who experienced first hand how heavy and exhausting it is to carry gallons of water for hours, which many girls spend their days doing in these countries. 

It’s High Five Friday again! This Friday, we want to recognize Tabby Biddle from The Huffington Post for being an awesome Girl Up supporter and a champion for women around the world.

As a teen in the U.S., you are more socially connected today than ever before.  A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004, and one in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day – or 3,000 texts a month!  Teens instant message and connect on social networking sites with friends almost as much as they connect in person. 

Girls and boys from all over LA joined us at the Unite for Girls Pep Rally in Los Angeles to learn about the lives of girls in Malawi, Liberia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, and to start to take action by getting involved in Girl Up.