The You Are Conference for Teenage Girls 2020

The vision of the You Are charity is to both empower and power up girls’ inner confidence to own their future, and to have hope, purpose and identity. Another focus of the charity is to grow leaders and influencers through a mentorship programme, and by providing opportunities for young women to speak and share their stories of identity, hope and purpose. This year, the operations team also welcomed four KingsWay School alumni onto their team to co-lead and facilitate the conference.

Since it was founded in 2012, KingsWay Senior School students have become increasingly involved in serving as mentors and speakers at the You Are conferences. This year, the following KingsWay students were involved in the 2020 You Are conference. Their courage, commitment, diligence and sheer hard work was inspiring: Angela Oh (mentor and speaker), Emma Shepherd (mentor and speaker), Isabella Santos, Amber-leigh Strydom, Emilie Wallbank, Jasmine Byfleet, Dana Rutherford, Nicky Botha, Taryn Banks, Asha Shaffet, Dominique Myburgh, Macy Taylor, Asher Leqeta, Elizabeth Kimber, Shanna Daniel, and Molly Sharp.

The mentorship programme enables these leaders to work closely with a group of girls to empower, encourage and equip them as the conference takes place. The mentor plays a crucial role in helping the girls make connections between what they learn and their own lives. Vanessa Gatman (founder and Operations Director) says that having mentors involved who have a strong faith helps the many girls who attend with no experience of God, a beautiful example of what it is to have an identity grounded in Christ and the hope and purpose that flows out of that.

Now into its ninth year, the charity is reaping the benefits of seeing the long-term impact of its work with young women. For example, this year, alumni Ella Shepherd, Teyah Daniel, Verity Bennett and Hannah Gatman joined the operations team to co-lead the conference. Having attended the conference for several years and mentored, their hearts to serve, impact and speak into girls’ lives was a key driver in making conference happen. Another example was the impact statements made through girls sharing their journey, and this highlighted key tools and strategies they had learned as participants and mentors.

Senior students, Emma Shepherd and Angela Oh have both attended You Are and are now serving as leaders. They accepted the opportunity to speak to the Year 8 and 9 girls about overcoming insecurity to finding identity in Christ and navigating friendship struggles. Alumni Zoe Lund and Stephanie Roberts spoke about their identity in Christ and serving others as a way of finding purpose.