Michelle is the founder of MEDIAGIRLS, an award-winning nonprofit program that teaches girls and young women to know their true self-worth and harness the power of media to uplift one another. In 2022, the curriculum was absorbed by the nonprofit Girls Leap.
ABOUT MEDIAGIRLS
In 2014, award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and bestselling author Executive Director Michelle Cove launched MEDIAGIRLS, after her nine-year-old daughter Risa almost quit swimming because her thighs were “too big.” Michelle heard more and more of Risa’s peers stressing about how pretty and thin they were, and wondered why parents were not striking back against media’s role in creating this relentless pressure on young girls. In response, Michelle developed and taught an after-school curriculum for middle-school girls, once a week for 90 minutes for 10 weeks. After one year of piloting the program at several schools in Boston, Michelle began recruiting and training female college volunteers (“Mentors”) to expand the program and help girls make over the media.
MEDIAGIRLS programming has been taught to 600+ girls in Boston via our 8- to 16-week program; and reached over 4,000 teen girls and women through workshops. The nonprofit has received several awards including: Top 10 Global Innovator of Education in the “Digital Wellness” category for HundrED; Won 1st place at TUGG competitive pitch, 2nd place at PowerLaunch Fellowship pitch; and Top 10 finalist of the national Roslyn S. Jaffe Award, which celebrates “everyday heroes who are making the world a better place for women and/or children through innovative and entrepreneurial social reform.” It has been featured in publications and TV broadcast including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CBS News, ABC News, Boston 25 News, and other platforms.
Check out Michelle's blog to read her thoughts and insights on founding and leading a startup.
In 2014, award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and bestselling author Executive Director Michelle Cove launched MEDIAGIRLS, after her nine-year-old daughter Risa almost quit swimming because her thighs were “too big.” Michelle heard more and more of Risa’s peers stressing about how pretty and thin they were, and wondered why parents were not striking back against media’s role in creating this relentless pressure on young girls. In response, Michelle developed and taught an after-school curriculum for middle-school girls, once a week for 90 minutes for 10 weeks. After one year of piloting the program at several schools in Boston, Michelle began recruiting and training female college volunteers (“Mentors”) to expand the program and help girls make over the media.
MEDIAGIRLS programming has been taught to 600+ girls in Boston via our 8- to 16-week program; and reached over 4,000 teen girls and women through workshops. The nonprofit has received several awards including: Top 10 Global Innovator of Education in the “Digital Wellness” category for HundrED; Won 1st place at TUGG competitive pitch, 2nd place at PowerLaunch Fellowship pitch; and Top 10 finalist of the national Roslyn S. Jaffe Award, which celebrates “everyday heroes who are making the world a better place for women and/or children through innovative and entrepreneurial social reform.” It has been featured in publications and TV broadcast including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CBS News, ABC News, Boston 25 News, and other platforms.
Check out Michelle's blog to read her thoughts and insights on founding and leading a startup.
