Summer camp is a special experience for kids and teens. In an era when the average American child spends 53 hours a week in front of a screen, summer sleepaway camp is a vital antidote. It’s a time when our kids can leave their mostly sedentary city lives to exercise in the countryside. At camp, our children are forced to put away their devices and try new activities, make new friends, and step out of their comfort zone to discover abilities they never knew they possessed. Well-known psychologists endorse summer camp as an experience that builds resilience, setting the stage for success in the future. There are many benefits to overnight camp, but why would you choose to send your daughter to a girls-only camp?

1. The Confidence to Push Your Boundaries
   

In a single-sex camp environment, girls encourage each other to try new things and play to their strengths. Surrounded by peers in the supportive, inclusive atmosphere of camp, girls can find the confidence to step out of their restrictive shell and push their limits. Camp Louise Director Alicia Berlin says, “An important part of growing up is stepping outside of your comfort zone and taking risks. We support girls in this process – whether it is jumping into deep water for the first time, zip lining off the Adventure Park or getting on stage to perform in front of 650 people.” In a single-gender camp, girls are encouraged to move beyond any fears that might have held them back.

2. Build Stronger Friendships

In an all-girls’ camp, campers can concentrate on building the kind of mutually supportive bonds that last a lifetime. “It’s a very real community – no one is fake, no one is trying to impress anyone,” says Berlin. Camps allows girls to discover a different side to their friendships, a side where they support each other. Girls can scream their hearts out cheering each other on and encourage their new friends to push their limits. As many of us know, sleepaway camp friends can be the best and longest-lasting friends we posses.

3. Strong Role Models

Single-gender camps also give girls strong female role models to look up to and grow towards. Girls get to see their female counselors modeling leadership abilities and showing them how to project assertiveness and confidence. Connecting with older girls who can guide them through the difficult years of puberty is a powerful aspect of the girls-only camp experience.

4. Time to Introspect

At a single-sex camp, both girls and boys can enjoy more time to be introspective. One of the powerful effects of sleepaway camp is that it permits kids to step out of the box of daily life and discover their inner depths. Without the pressure of school work and the distraction of the opposite sex, and in a different environment surrounded by nature, girls can think about who they are and who they want to be.

5. Opportunity to Break the Mold

When campers arrive at a girls-only camp, they can leave behind their regular selves. In school, a girl might have to live up to a particular image that everyone has of her, but at camp she can redefine herself. Without the pressure of past performance girls can break out of the mold into which they were cast and which they might not have chosen. In camp, girls can create their own identity.

6. Freedom to be Herself

At a single-gender camp, both boys and girls feel free to be themselves without any pressure to dress or behave a certain way in front of the opposite sex. In a single-sex camp, girls aren’t influenced to bow out of sports or to leave traditionally male activities only for the boys to enjoy. Girls have a more positive body image when in an all-girls’ environment, and are more confident to throw themselves into sports and adventure activities.

7. A Sense of Community

Camp welcomes girls into something bigger than themselves, fostering independence and resilience within a sheltering community. As the saying goes, camp is big enough to matter and small enough that each girl makes a difference. By attending an all-girls’ environment, girls enjoy connecting with a strong community within an atmosphere of a strong community.

Why send your daughter to an all-girls’ camp? So that she can learn to take risks and be assertive, to build friendships and overcome her fears, to accept strong role models and reject external limitations: in short, learn why Camp Louise is the perfect place for your daughter to be the best version of herself.