2004 Annual Report - Girls Inc.

1984: Then and Now
1984 first captured the public imagination thirtyfive
years earlier, with the publication of George
Orwell’s novel of the same name. 1984 depicted a
totalitarian state where “Big Brother” was always
watching and individuality was sacrificed to rigid
conformity. But the year itself was ushered in with a
decidedly different view: in the middle of the 1984
Super Bowl, Apple Computer aired the most famous
commercial of all time. The supplicants of this “brave
new world” were seen chanting in uniform obedience,
as Big Brother himself stared down from a giant screen.
Quietly, a runner approached from the distance in open
defiance, to shatter the screen with a hurled sledgehammer.
Commentators lauded the ad’s production
values and creativity. But most missed perhaps its most
pertinent message: the runner bold enough to shatter
convention was a young woman.
2004
Twenty years later, in 2004, Girls Incorporated has
made remarkable headway in shaping a future where
girls and young women can defy convention and
stereotypes to chart their own course. In this fiscal
year, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of three
of our most successful programs to empower girls
to define themselves without limitation. And we
acknowledge the innovative ways that Girls Inc.
affiliates are leveraging those programs — and the
institutional philosophy they represent — to address
the very particular needs of girls at the local level. And
we look ahead to future programming visions — new
ways that the power of our approach can create a
society where gender-based hurdles that persist today
become the stuff of fiction.
Girls Incorporated
Strong
Smart