Juliette Gordon Low

Hillary

The Girl Scout motto is simple: Be prepared. According to a version of the handbook published the year I was born, “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency.” I couldn’t have put it better myself. It’s no wonder I found my way to the Girl Scouts.

Though it has been decades since I hung up my sash, I still remember all the songs. (“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other’s gold.”) Many of my most joyful moments on the campaign trail, as first lady, as senator, and as secretary of state have revolved around getting to spend a few minutes catching up with a gaggle of girls eager to show me their badges. Plenty of people who have never been a Girl Scout are familiar with the camping trips, the service projects, and, of course, the cookies. The Girl Scout cookie program is the biggest “girl-led business” in the world, with two hundred million boxes sold every season. (Thin Mints are the most popular variety, according to the organization’s official reports—no surprise there. My mother always loved Thin Mints, and kept them in the freezer as a special treat.)

“The thing is, when there is danger before you, don’t stop and think about it. The more you look at it the less you will like it. But take the plunge and go boldly in at it, and it will not be half as bad as it looked, when you are once in it. This is the way to deal with any difficulty in life.”

—HOW GIRLS CAN HELP THEIR COUNTRY: THE 1913 HANDBOOK FOR GIRL SCOUTS

So just where, exactly, did it all start?

Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon, better known to friends and family as Daisy, was born on October 31, 1860, in Savannah, Georgia. As a little girl, Juliette was sensitive, curious, compassionate, and adventurous. She suffered from ear infections and injuries when she was young, which left her hard of hearing. On her wedding day, a grain of rice thrown by an overzealous guest got lodged in her “good” ear, leading to a painful infection. In the process of removing the rice, her eardrum was punctured, and she would spend the rest of her life almost completely deaf. (Later, she was known to exaggerate her deafness when friends tried to back out of their commitments to do work for the Girl Scouts.)

On a trip to England, Juliette met Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. He told Juliette that when he first formed the organization, six thousand girls registered. He wasn’t about to have them traipsing across the country with his Boy Scouts, but he wanted to start a similar offering for girls. With Lord Robert and his sister, Agnes, Juliette helped set up some of the first troops of “Girl Guides” in Scotland and London. She showed characteristic foresight in a letter to her father, gushing: “I like girls, I like this organization and the rules and pastimes, so if you find that I get very deeply interested you must not be surprised!”

When she came home to America, Juliette made a fateful call to her cousin, Nina Anderson Pape, a teacher who would become the local commissioner of the Girl Scouts. Juliette didn’t beat around the bush: “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight!” Over the next few weeks, they convened a small troop of eighteen girls who met at Juliette’s house. As the girls mastered various skills (cooking, first aid, bicycling), they earned the coveted badges. Walter John Hoxie, a famous naturalist and a friend of Juliette’s, helped organize one of the organization’s first camping trips. A year later, the organization changed its name to the Girl Scouts and published a handbook, entitled How Girls Can Help Their Country. In the handbook were diagrams showing how to splint an arm, step-by-step instructions for how to extinguish a gasoline fire, lists of different knots, notes on civics, media literacy (“Wherever you go you will have the choice of good or bad reading, and as reading has such a lasting effect on the mind, you should try to read only good things”—that’s advice that stands the test of time.), athletics, cooking, and more.

“ ‘Stick to it,’ the thrush sings. One of the worst weaknesses of many people is that they do not have the perseverance to stick to what they have to do. They are always wanting to change. Whatever you take up, do it with all your might, and stick to it.”

—HOW GIRLS CAN HELP THEIR COUNTRY: THE 1913 HANDBOOK FOR GIRL SCOUTS

Though she stopped short of getting involved in the budding suffrage movement, there is no doubt that Juliette believed in educating girls and giving them a sense of power. Years before women could vote, serve on juries, or open a line of credit in their own name, she wanted girls to learn career development, leadership, self-sufficiency, and financial literacy (described in an early handbook as “thrift”). She was an ardent supporter of sports for girls, believing that competition was not only healthy but necessary to development. She did a headstand and a cartwheel each year on her birthday just to prove she could still keep up with her Scouts.

When World War I broke out, Juliette got involved, and so did the Girl Scouts. They volunteered as ambulance drivers, rolled bandages, sold war bonds, planted gardens, and even stepped in for overworked nurses during the Spanish flu epidemic. Through it all, they kept growing. It was during the war years that the first Girl Scout cookies were sold. In 1917, they published their own magazine, called The Rally.

In addition to being a firm believer in the potential of every girl, Juliette was a prodigious fund-raiser. When attending a fancy luncheon, she would trim her hat with leftover vegetables from her garden, forgoing the traditional flowers. When her fellow guests raised an eyebrow, she would exclaim: “Oh, is my trimming sad? I can’t afford to have this hat done over. I have to save all my money for my Girl Scouts. You know about the Scouts, don’t you?” Even after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she kept fund-raising and promoting the Girl Scouts.

Today, Juliette’s family home is a historic landmark. There are schools, camps, and scholarships named after her. Her face has appeared on a postage stamp, and there was even an opera about her life. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, a century after the Girl Scouts were founded.

CHELSEA

I loved being a Brownie and was honored to take part in the Girl Scouts’ hundredth-anniversary celebration in 2012. There is no one better to lead the organization today than their current CEO, Sylvia Acevedo, who is a Brownie-turned-rocket scientist. She has used her background as an engineer to solve problems from disparities in education to lack of access to necessities like eyeglasses, toothbrushes, and books. Under her leadership, the Girl Scouts are creating new badges in the sciences, civics, and more. I’m excited to continue cheering on the Girl Scouts in their second century.

According to the organization, fifty-nine million American women alive today were part of the Girl Scouts growing up. Venus and Serena Williams are Girl Scout alums. So are Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, and Robin Roberts. My friend and fellow secretary of state Madeleine Albright was a Girl Scout. Former Girl Scouts are governors and astronauts. Fifty-eight percent of women elected to the 116th Congress were Girl Scouts. Juliette couldn’t have known everything her Scouts would go on to achieve, but I like to think it’s exactly what she had in mind. At a time when it was a radical concept, Juliette believed that girls really could help their country—that is, as long as they were prepared.