Anya Kingsley is a Facilitator for Rites for Girls, an organisation which aims to guide girls safely through adolescence. With a couple of spaces left on the next year-long Girls Journeying Together Group in Norwich, she shares her story
Who are you and what do you do?
Hi! I am Anya and I offer a year-long monthly programme with small groups of girls aged between 10-12 and in year 6/7. I trained with Rites for Girls in 2017 and am a qualified Facilitator working as a mentor with pre-teen girls. Prior to training with Rites for Girls and before my daughter went to school, I was a full-time mum. My career before having my daughter was as a producer for a creative production agency. Being a mother is my most wonderful, hardest, most lonely and sweetest job in the whole world.
What has led to the setting up of Rites for Girls?
Surveys show that children have some of the highest rates of anxiety and unhappiness ever and preteen and teen girls are particularly vulnerable. Parents work long hours, extended families live far and wide, teachers are pushed to meet curriculum demands — so girls are relying more on their immature peers for support.
Any parent knows that it’s not easy supporting all the different needs of our children. We can probably also remember our own journey of navigating puberty with the highs, sudden drops, twists, and turns of these emotional roller coaster teen years.
Girls Journeying Together groups support this by offering girls a regular opportunity to share their thoughts, hopes, fears and questions with an adult mentor and a safe group of girls their age whilst learning all about puberty and growing up.
So, Rites for Girls is organised into different regional groups? How far-reaching is it?
At the moment groups are mostly offered in the UK but women from all over the world come to the UK to train with Rites for Girls founder Kim McCabe. Once graduated, facilitators can then offer groups in their local area. Girls Journeying Together groups have been run in Hong Kong, Bali and Russia and the long-term ambition is to have a Girls Journeying Together group in every city.
What are your links to Norwich/Norfolk?
I am a Norfolk girl! My family are all from here and I grew up in a village just south of Norwich in the valley of the River Yare and I now live in Norwich with my husband and our preteen daughter. I absolutely love Norfolk and am so pleased that my daughter gets to grow up in such a special part of the world. Norfolk will always be my home.
In what ways can Rites for Girls help people?
Girls need help with how to manage stress, bullying, divorce, siblings, exams and social media. Women can give them this support, and other girls can give them a feeling of camaraderie and belonging. Belonging to a girls’ group can be enormously supportive to mothers and daughters alike, giving each girl a community to grow in, with inspiring adults who care about her and take time to guide her.
In Girls Journeying Together groups, preteen girls prepare for puberty and learn how to take charge of their emotional, social, and mental well-being. Facilitators also support their mothers as the girls’ journey through this pivotal phase. We aim to make growing up for girls an easier, safer, and better supported journey.
I really enjoy getting to know each girl and to see them get to know themselves better. It’s heartening to see them chatting, giggling, supporting and taking care of each other, growing into themselves and sharing their experiences, dreams, achievements and fears. Over the 12 months together they gain trust and grow friendships, with each girl being accepted just as she is.
How can people get involved and/or find out more about what’s happening in Norfolk?
I’d love to hear from any mums who are interested, for their daughter, and want to know more or book a space. My next group starts in Spring 2025. I hold a free taster session so that girls and their mums can meet me and each other. I also invite some older girls and their mums who have already completed the programme to help the girls to decide if they want to join. It’s a very friendly and relaxed space at my home in Norwich.
I have just two spaces left for my next taster session in Spring 2025 and registration is open for 2026/27 places. Rites for Girls has been awarded some National Lottery funding, so I am delighted to be able to offer some fully funded places. Please do get in touch for more details.
The next Girls Journeying Together Group in Norwich starts in March 2025, meeting on Saturdays 1-4pm once a month for 12 sessions, with a special celebration at the end. The group is open to girls in Year 6 and 7/age 10-12. There is a free taster session for mums and daughters taking place on Saturday February 8, 2025, from 1-3pm, in Norwich. Join Norfolk Rites for Girls on Facebook, email anya@ritesforgirls.co.uk or visit Anya Kingsley – Rites for Girls.
Featured image: supplied
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