Who Girls Become When the Tents Go Up

In Guiding, camping is never just about being outdoors. It is one of the clearest ways I see girls grow into themselves.

I’ve watched it happen over and over: a girl who is unsure at the start of a trip is the one solving problems at the end. Someone who rarely speaks in a meeting becomes the one quietly taking charge of a patrol when it matters. Confidence doesn’t arrive beforehand—it builds through doing hard things together.

I recently read an article that helped put language to what I’ve seen for years. It looks at camping through feminist and anthropological lenses and describes outdoor experiences as spaces where girls step outside of everyday expectations and into new forms of capability. It talks about “enskillment”—learning through hands-on experience—and “liminal space,” where normal roles shift and new identities can emerge.

That resonates deeply with Guiding. Around a campfire or on a trail, girls are not being measured by how they look or how quiet they are or whether they already “know how.” They are measured by what they can do, how they support each other, and how they respond when things don’t go as planned.

And they rise to it.

Camping keeps reminding me why this work matters. It creates space for girls to discover strength they didn’t know they had—and to see that strength reflected back in the eyes of their patrol.

That, to me, is the heart of Guiding.

Check out the article, Camping as Feminist Practice: A Feminist and Anthropological Perspective by Canadian Guider.

When have you seen a girl surprise herself on camp? What moments have stayed with you long after the tents came down? And for those who have led or participated in camping beyond Guiding—what did the outdoors teach you about yourself that you didn’t expect to learn?