“At Girl Gonna Launch, we don’t just prepare girls for the future, we help them shape it.”
Girl Gonna Launch (GGL) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on setting up girls to achieve their dreams, providing real-world experiences to foster entrepreneurial skills.
Founder Kate Jackson was initially motivated to start GGL by what she saw in her classroom.
“For the past eight years, I’ve been teaching entrepreneurship at the college level. And little by little, I started noticing something that troubled me: fewer and fewer young women were enrolling in entrepreneurship courses,” said Jackson.
Jackson ensures that the problem is not ability, it’s visibility. If the young generation of girls doesn’t see companies led by women, pitching to investors, and launching ventures, inevitably, they won’t be able to imagine themselves in those roles.
“When female founders rise, we all win. Consumers get products designed with them in mind. Our communities get solutions built for their needs. And our world becomes more innovative, more equitable, and more reflective of the people who live in it,” said Jackson.
GGL has now expanded into designing curriculum for other programs, teaching financial literacy skills, investing in women-led startups, and offering internship and other employment opportunities to local high school and college students.
Senior Charlie Axus worked as a Strategic Growth Intern for Girl Gonna Launch throughout the entirety of her summer.
As an intern, Axus worked closely with Jackson to analyze programming, explore new growth pathways, and propose actionable recommendations to expand the GGL impact.
She began her internship with extensive research over similar programs and non-profits to undercover strategies for growing engagement. From that research, she did a series of Stakeholder interviews tailored for various groups, including middle school girls, parents, counselors, administrators, and local businesses within the Lake Forest community. She used these first-hand insights to generate ideas for forward-thinking ways to scale the GGL impact, while assessing possible risk.
“I recommend girls get involved with GGL as it is a way for them to learn more about entrepreneurship, financial literacy, innovation, and empowerment. Most of these things are not taught in a classroom setting, so it was amazing to gain real-world exposure and receive mentorship from the founder,” said Axus.
While working with GGL, Axus was able to help educate middle school girls on entrepreneurship and financial literacy in a way that brought them newfound confidence. Axus also reached out to various Lake Forest businesses, interviewed them, and featured a few on the GGL instagram (@girlgonnalaunch).
“I think overall the Lake Forest community developed more awareness about GGL, and as a result, we were able to spread the non-profit’s inspiring message,” said Axus.
GGL also works closely with LFHS through the incubator and accelerator program. This is how Axus first discovered the program and summer opportunity. GGL is largely supported by Lake Forest, as most of the summer camps and workshops take place at the Gorton Center.
Jackson has big plans for what is next for GGL. She worries that accessing funding for college will become more challenging in the coming years.
“At Girl Gonna Launch, we want to make sure that smart, hardworking young women don’t see their potential limited by financial barriers. I know from personal experience (my own education was made possible by student loans) that talent should never go to waste for lack of opportunity. That’s why we’re exploring the possibility of creating an academic scholarship to support the next generation of women leaders.”
Through every program and growing community presence, Girl Gonna Launch continues to make a difference in Lake Forest and beyond.
“The Girl Gonna Launch Foundation is committed to helping more girls see the value and potential in their big ideas and to develop their confidence to step up, take risks, advocate on behalf of themselves, and launch their big dreams,” says Jackson.
