Workshop Overview:
Boys today often receive narrow messages about masculinity that encourage emotional suppression, toughness, and the idea that vulnerability is weakness. These pressures can lead to frustration, aggression, and disconnection, making it harder for boys to form close, supportive friendships. Building emotional literacy, compassion, and a broader definition of strength is essential for their long-term well-being.
Girls, meanwhile, face strong pressure to be beautiful, agreeable, and socially perfect — expectations that begin surprisingly early and shape their confidence and sense of self. From media to classroom dynamics, girls may learn to prioritize appearance over ability and harmony over honesty, contributing to anxiety, perfectionism, and self-silencing. Supporting girls to trust their instincts, set boundaries, and value their strengths helps them grow into confident, grounded leaders.
This workshop gives parents, caregivers, and educators practical tools to counter these pressures and support healthy gender development. Participants will learn strategies for navigating screen time and media messages, strengthening emotional literacy, interrupting early bias, and modeling healthier expressions of identity. Attendees will leave with scripts, conversation starters, and everyday practices to nurture confident, connected, and compassionate children.
To make this accessible to parents, Child Care is provided for children enrolled at Big Wonder. Space is limited. Please RSVP to Celeste.
Pizza and drinks provided!
Speaker Bio:
Justine Finn is the Founder and Director of Relation-Shift, launched at the Harvard Innovation Lab in 2016 to advance gender equity, healthy relationships, and safe school cultures. For fifteen years, she has partnered with schools and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and internationally to address misogyny, bias, and culture challenges through leadership development and student, caregiver, and educator programming. She has also spent over a decade designing healthy-masculinity and boy-culture initiatives for national organizations and athletic programs, and has designed and facilitated programming for girls and young women. Justine lives in Seattle with her family and is the proud mother of a young son and daughter finding their own ways in the world.
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