Before she interned at the White House, founded her own nonprofit and earned two degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Camille McGirt was bullied on the school playground.
She remembers what it felt like to be a young girl struggling with her self-esteem, so after volunteering with former first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, McGirt had an idea: she would start her own nonprofit to help middle school girls gain confidence and healthy habits.
“I wanted to take that message of a healthy lifestyle and make it tangible for girls back home in my community of Durham,” said McGirt, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health policy in 2013. “I was inspired by being around all these change agents and people who are really invested in social good, and I wanted to do something in that space.”
While they were still undergraduate students at Carolina, McGirt and her sister Rachel founded Healthy Girls Save the World, an organization dedicated to helping young girls in the Triangle achieve healthy minds, bodies and relationships.
| UNC-CH