As soon as the school bell rings, a variety of students either rush to their cars so they can get home or they rush to the locker rooms to put sweats on for practice. However, while everyone else is doing their own thing, a group of girls led by Ms. Abigail Baker and Mrs. Amanda Anderson get together to talk and share laughs in the upper conference room and talk about female problems.

Reviving Ophelia is an activity for girls in grades 9-12. The idea behind the activity is for the younger and older girls to come together to help each other out through issues of body image, self esteem, relationships, and anxiety. The group was created seven years ago when a student from Kentucky addressed Ms. Amanda Anderson about the program that she had at her school and how great it was.

In the play Hamlet, Ophelia was a girl who never stood up for herself which is the reason for naming the group Reviving Ophelia. The group’s statement is to “turn Ophelia upside down and avoid the tragic situation that happens to so many girls.” Some people may also be familiar with the name from the book called Reviving Ophelia written by Mary Pipher.

The group meets every other Thursday (twice a month) and participates in a variety of different activities such as watching the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, race for the cure, and last year, the girls got their nails done and ate dinner at the Olive Garden. Reviving Ophelia also has some projects in mind for later on in the school year. They hope to hit hard on promoting women’s history month by making announcements about accomplished women in math, science, and history.

The number of participants varies every year as people come in and out. This year, the group has about a dozen freshmen, six juniors, and three to four seniors, but they haven’t seen many sophomores. Even with the lack of sophomores, the girls still find ways to have fun. “My favorite memory was making gift baskets which would be donated to the Bowl for the Cure,” said Mrs. Anderson. “We put together ingredients in jars so people could make cookies at home.”

“On one of the first meetings, all of the little ones screamed my name when I walked in and I was like this is the feeling of being the upperclassmen – it was cool,” said senior Katie Collver. “After the meeting five or six of us went to Jamba Juice.”

“It’s still not too late to join,” said Mrs. Anderson. The group is more than happy to see new faces anytime this year.