When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its Youth Risk Behavior Survey report in March, outlining the severity of the nation’s adolescent mental health crisis, building school connectedness was a cornerstone of its recommended solution. It even outlined school-based suggestions for improving curricula. But this approach to alleviating severe mental health concerns, complex trauma, sexual violence and more rests squarely on the shoulders of educators.

Putting overworked, underpaid and imperiled teachers on yet another front line cannot be the solution. Instead, school communities need a collaborative solution that incorporates administrators, parents, coaches and other education professionals, and that is ultimately led by those most impacted by this crisis: girls, especially girls of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

This won’t be an easy task for most schools. In our role as co-CEOs of Girls Leadership, which works with public and private schools across the U.S., we know that fostering well-being specifically for girls is not a commonly accepted practice. This is because it means accepting that the barriers to safety, mental health and school connection are different for girls than for boys. When we speak to school leaders about bringing in a program designed to support the specific needs of girls and gender-expansive youth, the most common response we hear is, “We can’t do anything for the girls that we aren’t doing for the boys.”

Read the full article about girls' mental health by Simone Marean and Takai Tyler at The 74.