Molly Barker, a four-time Hawaii Ironman Triathlete, established Girls on the Run® in August of 1996 to celebrate the gifts of girlhood and to address what she calls Girl-Box issues. A former competitive athlete, Molly holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a former high school teacher and track coach. She has also worked as a college counselor at a small private college addressing the needs of women with eating disorders, alcohol and substance abuse problems and depression.

The product of Molly's experience, Girls on the Run is one way to provide pre-adolescent girls with enabling tools to embrace their girlhood gifts as they enter middle and high school, and then on into adulthood.

From Founder, Molly Barker

In 1976, I bought my first pair of running shoes. I was fifteen and like most girls that age, trying to figure out who I was inside a changing body. I desperately wanted to fit in with the popular crowd but I couldn't fit into the box it placed over my spirit. The box told me things I knew in my heart weren't true: That the way I behaved and looked was more important than who I was inside. That being a woman meant being quiet and submissive. That having a boyfriend meant having to mold my body and actions to meet prescribed cultural standards. But I stepped in anyway. The years I spent trying to mold my thoughts, body, lifestyle and being into what the box required were extremely painful.
 
So I ran. I'd put on my running shoes and head for the woods, the streets, wherever my feet would take me. I felt strong. Beautiful. Powerful.
 
July 7th, 1993 - I remember it well. I put on my running shoes and went for a sunset run. I am not sure during what point of the run the box disappeared, but like a glass womb it shattered around me and pushed me out, born to an entirely new freedom. It was a moment of personal awakening.
 
A year later I began to write the Girls on the Run curriculum. The concept, however, was born long before. It was born in 8th grade when a boy in my class told me that I looked like a boy. It was born when a young woman, weighing 85 pounds and starving herself, told me she needed to lose weight to be beautiful. It was born when a pregnant thirteen-year-old and I took a long walk in the woods.
 
Girls on the Run is a lot more than a running program. It will, I believe, lead to an entire generation of girls living peacefully and happily outside of the Girl Box.
 
In the year 2030, I'll be 70. My daughter will be 32. If I have anything to say about it, she will never have to climb out of the Girl Box. Girls on the Run will shatter these constraints, like the spirit did for me that July night and help her and other girls feel comfortable simply being themselves.