How to raise girls to be gutsy and brave

Jaime Neefs November 29, 2017 1 Comment »

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Oct. 31, 2024.

How do we raise girls to be gutsy? According to former firefighter Caroline Paul, we must guide girls outside of their comfort zones and teach them to view life through a lens of bravery.

Paul’s book The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure provides a road map for inspiring girls live life bravely. A former self-described scaredy-cat, Paul decided that fear was getting in the way of the life she wanted to lead: one full of confidence, friendship, fun, and excitement.

In an interview with CBC, Paul says that when she first became a firefighter 20 years ago, she often got asked: “Aren’t you afraid?” That’s the wrong question to ask, in her opinion.

“You can choose to look through the situation sort of through a paradigm of fear or through a paradigm of bravery,” she says. “And I think we raise our girls to look at things outside their comfort zone with fear, and we teach our boys to get outside their comfort zone and use bravery.”

The Gutsy Girl

Author: Caroline Paul
Illustrator: Wendy MacNaughton
Format: Paperback
Target audience: 6-8 years
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Price: $23

Paul doesn’t blame parents for this. “It’s that we think fear protects a girl because we view the world, I think, as more dangerous for girls,” she says. But there are ways we can raise our girls to be more confident, self-reliant, and comfortable outside their comfort zones.

Outdoor adventures, such as stargazing and compass-making, are fun for kids and provide obvious feelings of bravery. Micro bravery tasks break down something scary into small acts of bravery. Even “random acts of bravery,” as Paul describes them, can help girls rehearse the feeling of bravery and learn how it’s different from fear. The playground is also great place for girls to practice bravery.

The activities in Paul’s book guide girls to develop self-confidence, decision-making skills, and teamwork. And, as girls get older, these skills transfer over into their social circles and the workplace.

For women interested in Paul’s work, she published a book in 2024 called Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking—How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age.

One response to “How to raise girls to be gutsy and brave”

Van says:

March 8, 2019 at 11:11 am

I love the idea of gutsy brave girls! The idea of “random acts of bravery” and realizing that the feeling of bravery is different than that of fear is a great way to frame it when our girls are attempting new skills. Well done.

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