Last night, the fabulous Deanna Zandt took me the 10th anniversary benefit of The Girls and Boys Project, a New York-based organization who have providing workshops, leadership training and social action initiatives for thousands of school-age kids in the New York area; this includes programs on gender stereotypes, body image issues, sexual health issues, violence against girls, and bullying. The thing I love about this program is that it not only creates awareness and improves self-esteem, but mobilizes kids to take action from an early age.

The benefit made me sorely miss my days at Girls for Gender Equity, another organization that works to better girls lives. While we all know of the broad reach that online activism has, working locally, doing ground work and seeing the faces of the lives I was changing will always be considered among the most important work I've done in my life.

Quite simply, it was a reminder that localized, grassroots work is the backbone of social justice. Sentimental babble over.