Adventure Ready Brands Announces 'Adventure Ready Girls' Initiative to Increase Girls' Outdoor Participation
Adventure Ready Girls aims to get 1 million girls outside by 2025 on a journey to eliminate the outdoor participation gap between girls and boys.
LITTLETON, N.H. (Oct. 22, 2020) – There is a double-digit gender gap in outdoor participation between boys and girls, and outdoor products company, Adventure Ready Brands will tackle this disparity by getting 1 million girls outside by 2025 through an initiative called Adventure Ready Girls. Adventure Ready Brands seeks to partner with like-minded organizations and individuals in order to increase reach and overall impact through confidence-building and skills-based programming, education, retail activations, and more.
A nationwide JAMA Pediatrics study published in 2012 with a sample size representing approximately four million children found that parents were 16 percent less likely to take their preschool age girls outside compared to boys. This study found that gender was the biggest contributing factor to outdoor participation among young children. A 2019 literature review published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health detailed a large body of scientific evidence on the benefits of time spent outside. These include improved confidence and self-esteem, heightened creativity and focus, and reduced anxiety and depression, in addition to the physical benefits.
“When my daughter, Kellie, returned from her first camping trip 14 years ago—a trip she was nervous to attend—her mother and I saw immediate and real changes in her self-confidence and creative drive,” says Adventure Ready Brands CEO Chris Heye. “Kellie was initially apprehensive and resistant to the idea, but just getting out and experiencing something new outdoors built her confidence. Seeing her come back from that trip feeling more empowered was so impactful to me.”
To begin tackling the gender participation gap, Adventure Ready Girls is seeking partners to expand the program’s reach with content that engages and teaches girls outdoor skills, sponsorships and partnerships with industry leaders and role models, and programming and activations that create community in the outdoor industry. As programming evolves, Adventure Ready Brands is encouraging brands and individuals who are interested in partnering or staying involved to reach out.
“When I look at the accomplished women in my life, including my daughter, I can draw a definite correlation between their confidence and their time spent outdoors," says Heye. "It is a business and a social imperative that we close the outdoor participation gender gap. If we are truly going to live our mission to, ‘Inspire Outdoor Adventure,’ it is crucial that our company empowers more young women with experiences like Kellie’s.”
To see how you or your organization can get involved, or to learn more about Adventure Ready Girls, please visit www.adventurereadygirls.com.
About Adventure Ready Brands: Founded in 1973 in the heart of New Hampshire's iconic White Mountains, Adventure Ready Brands has always operated with a simple, unified goal: To inspire outdoor adventure, no matter the condition. With innovative products from the organized-by-injury Adventure® Medical Kits to the category-leading After Bite® insect sting treatment, Adventure Ready Brands has – and continues – to make good on that promise. www.adventurereadybrands.com