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Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA
When eight-year-old Amy Erdman Farrell moved with her family to Akron, Ohio, in 1972, she found herself adrift in a sea of taunting boys and mean girls. Shy by nature, she dreaded her long, unhappy days at school. But a few years later, Farrell found an escape from bullying, the promise of sisterhood, a rising sense of confidence, adventure, and—best of all—lifelong friendship when she joined a Girl Scout troop. Decades later, award-winning author Farrell returns to those formative experiences to explore the complicated and surprising history of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Drawing from extensive archival research, visits to iconic Girl Scout sites around the world, and vivid personal reflections, Farrell uncovers the Girl Scouts intricate history, revealing how the organization has shaped the lives of more than 50 million girls and women since its founding in 1912. With Farrell as our own intrepid guide, we travel to American Indian Boarding Schools, Japanese American incarceration centers, segregated African American communities, middle-class white neighborhoods, and outposts throughout the globe. Intrepid Girls unpacks how the Girl Scouts navigated tensions over feminism, race, class, and political differences, carving out extraordinary opportunities for girls and women—even as it participated in the very discrimination it promised to transcend.
For anyone who has ever worn a uniform or wondered about the hidden history behind this iconic American institution, Intrepid Girls will surprise, inspire, and challenge what we think we know about the Girl Scouts.
Drawing from extensive archival research, visits to iconic Girl Scout sites around the world, and vivid personal reflections, Farrell uncovers the Girl Scouts intricate history, revealing how the organization has shaped the lives of more than 50 million girls and women since its founding in 1912. With Farrell as our own intrepid guide, we travel to American Indian Boarding Schools, Japanese American incarceration centers, segregated African American communities, middle-class white neighborhoods, and outposts throughout the globe. Intrepid Girls unpacks how the Girl Scouts navigated tensions over feminism, race, class, and political differences, carving out extraordinary opportunities for girls and women—even as it participated in the very discrimination it promised to transcend.
For anyone who has ever worn a uniform or wondered about the hidden history behind this iconic American institution, Intrepid Girls will surprise, inspire, and challenge what we think we know about the Girl Scouts.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 10, 2025
If you grew up anywhere near a sash, a troop meeting, or a box of Thin Mints, Amy Erdman Farrell’s Intrepid Girls feels like opening a time capsule you didn’t know you’d buried. Farrell starts with her own awkward 1970s childhood and finds salvation in a Girl Scout troop that offered exactly what she needed: friendship, confidence, and the occasional excuse to get out of the house.
From there, she widens the lens. And I mean widens. Farrell dives into the Girl Scouts’ layered history with the kind of curiosity only someone who’s both grateful for and deeply aware of an institution’s flaws can bring. She takes us everywhere - American Indian Boarding Schools, Japanese American incarceration sites, segregated communities, suburban neighborhoods, and posts around the world - showing how more than 50 million girls and women have been shaped by an organization that could be both revolutionary and maddeningly contradictory.
I’ll confess: I tapped out after Brownies. My badge journey was short-lived, but I grew up with enough family and friends in the Girl Scouts to be curious. That’s probably why Farrell’s critical balance worked so well for me. She doesn’t write a takedown, but she doesn’t hand out unearned badges either. She’s honest.
If you’re hoping for a hit piece, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for a propaganda puff piece, also no. But if you want a clear-eyed, deeply researched, and surprisingly riveting history of what the Girl Scouts have meant over time - and how they’ve stumbled along the way - this is a book for you.
Thank you to NetGalley, University of North Carolina Press, and Ferris and Ferris Books for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.
From there, she widens the lens. And I mean widens. Farrell dives into the Girl Scouts’ layered history with the kind of curiosity only someone who’s both grateful for and deeply aware of an institution’s flaws can bring. She takes us everywhere - American Indian Boarding Schools, Japanese American incarceration sites, segregated communities, suburban neighborhoods, and posts around the world - showing how more than 50 million girls and women have been shaped by an organization that could be both revolutionary and maddeningly contradictory.
I’ll confess: I tapped out after Brownies. My badge journey was short-lived, but I grew up with enough family and friends in the Girl Scouts to be curious. That’s probably why Farrell’s critical balance worked so well for me. She doesn’t write a takedown, but she doesn’t hand out unearned badges either. She’s honest.
If you’re hoping for a hit piece, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for a propaganda puff piece, also no. But if you want a clear-eyed, deeply researched, and surprisingly riveting history of what the Girl Scouts have meant over time - and how they’ve stumbled along the way - this is a book for you.
Thank you to NetGalley, University of North Carolina Press, and Ferris and Ferris Books for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.
August 4, 2025
*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.
Like the author, I too was a white girl scout from Ohio. Which is probably a lot of detail that you're wondering why I've provided it (except for the girl scout part of course). It's because my experience was very similar to hers, minus apparently all the history and international stuff that other troops knew about that I guess we were never told? I can say I definitely don't remember being taught about the founder, and I had no idea we had special International Camps (not that we could have afforded to go anyway). But anyways, that's not really the point or topic of this book.
This book is about the Girl Scouts, but not in the innocent cookie-selling ways that their image projects. It talks about the grey area they kept in, where inaction could arguably called just as bad as action a certain way. It talks about race, Japanese internment camps, Native American schools and assimilation, among other things. Even today, on pivotal societal issues, you'd be hard pressed to get the girl scout leadership to say something one way or the other on topics, choosing instead to be neutral.
Which, I get. If you want to survive in a world that can be hostile, sometimes neutrality is the way to do that. But if at the same time you're looking to be a model for girls everywhere and an ethical one at that; that's where neutrality is probably not the best policy. Leadership chose to ignore some of the wrongs that were happening in their own communities, which meant not serving the girls they purported to be there for.
Each chapter brings you through time from the founding to the present day and illustrates the not-so-nice side of the Girl Scouts. But also tells a lot of history too. Do I regret my time in the scouts after reading this book? Eh, not so much more than I already did, because although I was in for years, it was just another place where I didn't quite fit in. Knowing this history now, would I enroll a daughter if I had one? No, probably not, unless some changes were made to tell a truthful history and work towards being better as part of being in the girl scouts.
Definitely an interesting book that opens up a whole new world that people probably didn't realize was there. Past the crafts and campfires, there was a lot seething underneath. While I don't want to diminish the good or important experiences that people had, I do think that the other side needs to be acknowledged as well.
Review by M. Reynard 2025
Like the author, I too was a white girl scout from Ohio. Which is probably a lot of detail that you're wondering why I've provided it (except for the girl scout part of course). It's because my experience was very similar to hers, minus apparently all the history and international stuff that other troops knew about that I guess we were never told? I can say I definitely don't remember being taught about the founder, and I had no idea we had special International Camps (not that we could have afforded to go anyway). But anyways, that's not really the point or topic of this book.
This book is about the Girl Scouts, but not in the innocent cookie-selling ways that their image projects. It talks about the grey area they kept in, where inaction could arguably called just as bad as action a certain way. It talks about race, Japanese internment camps, Native American schools and assimilation, among other things. Even today, on pivotal societal issues, you'd be hard pressed to get the girl scout leadership to say something one way or the other on topics, choosing instead to be neutral.
Which, I get. If you want to survive in a world that can be hostile, sometimes neutrality is the way to do that. But if at the same time you're looking to be a model for girls everywhere and an ethical one at that; that's where neutrality is probably not the best policy. Leadership chose to ignore some of the wrongs that were happening in their own communities, which meant not serving the girls they purported to be there for.
Each chapter brings you through time from the founding to the present day and illustrates the not-so-nice side of the Girl Scouts. But also tells a lot of history too. Do I regret my time in the scouts after reading this book? Eh, not so much more than I already did, because although I was in for years, it was just another place where I didn't quite fit in. Knowing this history now, would I enroll a daughter if I had one? No, probably not, unless some changes were made to tell a truthful history and work towards being better as part of being in the girl scouts.
Definitely an interesting book that opens up a whole new world that people probably didn't realize was there. Past the crafts and campfires, there was a lot seething underneath. While I don't want to diminish the good or important experiences that people had, I do think that the other side needs to be acknowledged as well.
Review by M. Reynard 2025
November 3, 2025
*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy*
Overall, this was an interesting take on the history of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides in the US and abroad. The author infused quite a bit of her own experience into the book. I would say that the author's take on Girl Scouts' history was less "complicated" and moreso "critical".
Overall, this was an interesting take on the history of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides in the US and abroad. The author infused quite a bit of her own experience into the book. I would say that the author's take on Girl Scouts' history was less "complicated" and moreso "critical".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2025
I am so excited that Amy Erdman Farrell has written the book I've desperately been trying to read ever since I got into the history of the Girl Scouts. Studying Girl Scout history is often an experience of saying "hang on... what?" in response to passing details. For example, on page 110 of the Collector's Guide, a picture of Girl Scouts at an Indian Residential School is presented without commentary or context about the schools themselves. In telling the origin story of the Girl Scouts, people often make references to the parents of the Girl Scout's founder, Juliette Gordon Low being on opposite sides of the issue of slavery, the kind of issue I did not realize that married couples could be opposite sides of. And by far the most aggravating to me, anytime the racial history of the Girl Scouts is brought up, the quote from Ebony magazine where MLK called the Girl Scouts "a force for desegregation" is mentioned as though it were the be all end all on the matter.
Intrepid Girls finally addresses the elephant in the room by compiling a well researched history of both the inclusion of racial minorities in the organization and how ideas about race were perpetuated by the Girl Scouts. The book opens with a historiography of the evolving myth of Juliette Gordon Low, how parts of her story (especially in regards to slavery) were emphasized or removed entirely depending on the needs and social mores of the day. Farrell takes the critique that Low never said her famous quote "I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, all of America, and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight!" to the logical next step by asking: were the Girl Scouts really for the girls of "all of America"?
And as the subtitle of the book would suggest, the answer is complicated. It isn't as simple as the Girl Scouts were once a Whites-only organization and then integrated, as the Girl Scouts never had an official policy of being Whites-only. However, as Farrell shows, anxieties of about the organization being perceived as too controversial or too ethnic and the threat that posed to the Girl Scouts' ideal wholesome image led to policies that narrowly defined membership for non-white members prior to the Civil Rights Movement.
And even then this narrowly defined membership wasn't simply functionally preventing the creation of Black troops in the South. In addition to that, GSUSA also cultivated Girl Scout troops in Indian Residential Schools and Japanese Internment Camps where Girl Scouting could be seen as a redeeming Americanizing force. Through exploring everything from the myth of Juliette Gordon Low herself to fights about the location of the Girl Scout National convention in 1947, Farrell is able to begin to unpack this complicated history.
Contrary to what some are inevitably going to say about this book, Farrell's thesis is not that the Girl Scouts are an evil organization that must be abolished at all costs. In fact, she takes great pains to point out how Girl Scouting sometimes served contradictory roles, what was intended as a tool of control in the case of the Indian Residential Schools and Japanese Internment Camps also served as a source of freedom and autonomy. Her thesis is instead that the Girl Scouts are not just some girls organization, immune to the world around them, but actually an important American institution "at the center of the struggles that shaped twentieth-century US life", one that has historically claimed a sort of innocence and backed off in the face of controversy.
This innocence should be familiar to contemporary members, as Farrell points out it is the same tact that the Girl Scouts took in the 21st century when dealing with controversies surrounding sex-ed. Farrell's push is not for the end of the Girl Scouts but a future where the Girl Scouts are willing to court controversy if it means inclusion and serving the needs of their membership. That grappling with the complicated history "is a first step to imagining and creating, a more just and equitable society for everyone".
Thank you to Sonya Bonczek of The University of North Carolina Press for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.
Intrepid Girls finally addresses the elephant in the room by compiling a well researched history of both the inclusion of racial minorities in the organization and how ideas about race were perpetuated by the Girl Scouts. The book opens with a historiography of the evolving myth of Juliette Gordon Low, how parts of her story (especially in regards to slavery) were emphasized or removed entirely depending on the needs and social mores of the day. Farrell takes the critique that Low never said her famous quote "I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, all of America, and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight!" to the logical next step by asking: were the Girl Scouts really for the girls of "all of America"?
And as the subtitle of the book would suggest, the answer is complicated. It isn't as simple as the Girl Scouts were once a Whites-only organization and then integrated, as the Girl Scouts never had an official policy of being Whites-only. However, as Farrell shows, anxieties of about the organization being perceived as too controversial or too ethnic and the threat that posed to the Girl Scouts' ideal wholesome image led to policies that narrowly defined membership for non-white members prior to the Civil Rights Movement.
And even then this narrowly defined membership wasn't simply functionally preventing the creation of Black troops in the South. In addition to that, GSUSA also cultivated Girl Scout troops in Indian Residential Schools and Japanese Internment Camps where Girl Scouting could be seen as a redeeming Americanizing force. Through exploring everything from the myth of Juliette Gordon Low herself to fights about the location of the Girl Scout National convention in 1947, Farrell is able to begin to unpack this complicated history.
Contrary to what some are inevitably going to say about this book, Farrell's thesis is not that the Girl Scouts are an evil organization that must be abolished at all costs. In fact, she takes great pains to point out how Girl Scouting sometimes served contradictory roles, what was intended as a tool of control in the case of the Indian Residential Schools and Japanese Internment Camps also served as a source of freedom and autonomy. Her thesis is instead that the Girl Scouts are not just some girls organization, immune to the world around them, but actually an important American institution "at the center of the struggles that shaped twentieth-century US life", one that has historically claimed a sort of innocence and backed off in the face of controversy.
This innocence should be familiar to contemporary members, as Farrell points out it is the same tact that the Girl Scouts took in the 21st century when dealing with controversies surrounding sex-ed. Farrell's push is not for the end of the Girl Scouts but a future where the Girl Scouts are willing to court controversy if it means inclusion and serving the needs of their membership. That grappling with the complicated history "is a first step to imagining and creating, a more just and equitable society for everyone".
Thank you to Sonya Bonczek of The University of North Carolina Press for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.
July 13, 2025
✨ Five Star Review! ✨
"It is the innocence which constitutes the crime" - James Baldwin 1962
Intrepid girls is a comprehensive overview of the convoluted history of the Girl Scout of the USA from it's founding to present day. It addresses the ugly truths of the founding and success of the organization including the Girl Scouts involvement in deconstructing Native American culture, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII, and racial segregation against African Americans. This information has all but been erased through the revisionist history touted by the GSUSA. Amy also highlights the way the GSUSA has historically hidden behind white female innocence in an attempt to placate religious conservative members, while simultaneously claiming to be "inclusive" of all girls. While she does mention the positive impact scouting has had on many girls, herself included, she does not use this to justify the harm committed.
I found the book to be incredibly well researched, easy to read, and balanced. It's an important read I would recommend to anyone who has participated in Girl Scouting. Especially those who are considering becoming involved today. Honesty about the complicated past of the GSUSA, and the United States in general, is crucial to avoid a repeat of past injustices.
I was a Girl Scout in the early 2000s, and often credit the organization for teaching me invaluable life skills I might otherwise not have learned. Involvement with scouting opened a world of opportunities I would not have had otherwise, and I made some of my best memories with my troop. I have looked forward to the days I could enroll my own daughter in scouts, but have also felt uncomfortable with some of the underpinnings of the organization. I feel like this book has both validated me, and armed me with the knowledge to better lead my daughter through the organization, should she chose to join. I will absolutely be recommending this novel to every potential scout parent I meet on the playground.
Thank you to NetGalley and University of North Carolina Press for sending me this advanced digital copy!
"It is the innocence which constitutes the crime" - James Baldwin 1962
Intrepid girls is a comprehensive overview of the convoluted history of the Girl Scout of the USA from it's founding to present day. It addresses the ugly truths of the founding and success of the organization including the Girl Scouts involvement in deconstructing Native American culture, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII, and racial segregation against African Americans. This information has all but been erased through the revisionist history touted by the GSUSA. Amy also highlights the way the GSUSA has historically hidden behind white female innocence in an attempt to placate religious conservative members, while simultaneously claiming to be "inclusive" of all girls. While she does mention the positive impact scouting has had on many girls, herself included, she does not use this to justify the harm committed.
I found the book to be incredibly well researched, easy to read, and balanced. It's an important read I would recommend to anyone who has participated in Girl Scouting. Especially those who are considering becoming involved today. Honesty about the complicated past of the GSUSA, and the United States in general, is crucial to avoid a repeat of past injustices.
I was a Girl Scout in the early 2000s, and often credit the organization for teaching me invaluable life skills I might otherwise not have learned. Involvement with scouting opened a world of opportunities I would not have had otherwise, and I made some of my best memories with my troop. I have looked forward to the days I could enroll my own daughter in scouts, but have also felt uncomfortable with some of the underpinnings of the organization. I feel like this book has both validated me, and armed me with the knowledge to better lead my daughter through the organization, should she chose to join. I will absolutely be recommending this novel to every potential scout parent I meet on the playground.
Thank you to NetGalley and University of North Carolina Press for sending me this advanced digital copy!
August 10, 2025
Intrepid means to be fearless, adventurous, and unafraid. In Amy Erdman Farrell’s “Intrepid Girls”, this definition can be seen in the history of the Girl Scouts of the United States (GSUSA). This history starts in 1911 England where GSUSA’s founder, Juliet Gordon Low, works with Lord Robert Baden-Powell’s Girl Guides. It covers Girl Scouting’s US start in 1912 at her Savannah, Georgia, home and how it spread throughout the US. There are highs and lows throughout the GSUSA’s story from the very beginning though today.
I was a Girl Scout in the 1960’s and early 1970’s and then was a leader for my three daughters troops in the 1990’s and 2000’s. I can relate to some of what the author depicts, but was also affected by the “Girl Innocence” that she describes that is present in Girl Scouting. My memories, as both a girl and a leader, were good ones. This book brought to my attention some of the different conflicts that the organization has encountered during its history. This is a well researched and written book. I don’t necessarily agree with everything, but I do respect that everyone’s viewpoints are different due to one’s life experiences. I would recommend this book to anyone who has been a Girl Scout and to anyone who wants to know about the history (herstory) of Girl Scouting.
I wish to thank the University of North Carolina Press, Ferris and Ferris Books, for the complimentary eARC of this book and for selecting me to review it on NetGalley. All opinions here are my own.
#IntrepidGirls
#UniversityOfNorthCarolinaPress
#FerrisAndFerrisBooks
#NetGalley
#GSUSA
I was a Girl Scout in the 1960’s and early 1970’s and then was a leader for my three daughters troops in the 1990’s and 2000’s. I can relate to some of what the author depicts, but was also affected by the “Girl Innocence” that she describes that is present in Girl Scouting. My memories, as both a girl and a leader, were good ones. This book brought to my attention some of the different conflicts that the organization has encountered during its history. This is a well researched and written book. I don’t necessarily agree with everything, but I do respect that everyone’s viewpoints are different due to one’s life experiences. I would recommend this book to anyone who has been a Girl Scout and to anyone who wants to know about the history (herstory) of Girl Scouting.
I wish to thank the University of North Carolina Press, Ferris and Ferris Books, for the complimentary eARC of this book and for selecting me to review it on NetGalley. All opinions here are my own.
#IntrepidGirls
#UniversityOfNorthCarolinaPress
#FerrisAndFerrisBooks
#NetGalley
#GSUSA
November 5, 2025
Girl Scouts has a more complicated history than many know. Like quite a few organization, Girl Scouts has whitewashed, heterowashed, etc. their history. Thus, many of the girls and women who participate and have participated in Girl Scouts know only the myths. They don't realize that the wealth the founder had was built on stolen, forced labor (enslavement). They don't realize that the famed phone call from the founder may not have actually occurred or maybe didn't occur in that way.
This book honors the complicated history of the Girl Scouts--including how the Boy Scouts were initially opposed to the group and the name due to sexist views--and the ways it's benefited so many girls. Personal stories are interwoven through the narrative, along with documentary research.
I participated in Girl Scouts for many of my elementary years. It was something I really enjoyed, especially being with only girls. I could relax more in a girls-only space, free of the "boys will be boys" mentality that dominated my life outside of Girl Scouts. It was a space I didn't have to be constantly on guard. I learned skills that benefit me to this day, including self-defense (which helped me escape some dangerous situations when I was younger).
I recommend this book for anyone who loves and/or wants to learn more about the Girl Scouts.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC!
This book honors the complicated history of the Girl Scouts--including how the Boy Scouts were initially opposed to the group and the name due to sexist views--and the ways it's benefited so many girls. Personal stories are interwoven through the narrative, along with documentary research.
I participated in Girl Scouts for many of my elementary years. It was something I really enjoyed, especially being with only girls. I could relax more in a girls-only space, free of the "boys will be boys" mentality that dominated my life outside of Girl Scouts. It was a space I didn't have to be constantly on guard. I learned skills that benefit me to this day, including self-defense (which helped me escape some dangerous situations when I was younger).
I recommend this book for anyone who loves and/or wants to learn more about the Girl Scouts.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC!
December 15, 2025
In this fascinating history of the Girl Scouts, Amy Erdman Farell uses her extensive archival research and trips around the world to bring the complicated history of this iconic organization to life. Taking readers from middle-class white neighborhoods to American Indian boarding schools, Japanese American incarceration centers, and segregated communities, Farrell explores how the Girl Scouts navigated and perpetuated various social tensions and community differences to create extraordinary opportunities for girls across the United States. Packed with a lot of details and fascinating insights into the Girls Scouts’ complicated history, this book offers a sweeping and fairly comprehensive overview of the organization and how it engaged with social movements and tensions over the decades. Farell’s writing style is engaging and informative, and the amount of research and travel she has undertaken really shines on every page. The book is incredibly detailed and intriguing, and gender history and American history fans will find this book to be readable and incredibly interesting. With its detail-filled pages and compelling prose, this is a great book about the Girl Scouts and the conflict and secrets under their cookie-selling surface. Readers will definitely enjoy and learn a lot from this informative and intriguing new book from Amy Erdman Farell.
Thanks to NetGalley, University of North Carolina Press, and Ferris and Ferris Books for the advance copy.
Thanks to NetGalley, University of North Carolina Press, and Ferris and Ferris Books for the advance copy.
August 9, 2025
Black, Brown and White.
It's these colors that dominated this reader's mind.
Why not green and white, the colors traditionally associated with the Girl Scouts of America?
Because with this book, the author challenges a reader to reassess not just the myth surrounding Juliette Gordon Low's founding of the Girl Scouts but also the painful history the Girl Scouts have with race. The reader will learn of the Girl Scouts' complicated involvement with Japanese Internment Camps as well as American Indian Boarding Schools. The past, blatant and rampant racism at the local Club level with leaders flouting direction by the Council was astonishing. In addition to race, the author tackles on how the Girl Scouts seemingly 'boyish' activities upheld an agenda for a conservative as well as Rudyard Kiplingesque agenda.
This read was at times discomfiting. But, sometimes as readers of history, we need our beliefs to be jostled forcing a reexamination of these same historical figures. This book will do just that.
This ARC was provided by the publisher, University of North Carolina Press | Ferris and Ferris Books, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
#IntrepidGirls #NetGalley
It's these colors that dominated this reader's mind.
Why not green and white, the colors traditionally associated with the Girl Scouts of America?
Because with this book, the author challenges a reader to reassess not just the myth surrounding Juliette Gordon Low's founding of the Girl Scouts but also the painful history the Girl Scouts have with race. The reader will learn of the Girl Scouts' complicated involvement with Japanese Internment Camps as well as American Indian Boarding Schools. The past, blatant and rampant racism at the local Club level with leaders flouting direction by the Council was astonishing. In addition to race, the author tackles on how the Girl Scouts seemingly 'boyish' activities upheld an agenda for a conservative as well as Rudyard Kiplingesque agenda.
This read was at times discomfiting. But, sometimes as readers of history, we need our beliefs to be jostled forcing a reexamination of these same historical figures. This book will do just that.
This ARC was provided by the publisher, University of North Carolina Press | Ferris and Ferris Books, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
#IntrepidGirls #NetGalley
October 30, 2025
Amy Farrell’s Intrepid Girls is an incredibly deep dive into the history and powerful social impacts of the Girl Scouts of America (GSA). As one of many former Girl Scouts, I was excited to approach the organization from a critical, comprehensive view, and this book delivered. Like most members, I had a very small, localized view of the GSA, limited primarily to my troop and local school district. Farrell, however, expands this scope exponentially, taking readers through the wide-reaching history of the organization across the entire country.
Be warned: this is an in-depth reading. If you're looking for a light overview, you won't find it here. What you will find is a well-researched and thoroughly documented examination of one of America's most impactful and enduring youth organizations.
Be warned: this is an in-depth reading. If you're looking for a light overview, you won't find it here. What you will find is a well-researched and thoroughly documented examination of one of America's most impactful and enduring youth organizations.
Want to read
November 23, 2025I would have loved to read this, but forgot to download it to my NetGalley Reader and read it in time. November got away from me. I read a wonderful review on Goodreads and am kicking myself. It sounds fascinating. I was a nerdy Girl Guide in England and did a talk for my Speaker badge on the history of the movement, and now I’m particularly interested in the stories of Indigenous people and social justice, so the chapters about residential schools, Japanese internment and racist exclusion would have been right up my street. The book is now definitely on my wishlist. I’m hoping for a paperback version. I’m sorry for not reading it, both in the sense of apologising to the author and publisher, and in the sense of regret for not giving myself the chance to read it
November 23, 2025
I’m a lifetime Girl Scout, a leader, and the mother and sister to current Girl Scouts. I know this organization that I truly value has its limits- limits I hope to address in my own troops and the children I work with. I really appreciate the time the author has spent researching and presenting some of these histories.
I wish there had been a more comprehensive explanation about what policies GSUSA currently has that need changing to be anti racist, feminist, and queer supporting. And how to advocate for those changes.
I wish there had been a more comprehensive explanation about what policies GSUSA currently has that need changing to be anti racist, feminist, and queer supporting. And how to advocate for those changes.
December 3, 2025
It was interesting to read the background story about Girl Scouts and not just the official history.
The only issue with this book is that there are too many repetitions of the same concept. The first couple of chapters are too much about Lesbian. I doubt that a group of boy or men is accused of being gay just because they are together!! Why the difference. I was a GS leader for over 20 years and there never any issues on that topic. I do believe that despite all the flaws GS is a valid organization for girls, especially if they continue to emphasize camping and outdoor, more than STEM.
The only issue with this book is that there are too many repetitions of the same concept. The first couple of chapters are too much about Lesbian. I doubt that a group of boy or men is accused of being gay just because they are together!! Why the difference. I was a GS leader for over 20 years and there never any issues on that topic. I do believe that despite all the flaws GS is a valid organization for girls, especially if they continue to emphasize camping and outdoor, more than STEM.
December 9, 2025
I'd rate this as a 3.5. The book addressed how GSUSA failed to advocate for some of its basic tenets, such as inclusion, equity, and opportunities for girls and women, if it didn't fit in with the social mores of the time and place. It was a disappointing, but honest view. There were parts however that felt repetitive and long.
November 9, 2025
This most interesting book was hard to pit down. I learned so much about the history of the Girl Scouts. Much of it untold until Amy Farrell wrote about what happened.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews