Thin Mint Memories: Scouting for Empowerment through the Girl Scout Cookie Program

by Shelley Johnson Carey

Thin Mint Scouting for Empowerment through the Girl Scout Cookie Program celebrates an American treasure by examining the first century of the cookie’s history and explores how participating in the Girl Scout cookie program leads to girl empowerment. This humorous and poignant story follows a Maryland troop through their cookie sales season and uses interviews with key Girl Scout staff to reveal the cookie program’s impact on the troop, council, and national levels. In Thin Mint Memories, Scouts past and present and their faithful customers will discover the roles each box of cookies plays in helping girls develop life skills that will serve them long after the last cookie crumb is eaten.

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2016

Reviews

[Katie Rapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed my share of Girl Scout Cookies over the years, and even sold a few Thin Mints myself when I was junior back in the 70s. Although my own Thin Mint memories are a bit faded, Shelley Johnson Carey’s Thin Mint Memories helped me relive those days… the fun we had, the girls in my troop (some I’m still in touch with), and left me wondering whatever happened to our ever-patient troop leader. But this book is much more than a stroll down memory lane.

Thin Mint Memories tells the story of Girl Scout Cookies at many different levels. The history, going back to the beginnings of scouting, the early days of cookie baking and fundraising, all the way to today, the big business that cookie sales has become. We learn about logistics behind the sales, the need for PR spin at times (the great peanut butter recall!), and we get many different perspectives: from the national down to the troop.

So many tasty details here: controversies over the different cookie names and preferences people have for different bakers. It’s all here and so fascinating! And interspersed throughout the text are those Thin Mint Memories… personal stories about what Girl Scout cookies meant to the girls who sold them.

And that’s really the heart of Thin Mint Memories… the impact of the sales on girls. There’s the fact that Girl Scouting was ahead of its time in being inclusive and supportive of girls, no matter their race or religion. I’m captivated by the idea of “Cookie College”… where the recipe for success is based on teaching the girls life skills including goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. Who knew there was such a fantastic philosophy behind cookie sales?! It makes me appreciate my own cookie selling days in a whole new way. Was I really honing these skills while knocking on my neighbors’ doors? I think the answer is clearly yes!

The most vivid part of Thin Mint Memories for me is the section that follows a Maryland troop as the girls spend the cookie money they worked so hard to earn… and go on a camping trip. I really love getting to know the individual girls and their troop leader, along with some of their back stories. It’s so well-written, based on firsthand observations as Carey shadowed this troop over a period of time. I feel like I’m there with the girls, and it’s a joy to experience their energy and excitement in such intimate detail.

Another favorite vignette describes Carey’s efforts to visit the uber-guarded cookie baking facility. Requesting a tour leads nowhere, so she and her family take a road trip with the family dog, trying to scope out the secret location and finding penitentiary-worthy fences and a guard who means business… a great story told with humor and vouching for Carey’s efforts to relentlessly research all aspects of the Girl Scout cookie story and leave no stone unturned.

Loved this book… it gives me a whole new appreciation for what cookie sales mean to the girls. I will never pass another sales table outside the grocery store without purchasing some Thin Mints (or maybe Do Si Dos, or Samoas, or Trefoils)!

[Katherine Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Thin Mint Memories brought me back to the time when I was a brownie and a junior Girl Scout. It is amazing how so many things have changed since I was a scout, but the positive experiences the girls gain from being a part of the Girl Scouts has remained the same. The book covers the interesting history of how Girl Scouts began with Juliette Low, follows the story of a Maryland troop, and explores all aspects of the Girl Scout cookie business. I especially liked the research adventures the author went on, all in the name of getting a complete picture of the topic. The book is written with a sense of humor throughout that makes this an enjoyable read in these days when the empowerment of women is so important.

[Clarissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some chapters were informative, but then most of the book is depicting what one troop is doing. The troop has a very good leader for Juniors and Cadettes. Her troop is very active. It was expecting more diversified information from various troops in diverse situations. Or more on the history. It was thin!

[Story Circle Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began reading Thin Mint Memories right at the peak of Girl Scout cookie season, so when I encountered a lively group of girls conducting a booth in front of my supermarket you can guess that I loaded up on several flavors—Thin Mints as well as S'mores, a 2017 brand new flavor. I proceeded to munch my way through this book which offers almost as many approaches to the Girl Scout cookie story as the cookies have flavors.

Scattered through the text between the chapters are personal memories of grown-up Scouts. These intriguing recollections triggered memories of my own: the sheer terror of standing in my Brownie uniform all by myself knocking on a strange front door with my empty order book in my hand—and my daddy hidden behind a nearby tree. (Girl Scouts have stressed safety from the beginning.) Thank you, Mrs. Colley. I made the sale. In later years as a customer I never bought cookies from a parent—"send the Scout and I'll buy the cookie."

The Scouts stress the selling experience for their members. They are not using the cookies merely as a fund raiser, but also as a means of teaching important skills to their members: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. The title ot the book captures them all—"Empowerment."

Carey begins at the beginning with the life of the person who made it happen—Juliette Low of Savannah, Georgia. Even Girl Scouts will find some surprises here, for Carey burrowed through the Girl Scout archives to get forgotten facts that augment the traditional story of its founder. She moves right on to the business history of the cookies from a few homemade offerings made by individual troops to the huge enterprise it is today—with revenues rising into the hundreds of millions. But the author keeps it personal—even offering the recipe for the original cookie.

Going from the inclusive to the specific, the book focuses on Girl Scout Troop 2288 near Washington D.C., led by full-of-life Jennifer M. This gives us a good look not only at cookie sales today, but a full view of some great Girl Scouts. Here is empowerment in action.

Girls Scouts and former Girl Scouts are the obvious audience for this book, but I won't be surprised to see it gain broader appeal. As a former university professor of economics, I can see this book as a fine case study not only in economics but in management and marketing. Did I enjoy the book? I did and I was back at the supermarket the next weekend loading up on more cookies and sharing my book with those fine young businesswomen.

Girl Scouts are some smart cookies.

by Trilla Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women