When Haley Kilpatrick was 15 years old and dealing with the pressures of being a teenager, she founded Girl Talk at her school in Albany, Georgia. "It's an organization that develops leadership skills in high school girls by allowing them to mentor middle school girls," Kilpatrick told Nicole Lapin when she was on CNN's Young People Who Rock last year. From humble beginnings in her school, the nonprofit organization now reaches young women in 24 states, with international chapters in Canada, the Virgin Islands and Africa, helping over 30,000 girls deal with the stress and strain of growing up.
The 21-year-old, a Kennesaw State University graduate with a degree in communication, travels extensively around the country spreading the word about Girl Talk and motivating youth, teachers and administrators on the importance of mentoring. The organization's mission is to help young teenage girls build self-esteem, develop leadership skills, and recognize the value of community service through weekly mentoring meetings.
Apart from CNN, Kilpatrick has appeared on NBC's Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Montel, and TBS. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the 2007 Southeastern United States of the NSDAR Community Service Award, an annual award given to a native-born American citizen for outstanding contributions to their part of the country. She was also honored with the President's Volunteer Service Award and the Community Service Award from Atlanta's NBC affiliate 11-Alive. She is a spokesperson for American Eagle and appeared on billboards nationally for their Live Your Life Spring 2006 campaign. CosmoGIRL! magazine named her as their 2004 CosmoGIRL! of the Year and she has appeared on Jezebel magazine's list of Atlanta's 50 Most Beautiful People, as well as receiving a $10,000 Maybelline New York scholarship.
As busy as she is with Girl Talk, Kilpatrick has also found time to be Albany's Volunteer of the Year, United Way's Southwest Chapter's Volunteer of the Year, and Miss Teen Albany. Kilpatrick, of Scots-Irish descent, tells us of her family's heritage, "Between 1717 and the American Revolution, about 250,000 Scots-Irish came to the New World, but Kilpatricks have been in this country for a longer time than that - at least 330 years, in fact."
The 21-year-old, a Kennesaw State University graduate with a degree in communication, travels extensively around the country spreading the word about Girl Talk and motivating youth, teachers and administrators on the importance of mentoring. The organization's mission is to help young teenage girls build self-esteem, develop leadership skills, and recognize the value of community service through weekly mentoring meetings.
Apart from CNN, Kilpatrick has appeared on NBC's Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Montel, and TBS. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the 2007 Southeastern United States of the NSDAR Community Service Award, an annual award given to a native-born American citizen for outstanding contributions to their part of the country. She was also honored with the President's Volunteer Service Award and the Community Service Award from Atlanta's NBC affiliate 11-Alive. She is a spokesperson for American Eagle and appeared on billboards nationally for their Live Your Life Spring 2006 campaign. CosmoGIRL! magazine named her as their 2004 CosmoGIRL! of the Year and she has appeared on Jezebel magazine's list of Atlanta's 50 Most Beautiful People, as well as receiving a $10,000 Maybelline New York scholarship.
As busy as she is with Girl Talk, Kilpatrick has also found time to be Albany's Volunteer of the Year, United Way's Southwest Chapter's Volunteer of the Year, and Miss Teen Albany. Kilpatrick, of Scots-Irish descent, tells us of her family's heritage, "Between 1717 and the American Revolution, about 250,000 Scots-Irish came to the New World, but Kilpatricks have been in this country for a longer time than that - at least 330 years, in fact."