When I sold my first box of Girl Scout cookies at 5 years old, I thought the program was exactly what it looked like: people liked cookies, and I was helping to sell them. What I did not realize then was that I was stepping into the largest girl-led business in the world, and into a formative experience that would shape how I lead, advocate and help those in my community.
I am now 16 years old, a Girl Scout Ambassador for the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, and I have been part of the cookie program for 12 years. Over that time, I have sold more than 15,000 boxes of cookies. An impressive amount I’m definitely proud of, but the number matters far less than what selling cookies taught me along the way.
When I started in Girl Scouts, I was shy and unsure of myself. Knocking on doors or asking someone to buy cookies felt intimidating. But season after season, I learned something simple and powerful: to try my best. It never hurts to ask, and the worst thing someone can say is no. Learning to advocate for myself built confidence that I still rely on today.
As I got older, my role in the program changed. Cookie sales stopped being something adults guided me through and became something I led. I learned how to set goals, manage inventory, track money, make change on the spot and adjust my strategy when something was not working. I also learned marketing skills without realizing it at the time by designing flyers, creating QR codes, using our digital sales platform to make purchasing easier and thinking critically about how to reach people.
The lessons were not always pleasant, but they were always helpful. One year, my sales peaked at around 4,000 boxes. The following year, I did not beat that number. At first, it felt like a failure, but it also forced me to rethink what success really meant. Cookie season is not about chasing a record. It is about building skills you will use long after the cookies are gone, including perseverance, adaptability and resilience.
Those skills have followed me outside of Girl Scouts. Today, I serve as the youth advocacy lead and social media head for the New York State chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America, a cause I am personally passionate about because my mother is hard of hearing. The outreach, communication and audience-building skills I use in that role are the same ones I practiced selling cookies.
When I talk to people about my experience with Girl Scouts, many assume cookie sales are just a fundraiser. What they do not see is where the proceeds go or what girls are empowered to do with them. My troop has used cookie funds to support service projects and experiences that shaped us as leaders, like my Gold Award project, where I created “Simple Signs for Support,” teaching basic sign language to local hospital staff, patients and seniors through my work with people with hearing loss. Cookie proceeds helped fund the materials that made that work possible.
I am not the only one noticing this gap in understanding. According to a nationwide survey by Girl Scouts, families recognize the Girl Scout name but often do not understand what we do beyond selling cookies. For example, during the height of the pandemic, my troop helped launch a pillows-and-blankets drive for a local hospital, raising more than $25,000 in comfort items.
Girl Scouts has been part of every stage of my life. It shaped how I think about leadership, community service and my own potential. In a society that often underestimates young people, especially young women, Girl Scouts creates a space where our voices are valued, and our ideas are trusted.
If we want young people to grow into confident leaders, we have to start trusting them earlier, with real responsibility rather than symbolic roles. Programs like the Girl Scout cookie program work because adults do not do the work for us. They provide guidance, then step back and let us make decisions, learn from mistakes and lead. Many caregivers say they are looking for programs that build confidence, independence and real-life skills for their children, and I know from experience that those are exactly the skills cookie sales teach when we are trusted to lead.
When young people are given ownership over real projects such as budgets, goals and community impact, we rise to the challenge. Investing in programs that center on youth leadership is not just good for young people; it strengthens communities. We are not too young to lead. We are already doing it.
Julia Lin is a junior at the Bronx High School of Science and a Girl Scout Ambassador and Gold Award Girl Scout with Girl Scouts of Greater New York. She has been a Girl Scout and cookie entrepreneur since the age of five, and has been the top boroughwide cookie seller in Queens since 2021. She lives in Kew Gardens with her family.
