Community: Teens Making a Difference in Local Communities and the World

by Amy Sullivan on June 22nd, 2012 | No Comments »

When you think of teenage girls, you might think of talking, texting, shopping, and self-absorbed behavior. However, this isn’t true of all teenaged girls, and it is completely false for the founders of Project 147.

Olivia, Emma, Natalia, Caitlin, and Talia may look like average American girls, but don’t be fooled. These fresh-faced five have hearts that pound for more than material possessions and boys. They have hearts that beat for orphans.

I recently caught up with Olivia, one of the teenage staff members of Project 147, and she agreed to a short interview. Prepare to be inspired.

Question & Answer with Project 147 Staff Member

Q: Tell us about Project 147.

Olivia: Project 147 is a website and blog started by five teenage girls who all have a common passion and mission: orphans and adoption. This blog is a place where we are able to raise awareness for the 147 million orphans around the world, and encourage people to speak up for those orphans. We started the project in February of this year, and with a lot of hard work and communication (and what felt like hundreds of emails!), we were able to launch in April. We're still a small website, but our dreams for the website's progress are huge, and we want to see people's opinions, thoughts, and misconceptions on adoption and orphans change!

Q: Olivia, you are so young, what do you know about adoption?

Olivia: I have ten brothers and sisters, four of whom were adopted from Ethiopia and have been home since December. A goal of mine in blogging is not to cover up adoption with a veil of happiness and perfection, because adoption is anything but. It's the hardest thing I've done in my life (so far). It's NOT easy, and there have been many days when I wish we never would have done it. That being said, we've hit the six-month home mark, and things are going very well! Now that summer is here, we are able to play together and bond even more. We have fun together, and we love each other. The first few months were hard, and so is every day, but at this point, I can't imagine life without them.

Q: Lots of adults consider today’s teens self-absorbed. Obviously, you work against this stereotype.

Olivia: In my opinion, the focus of today's teens is off, and that's exactly why the teen years are usually associated with partying, dating, and having fun. We have been told (silently, in an indirect way) that we aren't old enough, wise enough, experienced enough, to do things. So, over time, teens have resorted to surviving high school by having fun and wasting four years in a nonchalant attitude. The five of us (and many other teens like us) have done things that most teens aren't doing. And really, we just did it. We didn't think about what people would think about us. All we knew was that we had a message to share, and so we found a way to share it.

Do you know a teenage world changer?

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.