By Taylor Bowler
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Girls on the Run, a youth development program that helps girls build confidence, resilience, and a positive sense of self through running. Over the last three decades, Girls on the Run has grown from its Charlotte roots into a national movement with hundreds of teams across the country. It expanded to the Triangle in 2000 and has now served more than 2.7 million young runners nationwide.
Founded in 1996 by Molly Barker, the program was built around a simple idea: Running can be a vehicle for self-understanding and agency, not just athletic performance. That philosophy still anchors its curriculum today.
“People think of it as a training program,” Barker says. “For me, it’s got a lot of power. It’s saying you are responsible for your fabulous body and you get to choose what is right for your body. It’s encouraging agency and autonomy.”
Unlike traditional sports leagues that emphasize competition, Girls on the Run blends physical activity with structured conversations about confidence, relationships, and decision-making. Coaches guide small teams of girls through practices that culminate in a celebratory 5K event—not as a test of speed, but as a shared accomplishment.
“So much of youth sports is centered around perfection,” Barker says. “Girls will think, ‘I’m not fast enough.’ This isn’t trying to make you a better runner—this is to make you a happy runner.”
Studies have found that more than 50% of girls ages 6 to 8 say they want to be thinner, and by middle school, many already associate thinness with being happier or more successful. It’s exactly why Girls on the Run meets girls when it does: before self-doubt has a chance to fully take hold.
Across the Triangle, the program has grown alongside the region’s rapid expansion, reaching schools and community centers in both urban and suburban areas. Girls on the Run remains one of the most prominent examples of how a grassroots program took hold locally and evolved into a movement reaching millions of girls across the country.
