|
|
 |
|
|
| Join the Space Where Girls Rule the Web FAQ's |  |
Volunteers:Yes! We need your help! Putting A Girl's World up online every day is fun, rewarding, interesting work. And there's a lot to go around. So join the Girl's World Crew! Here's what we need and how to join the staff. What's needed:
How to volunteer: Show up online in our Gold Key Circle during one of the AGW crew meetings. There's usually two a month. Or, you can call and leave a message at: (760) 414-1092 Give us your name, hours we can call, the state and country where you live, and tell us what you'd like to do. Our editor, Karen, will call you back just as soon as possible. You can also send a fax with the same information to: (760) 631-1498
Volunteers are thanked on our Credits page and writers get credit on the Front Page, home pages and on the article when it is published.
Check here to meet the volunteers, girls 7-17 and adults who put this website together. Our grateful thanks to them for their love for girls and support!Chatroom:Our Gold Key Circle and Chat Village are open! Not a member? Be our guest! Try a month of Gold Key for free! Then, after your free month as our guest, get your pass to the Gold Key Circle for only $24.00. Or, write an article for us! Any girl whose article is published on our site gets a year of Gold Key for free as our thanks. Enjoy a whole year of friends to meet, your own weekly online Guide to Life, classes, opportunities to share your opinions, ideas, hopes and dreams. For more information on Gold Key and to sign up, click here!
Gold Key: Safety on the Internet is a grave concern for parents of computer-wise children. With this in mind, A Girl's World Online Clubhouse(r) created the Gold Key Circle the very first interactive online service exclusively for girls.
After a month's free Guest Membership, subscribe for a year of Gold Key for only $24.00. Or, girls can share their talent and time. Or, write an article for us! Any girl whose article is published on our site gets a year of Gold Key for free as our thanks. For more information, click here to find out all about the Gold Key Circle offers parents and girls a terrific entertainment and educational value. For less each month than the newsstand cost for an issue of "Girl's Life" or "Teen," parents get a secure, quality, informative place for their daughters to be on the Internet. And what do the girls get? Features, interactive stories, quizzes and chat rooms ensure that every day, there's something special and new for girls to talk about, learn from, and do! Features include:
Karen Willson, Editor of AGW, describes the reason why the Gold Key Circle was created. "There are lots of public chatrooms on the Internet. But most of the parents I know don't want their daughters to go near them, and rightfully so. Those chat areas aren't secure or safe, and the information girls get from them is just awful. The letters we've been getting about the predators out there making life miserable for girls appalled us. A Girl's World is the space where girls run the place. So, we asked the girls what to do. Over 7,000 girls said, it's a jungle out there. We want a safe, member supported place just for girls. We listened by creating the Gold Key Circle. Now parents have the opportunity to make a real difference by supporting a spot on the web that's for girls, by girls, and a safe place for girls to be themselves. The Gold Key area is password protected, member's only, pay service. Everyone who signs up must fill out a special form and agree to the Terms of Service (Rules). Girls must give us a valid email address and telephone number. We check a percentage of all memberships: guest memberships, too to ensure that the information they have given us is correct. This assists us in keeping out baddies, meanies and crazies, and giving girls a place to have lotsa fun!
Yes. After your month free, to enter the Gold Key Circle, (which includes the chatrooms) everyone has to pay a small fee, or, write an article for us! Any girl whose article is published on our site gets a year of Gold Key for free as our thanks. . Gold Key is only 24.00, two dollars a month! It's a real bargain when you think about all the good, safe stuff you get. And you're helping us build the place where girls run the place: the only place that's for girls, by girls on the internet: A Girl's World Online Clubhouse. We're volunteer sponsored and there's expenses we hafta pay for, like any magazine, club or site on the Internet. We have to rent space on a server, pay phone, computer time, buy equipment like scanners, you name it. So by everyone chipping in and paying just a little bit a year, every girl and her parents can help out and feel good and get something wonderful in return: a safe, private spot to chat, meet guests and celebrities and have lots of fun too! Now that's girlpower!
Yes. Our online clubhouse stays free. You still get all the fun free programs like the Penpal Spectacular, Magic Story, Members Only and cool stuff to do: like give and get advice in Teen Talk or Between Friends, read Cool Career Articles, Crafts, Cooking and 50 other interactive areas. But if you like what we're doing and would like to see us around on the web as a resource for girls, pitch in and join Gold Key. We're entirely member supported. Every girl counts.
Your Own Homepage: Dear Jessica: We'd love to have more hosts! You can get started right now by joining our Gold Key Circle for free for a month and hosting your own chat! Star on our site by writing an article. Become a featured member. And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so we can keep you posted on exciting new stuff that's coming up.
Membership Stuff: Hey, we've got cool "Girl's Rule the Web!" tee shirts! head over to our AGW Mall for details.
Money and Bookstore Info: There's no charge for access to A Girl's World Online Clubhouse. Entry to our site is free to all the girls of the world. Volunteers and staff write, edit, program, code and run the club. But like any magazine, AGW does have expenses like: computer space on an internet provider, phone, photos, scanning and all that stuff. That's why we have our Gold Key Circle and our Girlpower Bookstore. Girls, their parents and interested grownups are invited to help support the club by doing something you already do -- talk to other girls, and buy books! So if you can, join us! Help support your club!
As an Associate of Amazon.com, A Girl's World receives a small referral fee for books linked to and purchased through the bookstore pages our site. Amazon's service and prices are exceptional. We're delighted to share this resource with girls and their parents. And every book you buy helps to support the only space that's for girls, by girls on the internet.
Our big project for our first year online, June 1996-1997, was the creation of the Penpal Spectacular, our free, safe penpal club for girls and the Members Only program that lets girls meet other girls from around the world and see who they are and what they like.
For 1997-1998, We just opened our Gold Key Circle a private, member-supported Chat Village and GirlTalk magazine. And, we revamped our "Member's Only" program. It wasn't designed to deal with a thousand girls joining every week. Now girls can get their information up immediately, and delete/change old information. That was a big task. Next? We're developing more online classes for girls. Our goal is to help girls become career-wise and money smart. Check out Girl Biz for details.
Safety: In A Girl's World Online Clubhouse, we do everything we can to shield girls' identities on the web. All the girls who contribute or "host" areas on our site have any information that would identify them altered. Our goal is to protect everyone's privacy. That's why "personal identifiers" like your last name, etc. are removed from everything that is posted on the site. We even use photoshop to brush out identifying logos on pictures in our Featured Members" area. Your safety and privacy are really important to us.
Karen (the editor) never shares mail with anyone outside the Girl's World Staff, Crew and Volunteers that answer the mail. And we don't keep the stuff we cut and edit. There's just not time. And Jana, that's the truth.
Speedup! Yo, girls! Word up! Mail and responses would get up on the site a whole lot faster if clubgirls did not put their last names, addresses, names of schools they attend, phone numbers and email addresses in their postings on the site. For your safety and privacy, we have to stop and pull all that stuff out by hand, and it takes lots of time. Sometimes we get thousands and thousands of letters and responses a month. This is your club. So we're totally jazzed when you write! But real people read and answer your letters. So it takes some time. Thanks soooo much for your help, and your patience! You girls are great!
Email! Many girls have written us saying that they don't have an email address. They use the library or school computer to hang out at AGW. Or, they share an email address with their parents and they'd like their very own address. We're talking to our programmer about whether or not its possible for us to offer this service for a small fee. Keep an eye on your newsletter! More information to come, later!
No Answer? Ouch!
Sorry about that! If your letter is answered by one of our FAQ'S, the INFO page or our host girls' bios, on their home pages, I usually don't pass it on to be answered. That's because the answer is already on our site. If you don't have a brand new question, write something about yourself. Or send in a poem or a story. Or a joke. Or an idea. We love to hear from you. And we answer all the letters we can! So don't give up. This is your space. You'll see yourself in print very soon! -- Karen, Editor.What Guys Write: The most common letters that guys write are: "Why isn't there a Guy's World?" Followed by: marriage proposals, requests for dates and unusual ideas for articles. We also cut a very small amount of mail that doesn't follow the rules about respecting each other when posting materials. Responses and letters that are rude or crude or flaming don't make it past our editor before it gets to the Girl's World Crew.
Girls Only: Sorry guys. Our club is for girls only. That's because there are so many boy-oriented sites on the web, we wanted this to be something special just for girls around the world. We want a place where girls voices are heard! If boys take a look around, hey. That's great! Don't get us wrong. We like boys! But only letters and contributions from girls get put online and only girls can be members or penpals.
Some girls have wondered if boys write in, pretending to be girls. We don't know. We only screen out contributions we're sure are from boys. Like, lets say a guy pretended to be a girl. And he was good enough at writing like a girl to fool our Girl's World Crew. Hey! Maybe walking a few miles in a girls shoes will be a good thing for him. If everyone could see the world from a girls point of view for a day, it would be an even better place.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the Boy Scouts, we don't know of any clubs like this on the web for boys. Sorry guys!
Startup: For the complete story, click here. "A Girl's World" premiered in May of 1996 with these goals: to give girls in every country of the world a safe place on the Internet to make new friends, explore their futures, dream big dreams and be creative and adventurous. It's fun. It's free. And it's brought to you every day by a bunch of volunteers. These are grownups and girls who give time to the clubhouse because they truly believe being a girl is something to celebrate.
Contributions: Girls get to run the place. In fact, this is the very first interactive environment written by girls as well as for girls. "A Girl's World Online Clubhouse(r)" is the space where girls truly run the place!
We have two groups of girls helping out. First, we have a team of volunteers, girls 7-17 who meet regularly to help put the website together and to tell the editors what they think girls would like to see, do and be.
Girls online can also join the "Girl's World Crew" in the Gold Key Circle. We have regular club meetings online. Also, any girl can write an article or conduct an interview. Use your free month of Gold Key Circle to host a chat or get into a clubmeeting to find out about writing articles and giving advice. When we can, we invite the girls in the club to send us questions for a clubhouse guest. That way, every girl can join in the fun of interviewing a celebrity.
Rewards:A free year's membership in the Gold Key Circle! A chance in our special June prize raffle for every article you get published! Bragging Rights! You'll be famous! All the girls who write for our club or contribute an idea we use are credited when that article is published. Your work is showcased around the world in 180 countries. Hundreds of thousands of girls get to enjoy your ideas, suggestions and contributions. So please consider being a contributor. Join the Girl's World Crew. But don't forget to show your parents or teachers the club, our credits page and take a look at our Legal Eagle information. Get their ok. Then, get ready to write! It's a lot of fun and very rewarding to have a special article on a club page to call your own!
Artist! The host girls oil portraits and some of the beautiful oil paintings for Christmas and Easter, Sockhop's portrait and I/O's portrait were all done by Candice Cleary, a renowned California artist. You can understand how uncomfortable moms can be about having their daughter's pictures on the Internet. That's why all the photographs on our site are retouched, to protect girl's privacy. So we were really grateful to Candy for being willing to paint these for us!
Robots: Very real human beings, girls and grownups, run the site, write the articles, code the html pages, write the programs, figure out what's up next and answer the mail. So when you see typos, hanging sentences, dropouts and broken links, you have the Girl Crew to blame. Sorry about that! But if you see things that amaze, inspire you or are just plain fun, you have girls just like you to thank for that too! Check here for more information about the current "Girl's World Crew and volunteers that created this month's issue.
As for the robot idea. Robots would probably do a better job than us. If you know any, send them over! : ) We could use the help! Here's why you get the same computer answer when you send in your mail. When you press "send" in mail time or Between Friends, or "Join Us", our computer automatically sends you a response back. That response is to let you know we got your mail. This is, indeed, a "canned" response by a computer. It is not a person typing a world away at the same time. Very heads up question, by the way! Thanks for writing!
Joining the Club: Girls of every age, from every country are welcome in our clubhouse. It does not matter where you live. Access to the club is free. And you get a lot - cool articles, a place to share your opinion, and a great place to "hang out" and be a girl. Unlike many online kids clubs, it is not necessary to join our club in order to explore and enjoy it. But if you would like to join the club, all you have to do is fill out the "Join Us" form.
Club Goals: The goal of the Girl's World Hosts and Crew is to make friends, be a friend, and have fun. The grownups' goal for "A Girl's World" is to inspire, educate and entertain girls. We want girls to grow up knowing that we value them. We want girls to feel confident, self-reliant, and good about who they are. Everything in "A Girl's World" works towards that end.
As of this writing, about 60,000 girls come to visit the club every month. In the member's only area, about a 1,000 girls a week join in the fun of sharing who they are and what they think. That's great, isn't it?
If you want to find out how old the girls in the club are, or what they like, go to "Members Only." Put an age, like 11, on the interest line. Member's Only is a great place for girls to meet and find out what girls from other states and countries are like, and what other girls their ages are like.
Clubpets: Yes. I/O is Tessa's rose petal eating iguana. Sockhop is Rachel's big, drooly shaggy dog who loves watching tv. This week, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is his big favorite. Beaker is Amy's floppy bunny and is an escape artist. He's always sneaking off to terrorize the neighbor's garden. Esmerelda is Geri's cat and loves to eat, eat, eat. And then, eat some more!
Club Facts: Our club is called "A Girl's World" because we want this to be a place for girls everywhere to meet other girls who live all around the world. When Amy, Geri, Rachel and Tessa started this club, they couldn't find any sites just for girls. So that's one of the reasons they decided to do a club for girls instead of just a home page.
The Girl's World motto is, "Girls are cool." That's because there are some places in the world where people still think being a girl isn't a cool thing to be. Rachel came up with the motto because of something one boy said at her school. In class, the teacher was talking about prejudice. She asked what the class would do and how they would feel if they woke up the next morning and were suddenly members of the opposite sex. One boy said that if he woke up as a girl, he'd kill himself. He'd rather die than be a girl. Rachel couldn't believe it! What's worse, is that most of the other guys in the class agreed with him. They said they didn't want to be girls because they didn't think girls were cool. Well, as you can imagine, that made Rachel really mad! She thinks girls are cool. She feels girls deserve respect, and to feel good about being a girl. So that's why she suggested "Girls are cool" as the motto for A Girl's World.
At "A Girl's World", we think girls self esteem and respect is an
important topic. Here's our suggested reading
list for parents, teachers, girls and teens.
Club Real: A Girl's World Online Clubhouse only exists in virtual space, on the Internet. And we do have regular club meetings in our Gold Key Circle. Take advantage of your free month's membership, and come join us for a clubmeeting. You can just chat, host a meeting or just join in the fun. We don't have a printed magazine, like American Girl, available on newstands. Sorry! Maybe someday!
Home Pages: Tessa's mom is a programmer. She offered to show us girls how to do a home page. But thinking big, we got ahold of people who can program and speak HTML, like our webmaster, Steve. And on the editorial staff, Karen and guest girl writers get interviews and write up all these pages. So if you see mistakes, blame them! (just kidding!) There is a really good primer for HTML online, and I/O's room will have a "do your own homepage" article in a couple of issues. So look for it! - Rachel
Online: Our domain on the net went "hot" in May of 1996. Amy's room opened first in June. Then the rest of our rooms opened up in July. We each wanted to have our own room. Hey, for me, this is the first time I've ever had a room to myself! - Tessa
New Stuff: We put new pages and articles up as often as we can! We put up a new Featured Member every month. And we put the answers to the Featured Member question in the Hall of Fame. We are trying something new, changing the mail, the big interviews, the advice columns, you name it on a monthly basis. We'll change things more often if enough girls write articles. And there are lots of crafts and recipes to click through. So, if you want the latest, check the top of the site page at www.agirlsworld.com and click the "What's Hot" button. Keep checking back!
Featured Members: To "Become A Featured Member", fill out this form, print it out, and mail it in to:
A Girl's World Online ClubhouseSend us a picture. If you want your picture etc. back, send us a S.A.S.E. (self-addressed stamped envelope)
Picking Featured Members: The Girl's World Crew reads the FM applications. If there is no Featured Member Question for the rest of the clubhouse to answer or there is no picture, that application is disqualified. Sometimes we choose a Featured Member who has the best question for the rest of the club because we just can't resist, it's soooo good. The rest of the time, we choose a FM from the pile at random. Our goal is to give every girl a chance.
Featured Member Frequency: We can't have a new Featured Member every week. It takes a whole day just to scan the pictures, code the pages, process the answers to the featured member question, post the previous member in the Featured Member Hall of Fame, and create a new Featured Member page. We're sorry, but one a month is all we can handle right now!
Email: Tessa's mom set up A Girl's World so it would be safe for girls. That's why we never give out your email address to anyone. We keep that a secret. Only our computer knows which girls want a newsletter (by giving us their email address) and which girls want penpals (by signing up in the penpal area.) We never give out email addresses! We don't sell or give away any email addresses, street addresses or personally identifiable information about girls on this site. Pretty cool, huh?
What's the Big Deal? E-mail is like sending postcards. It is possible your mail may be seen and read by others as it jumps between computers on its way from your house to the clubhouse! So, protect your privacy on the web. Don't write any personally identifiable information (last name, address, school) on an email message you don't want strangers to see!
Letters! Dear girls: Our hosts are not members of the pen pal club. The only place Amy, Geri, Rachel and Tessa are allowed to write you is through their mailboxes, in Mailtime. That's so they can share what you have to say and they have to say with the whole club. If our hosts or reporters or editors emailed everyone back individually, we wouldn't have time to create any of the rest of the fun stuff in the club. So, for the answers to your letters, please look in Mailtime.
As for when they will write you? It does take some time to answer your letters. The hostgirls and girlcrew have school and vacations and are out running around being girls. So it takes a while to answer the mail. We are sorry for the delay. And as much as we would like to, we cannot answer every single letter we receive. Thank you for your patience. And for your own safety, please see why your email isn't private. Please don't send your personal, private information, like addresses or phone numbers to us. That slows us down because we have to take all those out before the mail can be answered. Thanks - Karen, Editor.
Our Hosts: Our fabulous founding four started the club, so that's how they got to be hosts. However, you can host your own chat in our Gold Key Circle. You can also become a "Become A Featured Member", and get a spot in our Hall of Fame. If you're looking for fame, see the volunteer area at the top of this page. You can also write an article, enter a contest and contribute to the club.
To Get Our Free Newsletter: If you haven't yet joined the club, go to: Member's Only and click on the "Join Us" form. You can only get a newsletter by asking for it when you sign up. Gold Key members also get a monthly chat calendar and event updates. (Email addresses are kept absolutely private) If you don't want to be a guest of Gold Key or join Penpals, you can signup for a newsletter here. You must give us your email address in order for us to send you the newsletter.
To Change Your Email Address: Click here to change your email address. Don't forget, you must give us both the old email address and your new one in order for us to send you the newsletter.
To Stop the Newsletter: Click here to quit receiving the newsletter. If you're receiving a letter in error, we apologize. Sometimes when people type in their email address, mistakes happen. Don't forget, you must give us your email address in order for us to stop sending you the newsletter.
Newsletter Info: We put a newsletter out about every two-three months. Or, when we have something really special happening - like the interview with Leann Rimes or the opening of the Penpal club! We used to keep backissues on the site, but we just don't have time to post them anymore. Sorry about that!
Clubmail Info: Just click on the Mailtime button in the clubhouse
or in any of the host girls' rooms.
Penpal Mail Info: If you're looking for your pen-pal mail, all letters are delivered directly to the email address you used when you sign up. Check your mailbox at home. We don't keep or store any mail for you on our site. There's probably nothing wrong with our computer. You can test the penpal system by writing yourself a letter. Put your number in the penpal "send to" and "sent by" in the write letter area. You should get your letter sent to your email address within 24hrs if the system is working properly. If it is and you still haven't gotten any mail from your penpal, try writing again or choosing another penpal. We're sorry, but sometimes, girls don't respond to letters. Or, they leave the club without deleting themselves from our system. Or, they change their email address and forget to change it in the penpal system. Keep trying! Write five more letters to five more girls. Try the quick picks. You'll soon find a penpal who likes to write!
Pen-Pal Info: How do you get your picture on the penpal list? Unfortunately, you don't. We couldn't afford the computer space it would take to store 10,000 plus girls pictures. Sorry about that. Besides, when you hit the "find-a-pal function", imagine how long it would take for you to do a search of the penpal area to find your perfect pal if there were pictures with each girl's profile. Trust us. It would take a whole lot longer. Also, isn't it nice not be judged by how you look for a change? Kinda cool, huh?
As for Pen-Pal questions: every kind of question you can think of, how to get, keep, find and join the penpal club, etc., has been answered right here in the "Pen Pal Spectacular FAQ's! We hope you make lots of new friends in the club. Don't forget, to find a penpal, be a penpal first. Write five letters to five different girls. Have fun!
Sending Us Stuff: Girls online can also join the "Girl's World Crew." Join us for a clubmeeting in GoldKey. You can also make suggestions, write poems, fiction, send reviews, etc. for the next issue. Any girl can write an article or conduct an interview or tell us what they want this club to be.
You can write us, send pictures and art to:
A Girl's World Online ClubhouseYou can email stuff to us: send scanned pictures, .gif, .bmp, .jpg, or other common types of art files attached to an email to:
editor@agirlsworld.comPlease tell us what the stuff is you are sending in the email picture. Please don't send us featured member stuff this way. Since we don't keep your address or last name in our database, we can't look up your membership information. That's why we ask you to mail them to us with the form you fill out.
If our computer couldn't verify your email adddress, it won't complete the application process and let you join. Sorry about that! It's one of our safety rules. Just sign up again. Don't fill out the whole form, just your name, email address and one or two facts about yourself. You can go back any time and add to or change your answers once you're in.
Member's Only and Penpals: If you join in our members only area, you don't automatically get a penpal. You have to click on the little box that says "sign me up for the penpal club." That's how you get a listing. But you can change it at any time. Just go to the "change" form in the Member's Only area and click on that box. You're in!
Member's Only Information: Yes! You can change your information at any time.
Member's Only: We don't mail anything out. When you fill out the "JOIN" form, you should get a computer response with your Member's Only number on it right away. That's the only response you get. If you join GoldKey, you'll get a response sent to you by email. You must reply to these forms in order to get your pass into our club.
Officers: We don't currently have club officers. Maybe that'll be a topic of conversation in our Gold Key Circle? Girls do get to run this space. In fact, this was the very first interactive environment written for and by girls. So, you can make it happen. If you want to "get active" in the club, join Gold Key and form your own Chat Group. We also have teams of volunteers, girls 7-17 who meet regularly to help put the website together and to tell the editors what they think girls would like to see, do and be.
Girls online can also join the "Girl's World Crew" by joining us for regular clubmeetings in GoldKey and make their suggestions for the next issue. Any girl can host a chatcircle or write an article or conduct an interview or tell us what they want this club to be. When we can, we invite every girl in the club to submit their questions to a clubhouse guest, so that everyone can participate in the interview process.
Cool Careers: Tessa sponsors Trailblazers, Amy has Wildside, and Rachel invites girls to Hang With special guests. Girls share fun activities too, like games, holiday survival tips, and Geri's Country Kitchen recipes to try every day.
For a fun activity, try the first, free pen pal area on the web. Want to make new friends but you don't want to give out your e-mail address? This is the place! In Geri's Pen Pal Spectacular, thousands and thousands of girls from more than 90 countries around the world are waiting to write to you!
Right now, there's an interactive "Magic Story" game in "Giggles" where girls can create their own adventure. There are crafts for girls and by girls in "Quick Crafts".
Girls have a chance to share what they think with other girls as they answer the Featured Member's Question every month or contribute to Teen-Talk's Glow! Girls share the joy and difficulties of friendship and give each other advice in "Between Friends". Entertainment news and reviews happens on "Beat Street" in Rachel's room.
There are special events and themed activities for girls in Amy's Pajama Party. Girls can find special games, sleepover suggestions, romantic movie ideas and fun stuff to do in Sockhop's Romp. Discover what girls around the world think in Tessa's Quiz Cafe! New games and activities are being added all the time.
Have a great time in the club! And from our house to yours, welcome, girl! Please feel free to write us if the answer you needed wasn't in here. -Peace and Love from the Hosts, Volunteers, Clubpets and Girl's World Crew!
 
|
Angela
& Gina's Room |
Brigid
& Kayla's Room |
Christine
& Erika's Room |
Lauren
& Sarada's Room | Circle of Friends PenPal Club | Site Map |
|
Since 1996, your space on the web : written and edited by girls and teens from all over the world. Media Kit Feedback Newsletter Write FOR us Contact Us |
|
Copyright © 2006 A Girl's World Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
