Local girls explore careers with Service League

By Caitlin Castello, Town Correspondent

For one afternoon, 12 girls from the Barton Road Housing Development in Wellesley were copywriters, pet detectives, and cake decorators.

During their monthly meetings of the Barton Road Girls Club, sponsored by the Wellesley Service League, author Liz Suneby discussed her book “See What You Can Be: Explore Careers That Could Be For You!,” which is geared for young girls.

Suneby’s book, published by American Girl, encourages girls to explore different career ideas through quizzes, activities and biographies of successful women.

She has two goals for the book, said Suneby, to show girls a world of opportunity and to show girls a career is about finding what they love to do.

“These creative girls were able to harness their energy and enthusiasm to imagine their own bright futures in the workforce,” said co-chair of the Barton Road Girls Club, and WSL member, Ellen Kauffman.

The girls were asked what types of actives they liked to do in their extra time. Art and music was the most popular among the group, whose ages ranged from 6 to 12, said Suneby.

As copy writers, the girls were given several bottles of nail polish to rename. As animal detectives, they made wanted posters. Cupcakes were decorated when it was time to be cake decorators.

“I think it’s important for girls this age to realize they may not be the next Miley Cyrus. There is more out there,” said Suneby. “I think the girls are seeing it’s important to find a job from what they like to do.”

The Wellesley Service League is a nonprofit organization, consisting of 75 active members.