From left, Dos Pueblos High School students Cami Chou, Geneva Walman-Randall and Mia Chou organized Sunday’s Her Festival at Girsh Park in Goleta. The goal was to empower young women by promoting confidence, equality and inclusiveness. “We just started with an idea,” Cami Chou says. 
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley was among the speakers Sunday. “I was not a born leader,” she told the crowd. “I made myself one because of the things I wanted to execute — because of the dreams that I had, and you all can do that.” 
Eliana Girdler performs during the Her Festival in Goleta on Sunday. 
The Her Festival drew a large crowd to Girsh Park in Goleta. 
In keeping with the times, the Her Festival offered plenty of Instagram-worthy opportunities. 
Empower, inspire and celebrate the next generation of women leaders — these are the message teen organizers of the first-ever Her Festival hoped to convey Sunday.
March 8 marks International Women’s Day, a global celebration calling attention to the economic, social and cultural and political achievements of women.
For the first time, the student-led organization Voices of the Community held a festival that featured more than 60 booths made up of local organizations and businesses, guest speakers, youth performers, live music, plus food trucks, games and more at Girsh Park in Goleta.
Other popular activities included art and craft booths, prize drawings, photo booths, a rock wall, cool-looking henna tattoos, and free face painting.
Dos Pueblos High School juniors Mia Chou and Cami Chou, as well as Geneva Walman-Randall founded Voices of the Community last May. The students spent months learning the ins and outs of organizing a festival, fundraising and the many aspects of event planning.
Sunday’s gathering was the Voices of the Community’s first project, and it attracted a steady and supportive crowd.
“It (Her Festival) is for all of the women in our community, but especially the young girls,” 16-year-old Mia said. “We created it (Her Festival) because we know how important it is for young girls to have a supportive environment, and to see representation in all of the things they want to do.”
Mia and her twin sister, Cami, are interested in working in STEM fields.
“We see little representation there (STEM), and we know it’s a problem in a lot of fields,” Mia said. “A lot of girls need to see that they can accomplish anything they want to do.”
Voices of the Community aims to help underrepresented people in the area.
To see Her Festival finally coming to fruition is exciting, Cami said, and it was created to empower young women by promoting confidence, equality and inclusiveness.
“We just started with an idea,” she told Noozhawk, adding, “We were working on it pretty much 24/7, and it’s been a lot of effort and time, but it will pay off.”
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley; Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara CEO Barbara Ben-Horin; state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara; and Assemblywoman Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, delivered remarks at the event, as well.
Speaking to the crowd, Dudley offered words of inspiration to people sitting in the audience.
“I was not a born leader,” she said. “I made myself one because of the things I wanted to execute — because of the dreams that I had, and you all can do that,” later adding, “I’m excited about this next generation of women.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.