About 300 people packed the Parkland Boys and Girls Club for a festival built entirely around one idea: that girls who feel like they do not fit in deserve a place that tells them otherwise. The event, hosted by the Louisville-area nonprofit Beautiful As You Are, marked its first International Day of the Girl Festival, bringing together girls, families, women-owned businesses and a lineup of young entrepreneurs under one roof.
For Dedra Adams, the gathering was personal. She said the organization, known as BAYA, provided critical support for her daughter, Essence, during a difficult time, a statement reported by WLKY. “It saved my daughter's life,” Adams said, according to the station, adding that she hopes other families find the same encouragement and support through BAYA that hers did.
BAYA stands for Beautiful As You Are, and the organization describes itself as a nonprofit created to give a safe place to girls who never fit in and are always looked at as different, according to bayacorp.org. Founder and executive director Tish Frederick said her goal for the festival was simple: every girl who walked through the door should leave feeling empowered and confident in herself, per the station's report.
A Movement Born From One Family's Story
The organization traces back to Tanisha Frederick, known as Tish, who founded the movement to help save her own daughter, according to the group's about page. That origin story now underpins a much wider effort. BAYA serves girls ages 6 to 18 through a community center in Clarksville, Indiana, and runs programs in 72 schools, helping girls build self-esteem and navigate challenges including bullying, per the same account.
Averi Beck, BAYA's director of fund development, said the festival format allows generations to teach each other something new. Young people and adults can learn from one another, Beck said, per the station's report. That exchange was visible across the festival floor, where 40 vendors set up booths, including 16 young entrepreneurs showing off their own businesses.
From Summer Camp Jewelry Table To Her Own Business
One of those entrepreneurs, Ramyah Carnell, started making jewelry at BAYA's summer camp before turning the hobby into her own venture, Jewel & Junk. Carnell said BAYA has been among the most important influences in her life and credited the program with helping her understand herself, the station reported. She encouraged other girls at the festival to believe in themselves and stay focused on who they want to become, telling them that girls who know who they are and want to become can get there.
The festival arrived as newer statewide data paints a sobering backdrop for the work BAYA says it is doing. A 2026 Indiana Girl Report, produced through a partnership between the Girl Scouts Coalition of Indiana and the Indiana Youth Institute and drawing on statewide data, found that nearly 40% of Indiana girls in grades seven through 12 reported feeling sad or hopeless for at least two weeks in 2024, compared with about 20% of boys, according to bhnet.org. Earlier reporting on 2022 data found nearly a quarter of girls in grades seven through 12 said they seriously considered taking their own lives. Overall school bullying incidents declined 13% in 2024–25.
Graduation Gains Alongside Mental-Health Strain
Earlier reporting from lpm.org found bullying toward girls in Indiana rose by more than 17% from 2022 to 2023, with nearly half of girls in seventh through 12th grade reporting they felt sad or hopeless for more than two weeks in 2022 and nearly a quarter saying they seriously considered taking their own lives that year. More than half of parents of Indiana girls ages 3 to 17 said they struggled to find their daughters treatment or counseling, the outlet reported.
Yet the same data shows girls pulling ahead academically. More than 90% of girls in Indiana graduated high school in 2023, with more than 35% of those graduates earning academic honors diplomas, and about 60% of girls who graduated in 2021 enrolled in college compared with 46% of boys, per lpm.org's reporting. More recent figures cited by bhnet.org show Indiana girls reached a 93% graduation rate in 2025, the highest in a decade.
Louisville marked the broader observance in its own way, too: the Big Four Bridge was lit up purple for International Day of the Girl, a day meant to recognize girls and encourage them to build confidence, WLKY reported. BAYA is not stopping with the Parkland festival. The organization plans its next gathering, Empowerment on the River, for November 7, 2026, at Waterfront Park.
