About Us

GIRL-POWERED

THE WOMEN BEHIND THE NON-PROFIT.

Girl with Grit Program was officially started by Blythe Zemel in January of 2021. Blythe became aware of that we often overlook teaching girls some fundamental skills. With only a background in art, she started pulling together a board of women that she felt could saturate skills, she herself were missing, into young girls and women to help her. She started the grassroots non-profit program funded solely by her other job, and it officially became self-sustaining through our classes and workshops, members, and donors in July 2021.

First joining our board was Staci Andrews, Retired Navy and Entrepreneur. Staci has run multiple successful businesses in the San Antonio area. Staci brings that expertise not only to serve our board, but also to our makers when it comes to merchandising, hospitality, and more.

In January, Ashley Robertson, Shop Assistant at ToyMakerz headed down to help pull an engine from our 1934 Chevy Truck and at that time joined our board.  ToyMakerz can be seen on History Channel.Ashely’s main goal as our auto director is to help keep an industry she loves alive, while encouraging girls to be a part of it.

Briana Huhn has been a welder/fabricator for 11 years across multiple industries. In addition to welding, Briana shares her love of the trades with children through a Minnesota based nonprofit, Big Ideas Inc. Her main goal is to help end the stigma that the trades are second rate. Her metalworking skills earned her a spot on Motortrend’s ‘Bitchin Bootcamp’ and Discovery Channel’s ‘Monster Garage’.

We are also assisted by other strong women in our Board. Brooke Dorman, a speech pathologist and director of one of the largest homeschool communities in our area. Janie Sellers assists with STEM and is owner of STEMtastic. Other support comes from Lauren Taylor, with her Master’s in Education and years of classroom experience and Marsha Tucker, a retired Executive Director of a large nonprofit educational speaker platform in Houston TX. Our newest addition to the board, Lori O’Rourke is the proud mom to 4 of our Girls with Grit. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology and an Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in School Psychology.

In September, Girl with Grit officially opened a Co-ed Community Makerspace, and co-ed classes and workshops that are open to everyone in the community.

Want to know more? View our Presentation.