In the fourth grade, I was in math class doing an activity that involved answering multiplication problems — something that I had been struggling a lot with at the time. After working through a few that I had gotten incorrect, a boy at my table called me stupid. This moment affected me in so many ways, and from that point on, I never raised my hand in class, and I didn’t feel comfortable presenting to large groups.

Later that year, I was diagnosed with social anxiety, which led to a year of exposure therapy. This included saying “Hi” to strangers on the street and asking Starbucks baristas for a free cake pop. We practiced a variety of exercises in an effort to help me function normally in everyday life.

Girls have so much pressure on them to look and act a certain way, and I found in a coed school environment, I was under this pressure. This kind of stress is invisible and hard to navigate. I only started to feel this new kind of self-consciousness toward the end of elementary school, when I was entering the stage of my life where I started to become my own person. Moving to an all-girls school for middle school, I was relieved of this pressure and able to learn confidently.

According to Rosemary Salomone’s book “Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling,” an all girls academic setting creates a more comfortable setting for young women. This allows girls to become develop a deeper self confidence, which is crucial especially as they approach adolescence. 

My experience matches this statement. I have seen how much more comfortable I am in a single-sex educational environment. I am able to try new things freely, without the fear of judgement. 

Linda Sax, an associate professor at UCLA, conducted a study in 2009 that found female graduates from single-sex independent school rate themselves higher in terms of academic confidence compared to female graduates from co-ed independent schools.

Not only are girls’ self confidence socially improved by going to a single-sex school,  but this study also suggests that academic confidence is also improved. Attending Archer has taught me that I am more than my grades and the importance being confident in in the classroom, which is something I never got while attending a coed school.

I recognize the obvious cons to attending an all-girls school such as the cliques, and the lack of social interactions with boys, which I have been recently navigating. This encourages me to put effort into my social life outside of school, which has allowed me to meet new people while still thriving academically.

Going to an all girls school, especially when I was going through a hard time in my life, was crucial to improving my self confidence. I would be a completely different person and probably not be able to function and learn as well in school if I hadn’t started going to Archer which felt comfortable to me and allowed me grow.