Girls With Guts makes me feel inspiring. I never thought being so open about my disease could help inspire so many people.
The mission of Girls With Guts is to support and empower women with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease & ulcerative colitis) and/or ostomies through the building of sisterhood and self-esteem.
The vision of Girls With Guts is to establish a national support network that assists women in their search for community, acceptance, and empowerment.
This support network helps to ensure that no woman will ever feel isolated by their disease. Our website and live events help strengthen the network to bring patients, doctors, and thought leaders together to advocate for IBD issues, while spreading awareness.
Through sharing stories and experiences, Girls With Guts wants to give all women with IBD the strength to find their confidence, and keep it, despite having IBD or an ostomy.
Girls With Guts was created from a weekend get-together, when our founder, Jackie Zimmerman, gathered with five young women IBD bloggers from around the U.S. All of the bloggers wanted to meet others like themselves, and were all at different stages of their IBD experience. During the weekend, Jackie and the other bloggers posted photos, tweets, and other updates about their experience together, and the response was overwhelming!
Women across the nation, and the globe, wanted to share in an experience like this. So, Jackie worked to start a website and organization that unites some of the best lady IBD bloggers, as a way to show the world that even pretty people get IBD. And Girls With Guts was born.
Over the years, we’ve held annual retreats from Texas to Pennsylvania, with 5 Year celebration event in Chicago and now host one additional event a year that is fully-sponsored! These events are where our sisterhood was born, blossomed, and has continued to flourish.
Girls With Guts makes me feel inspiring. I never thought being so open about my disease could help inspire so many people.
