Chez Smith worked in public health for more than 15 years. While she served as the administrator of the family planning clinic, she realized there were a lot of young girls coming in repeatedly for sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies.
“I realized two things, working with those girls. One, girls felt this wasn’t a bad outcome for them. If they get pregnant, if they get an STI, it was part of the norm because of where they lived,” she said. “The second thing was I realized they weren’t receiving adequate sexual education, if any at all. The girls who were receiving information, they were myths.”
Smith decided to start the Gyrls in the H.O.O.D. Foundation to educate girls and young women about reproductive health, to improve their outcomes and to redefine the “hood” stereotype. In this instance, H.O.O.D. stands for Healthy Optimistic Outstanding and Determined.