When many people think of Girl Scouts, they think of little girls selling cookies.

However, many teenage girls are also Girl Scouts; there is a lot more to being a Girl Scout than selling cookies.

“I just finished my Gold Award. We also just finished raising money to go to Costa Rica this summer,” Ann Marie Hrdy, junior, said.

According to GirlScouts.org, the Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, recognizing girls who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through Take Action projects that have sustainable impact in their communities and beyond.

Many Girl Scouts spend between one to two years working on their Gold Award project, and each girl does the project on her own.

“I’m currently working on my Gold Award. It’s basically a giant service project, and you have to put in 100 hours of work on the project. I’m trying to raise young girls’ confidence about their skin and learning to accept it instead of ‘fixing’ it. My goal is to write a book about it,” Dariann Coleman, junior, said.

Girl Scouts also get to volunteer and learn new things they otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn.

“Girl Scouts are typically just known for selling Girl Scout cookies, but I’ve learned martial arts and go to leadership congresses,” Coleman said.

Being a Girl Scout in high school is very different from being a Girl Scout as a young child.

“I enjoy the opportunities it’s given me,” Ann Marie Hrdy, junior, said.

Many Girl Scouts travel and go on camping trips with their troops.

“My freshman year, we took a trip to Savannah to visit the birthplace of the founder of Girl Scouts,” Coleman said.

Girls may join Girl Scouts for different reasons, but they all gain valuable experiences.

“I really enjoy going on road trips as well as the friendships I’ve gained. Girl Scouts is my excuse to fundraise, volunteer, and see the world as well,” Coleman said.

The majority of Girl Scouts in high school are at the Senior or Ambassador level.

Girl Scouts start as Daisies in kindergarten and first grade, then go on to Brownies in second and third grade.

After that, they are Juniors in fourth and fifth grade. Additionally, in sixth and seventh grade they are Cadets and during freshman and sophomore year they are called Seniors. Girl Scouts are typically ambassadors by the time they reach junior and senior year.

According to Hrdy, fourth grade is the most popular age for girls to be in Girl Scouts. Most girls quit in middle school, usually during seventh or eighth grade.

“In eighth grade, the membership plateaus. After that there are not a lot of new memberships, but not many quit,” Hrdy said.

Many have noticed that while there are plenty of Boy Scouts in high school, the number of Girl Scouts is significantly smaller.

Some people may view being a Girl Scout as nerdy or dorky, but see Boy Scouts as being good citizens who learn essential skills. However, this is untrue and is, in fact, a double standard.

Being a Girl Scout teaches girls just as many essential skills as being a Boy Scout does, including leadership and business skills as well as wilderness skills.

“To [some people] being a Girl Scout isn’t as cool as being a Boy Scout. I think they’re equal,” Coleman said.

Many of the girls in each troop have developed long lasting friendships with their other troop members.

“My troop and I are all really close and we get to hang out often. [If I wasn’t in Girl Scouts], I wouldn’t get to see some of them because they don’t go to our school,” Jennifer Moore, junior, said.

Moore’s Girl Scout troop meets about twice a month.

While teenage Girl Scouts are able to do many different things, they generally still partake in the annual selling of Girl Scout cookies.

However, selling Girl Scout cookies as a teenager is very different from selling them as a young child.

“It’s a lot harder because younger Girl Scouts are cuter. But since I’ve been selling for a long time, I have regular customers, so I know where to go,” Hrdy said.