Going from middle school to high school is a big enough change as is. But Avery Colvert, who founded Altadena Girls in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year, is juggling more than the average 15-year-old. “I feel like I’ve lived many different lives since then,” Colvert says. “It hasn’t even been a year, but I feel like I’ve gone through so much from January til now. I feel like I am a whole different person, but I know I’m the same person.”
When the Eaton Canyon fire razed the North Los Angeles community earlier this year, Colvert watched as the flames destroyed her school and many of her friends’ homes. She pulled together her resources to create the Altadena Girls, a distribution center that specialized in helping teen girls rebuild after the fire, and utilize her proximity to Hollywood to call on celebrity stylists to donate their services.
Now, Altadena Girls is a permanent fixture in the community. On October 11—International Day of the Girl—Colvert and her mother, Altadena Girls’ cofounder and president Lauren Sandidge, officially opened the organization’s first brick-and-mortar space in Pasadena’s Old Town neighborhood.
“I had people tell me, ‘Coming here right now feels so therapeutic to me. I want to come back tomorrow,’” Colvert recalls. “I truly think in such a chaotic time, girls, we just wanted some peace of mind and to have some fun and be with some friends.” The conversations with girls in her community inspired the teen to use the once-makeshift donation center as a launchpad. “After the fires destroyed our community, it’s really important that we have a space to go just to be ourselves without any extra pressure to do anything or be anything or act a certain way,” she says. “I think it’s really important that they have a space where they can just, again, just be themselves. People were telling me, ‘I wish I had this all the time.’ Maybe we can do this all the time.”
The community center continues Colvert’s original mission of serving teen girls. Clothing and hygiene products are still paramount to the mission, with the space’s free boutique offering “dignity-first” essentials, including feminine hygiene products. “We definitely want to meet basic needs first,” Sandidge says. “That’s part of the dignity piece. But also I think it gives you permission during a crisis, or in a time where you’re really feeling really low, to getting back to self-expression.” Colvert adds that she wants the space to give girls “permission to look nice and feel good too.”
Colvert is also keen for the community center to serve as a “third space,” separate from home and school. While many companies and businesses donated goods and services in the immediate aftermath of the fires, donations were just as important long-term.
Beyond the multipurpose central gathering space, there are rooms that cater to different needs and interests: Fender partnered with Altadena Girls to create a music studio and podcast space; Paris Hilton sponsored a “sliving lounge,” a portmanteau of “slaying” and “living,” where teens can do just that. There are also more flexible spaces dedicated to homework and quieter activities.
“I really hope girls can come into Altadena Girls and maybe discover something that they don’t know is therapeutic for them yet, and they can learn, Wow, this really makes me feel a lot better,” Colvert says. “Not even just that, just having fun.”
With all the emphasis of community mental health (particularly that of teen girls) in the aftermath of the fires, Colvert is learning about herself in the process too. “Something I’ve struggled with for a long time is setting boundaries for myself and telling myself when to stop. I have ADHD and my brain is always going 24/7,” she says. “At the beginning of Altadena Girls, things were so busy because we were just working really, really hard and I got sick. I’ve never worked so hard that I’ve gotten sick before. It taught me that you don’t have to do everything. You can focus on one thing and that can be your thing for a little while.” So recently, when it came time to audition for her school musical, Colvert chose to sit this one out. “I’ve been really proud because I’ve been able to learn how to tell myself when to stop.”
