Reading, Writing, Woodworking: A St. Louis Hub for Teaching Girls Key Skills

On the left, Caroline Carter, 12, connects pieces of framework to make a piece of furniture. In the center, Khloe Montgomery, 14, and Willa Mayrose, 13, work power sanders. On the right Miriam Green, 11​, works on a twinkleboard. (LitShop) On Tuesday nights, a small storefront nestled in central St. Louis welcomes a crowd of young girls who are yearning to get to work. Some of them are in the alley out back, cutting through tough plywood with circular saws, while others are inside using impact drivers to join pieces of framework. Other girls will be stationed next to a laser printer, creating decals and decorations. “It is just a symphony of chaos, but it’s amazing,” said Kelli Best-Oliver, who oversees the work along with a group of volunteers. “They’re all doing it relatively independently and, you know, there’s music playing, and it’s just this diverse group of kids. The culture that we’re creating here is something special.” The project — building a structure for a hole of miniature golf — is just one of many happening at LitShop , a nonprofit that provides after-school and summer programming for girls and gender-expansive youth, ages 10 to 16. LitShop offers book clubs and writing sessions along with workshops focused on building and construction — carpentry, printmaking, fiber arts or architecture. Many of the resulting projects benefit the community. The miniature golf structure will go to a local arts association. The students also recently built a wheelchair ramp for a St. Louis resident. “We will have kids who are attracted to us for one reason or another — they are either a bookworm or emerging writer, or they really want to get their hands dirty and make a lot of noise and learn how to use tools,” said Kelli Best-Oliver, LitShop’s founder. “It really opens kids’ eyes up to what they don’t even know because they’re not doing it at school.” Tessa Link, 13, and Sarah Hampton, 11, measure before cutting. Best-Oliver, who worked as a literacy and language arts curriculum coordinator for St. Louis Public Schools for more than 15 […]

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