About Me
Hello! My name is Abby Bernstein, and I’m a high school student from Sammamish, Washington. I love baking, history, language arts, volunteering, theater, and of course, reading. For as long as I can remember, storytelling has extremely been important to me. Whether it’s through literature, music, film, theater, or art, I’ve always been fascinated by the stories we choose to tell, how we tell them, and how our stories impact those around us. I believe so much of how we learn about ourselves, others, and the world begins with storytelling. That’s why when I learned that people wanted to restrict, distort, and censor the stories we are allowed to experience, I was motivated to take a stand.
About the Girl Scout Gold Award
Much of my leadership and service journey, starts with Girl Scouts, which I joined in 2nd grade. Girl Scouts equips girls with the skills they need to be leaders and change makers in their communities. This learning journey culminates in the Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting. To achieve the Gold Award, girl scouts must use all the skills they’ve learned to design and carry out a project that makes a sustainable impact on their community. This website is one small part of my Gold Award project, “Freed Words”.
About “Freed Words”
In 2023, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported a 20% increase in attempted censorships of library materials and services from the previous year, as well as challenges to 1,915 books. The majority of these books focused on or were written by members of the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color. Through my project, I hope to raise awareness about book banning and its effects, and also present to my community the importance of allowing students to read books with diverse perspectives and themes. My project aims to create a culture of joyful, free expression in my community and foster critical and empathetic thought about how censorship damages a community, our country, and our world. To achieve this goal, I have organized banned and challenged book displays at my school, my local library, and a local teen center. I also hope to increase awareness through talks on free expression from experts, and of course, this website!
Read Banned Books 