After-School Math, Reimagined
When I first launched Girlmath in August 2024, the Eras Tour was everywhere—and I was buzzing with ideas. I saw math applications in ticket pricing, stadium capacity, dynamic demand, resale value, net worth, merch strategy. It felt like the perfect moment to teach middle school girls how much real-world math was hiding in something they already loved.
So I designed a class called The Economics of Taylor Swift.
It was packed with academic depth and real-world applications, but it was too much. By the time they walk through my door, they’ve already had a full day of school—rigorous, structured, and often exhausting.
That’s when I realized: after-school math needs to feel different.
It needs to reawaken them, not drain them.
It needs to meet them where they are at 4 PM: snack in hand, hair coming loose, emotionally and intellectually tapped out… but still full of ideas.
So I built two classes that reflect the kind of math I believe in—and the kind of space middle school girls deserve: Beadology and Girlmath Games.
Beadology: Math You Can Hold in Your Hands
Beadology looks soft on the surface: girls stringing beads, designing tiny bags, chatting with friends. But don’t be fooled—it’s a class about precision, planning, and perseverance.
Each girl designs her own project using Excel or graph paper. She calculates how many beads of each color she'll need, adjusts for symmetry, and troubleshoots when things go wrong (which they always do). The math is embedded and authentic: multiplication, area, volume, proportionality, and visual reasoning. But it’s also personal.
And the truth is—beading is hard.
They mess up. They get frustrated. They forget their materials for multiple weeks in a row and fall behind. And I help them catch up. Sometimes we simplify the design. Sometimes I string a few rows to help them feel less overwhelmed. Sometimes I ask, gently, "How much do you actually care about finishing this?"
Because that’s the real growth: not just completing the project, but learning to check in with yourself, rework your plan, and find a path that fits.
Some girls finish early and go on to price their creations, list them for sale on the Girlmath website, and write out the cost analysis. Others need support all the way to the end. Either way, they leave with something they made—something that exists because they persisted.
Girlmath Games: Where Strategy Meets Belonging
In Girlmath Games, the girls don’t just learn how to play. They learn how to think.
We play games with real mathematical weight: probability, logic, deductive reasoning. The kind of games that challenge their brains but also require flexibility, attention, and grace when things don’t go their way.
Some girls struggle with losing. Others hold back because they don’t want to make a mistake in front of their peers. But slowly, they build stamina for risk. They learn how to recover, how to shift their strategy, how to be inspired by someone else's move rather than discouraged by it.
They don’t even always realize they’re doing math (!!). But they are—and they’re proud of it.
Why After School Matters
These aren’t traditional classes. And they’re not meant to be.
They’re designed for the girl who just spent the whole day trying to keep it together. For the girl who thinks she’s not a math person. For the girl who wants to build something, play something, figure something out.
After-school is a chance to teach math on different terms—not as a race or a performance, but as a practice. A place to reset, re-engage, and rebuild confidence.
And when the girls leave, they don’t just take their bead bags or new favorite games. They take something else with them:
The quiet belief that they can try, adjust, and try again.
That they belong here.
That math might actually be for them.