BIO Girls boosts girls’ self-esteem and mental health through local programming

GRAND FORKS — As girls across the Midwest battle anxiety, low self-esteem and other mental health challenges, an area program determined to change this has been growing over the last decade.

BIO Girls — “beautiful inside and out” — is a nonprofit organization with the goal to improve adolescent girls’ self-esteem. Started in 2013 in Fargo by Founder and Executive Director Missy Heilman, what began as a single site has expanded into 90 locations throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. That number is growing, with more sites popping up in rural towns that wish to improve the mental health of local girls.