Emily S. recently earned the Silver Award from the Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida for her project focused on supporting youth mental health through crochet. Learn more about Emily’s project Crochet Calm, a website dedicated to showing the positive impact crochet can have on mental health. Enjoy this interview with Emily!

How long have you been involved with Girl Scouts?

I have been involved with Girl Scouts for ten years. I started in Kindergarten as a Daisy. I am now in ninth grade and am a Senior Girl Scout.

Did you always know you wanted to pursue the Silver Award?

When I first started Girl Scouts I didn’t even know there were different awards we could earn other than badges or patches. My second year as a Junior my troop leaders started talking about earning our Bronze award and that’s when I learned about them and thought doing them could really benefit me. After earning my Bronze award, I decided I wanted to try and earn my Silver award and Gold award.

Did a fondness for crochet come first, or had you been brainstorming other project ideas for the Silver Award? If so, how did you narrow down your options and ultimately decide on Crochet Calm as your Silver Award project?

My Mom and I started brainstorming what I could do for my Silver award at the beginning of sixth grade. I have always liked to read so I first thought about creating a little lending library but then when I started to crochet in the sixth grade and got really into it, I thought it would be fun to do something related to crocheting for my Silver award.

With my ADHD, it can be really hard to focus or get motivated if what I am working on is not something that I enjoy or is fun. Because of that, I wanted to make sure whatever I picked for my Silver award was also something I like to do. It took awhile for me to finally come up with an idea and a big driving factor of me choosing this project over some others was that in seventh grade my film teacher did a unit on public service announcements (PSAs). I was really into that unit and made a public service video (PSV). PSVs are longer than one minute and mine was five minutes and was about mental health, bullying and self-harm. I spent a long time making that video and my teacher really helped me through the process. After that, I started thinking about ways I could incorporate film into my Silver award because my film teacher showed me how other actions and projects can really have an impact on people personally. So the summer before eighth grade, I finally came up with the idea of Crochet Calm as my Silver award project because I felt it was unique (combined two things I love, crochet and film), could be helpful, and I wanted to do something that could really help people who were struggling with some of the same things as me, Anxiety and ADHD. And while my Silver award may not have been a PSA it still had film aspects in it that were inspired by my film teacher and included a hobby I love.

Had you tried other hobbies prior to crochet to help with mental health? Why do you think crochet stuck?

I hadn’t really tried any other hobbies previously to crocheting to help with mental health. I think the reason it stuck is because I felt very accomplished every time I completed something which made me feel really good. Because of that I wasn’t afraid to fail because I wasn’t doing this for anyone else, just myself.

What are your favorite crochet projects to make and why?

I think some of my favorite crochet projects to make are wearables (at least for now my hyper fixations are ever changing ????). Wearables are basically clothing but crocheted. I just finished my first cardigan last month and am now making one for my mom. I have also made beanies, headbands, and even things for our dog to wear. I also love doing projects where the pattern keeps repeating and there isn’t any counting involved because then I can watch tv or have conversations with people. I recently walked the World Showcase at EPCOT crocheting a granny square.

Did the connection between crochet and helping with mental health happen almost immediately, or did it take time after learning crochet to notice the benefits?

I think it happened a little after I learned to crochet. When I first started it was a bit like another thing for me to conquer. Because of my ADHD I am constantly going from one hobby to the next (just ask my Mom – lol) but as time went on and it stuck around I found myself feeling better over time. I was no longer wanting to stay at home all the time but instead was more willing to go out and be with people and I stopped having such intense mood swings and I overall just felt a lot better. It is definitely great to do when I am feeling overstimulated and just need some down time.

How did you go about finding resources on the positive effects of crochet on mental health for the Crochet Calm website? Did you learn a lot along the way? What most surprised you in your research?

I looked at websites and also consulted my personal therapist as well as my friend’s mom who is a child psychologist. I made sure to factcheck any of the websites I looked at first to check their reliability. If I saw something on a website I would do my own research on it first before putting it on my list of things for the Crochet Calm website. I think the thing that surprised me the most doing my research was how crocheting can aid in stopping memory related problems that can come later in life like Alzheimer’s and dementia. I had always known that crocheting and doing things with your hands could help with shaky hands when you were older but I never knew it could help with things like Alzheimer’s.

What was it like learning to film your own video tutorials? Did you find it thrilling, challenging, etc? Was it nerve-wracking? How did you overcome any hesitations when it came to filming video tutorials?

Learning to film my own video tutorials wasn’t too hard because I have been a film student for over three years so I have a good amount of knowledge surrounding filming. What challenged me the most was getting the angles right in the videos so people could see what I was doing  with my hands.  It also took some time for me to get over my anxiety about filming myself. I felt nervous about filming myself and messed up quite a lot throughout the film process because I knew I would be putting my face, voice, or hands on the internet forever and anyone would be able to see me. I overcame that fear by reminding myself that I am probably never going to meet some of these people in person and that I shouldn’t be worried, especially since I am an actor (theater) and do this all the time.  I just told myself I’ve performed live in front of hundreds of people and this isn’t live. Plus, I could always go back and edit it.

Do you have plans for Crochet Calm in the future? What does the future of Crochet Calm look like?

I’m not entirely sure if I have any major plans for Crochet Calm in the future, at least for now. Being in my first year of high school, I have a lot going on with my classes, plus I am involved in two different theater programs. It makes it difficult to have a lot of extra time. Right now I’m planning to do regular upkeep on the site and make sure everything continues running as it should be. If I can find a way to expand on it for my Gold Award then I may do that, if that is even an option by my Council. The only idea I can come up with for that though is holding in-person seminars to teach people how to crochet and then they would have the website to use as a tool at home. Maybe when I have more time in the summer or next year I will come back to Crochet Calm to expand on it to make it better and more sustainable but for now it will stay the way it is with minor updates every once in a while.

My one hope is those struggling with mental health will find my website and find an activity that can help them too. I also hope that anyone that checks out my website is inspired to make scrunchies like I did to share kindness with those around them. The idea of the Share Kindness campaign is crocheting calm, one scrunchie at a time! An easy way to let others know they are valued through a handmade gift.

Visit Emily’s website: crochetcalmgs.wordpress.com