This article was created in partnership with Girls On Fire.
Most girls have heard the words “be confident.” The harder part is knowing what that actually looks like when a friendship changes, someone says something hurtful or the voice in your own head tells you that you are not good enough.
A one-day Calgary event rooted in martial arts is turning that familiar advice into something girls can actually experience.
At the Girls On Fire Confidence Conference, girls will dance, create, learn self-defence and spend the day surrounded by women mentors who want them to recognize their own strength. Then, during the event’s powerful finale, each girl will write a challenge or limiting belief on a real wooden martial arts board and physically break through it.
Coming to Sunalta Community Hall on Saturday, October 3, this fast-paced confidence event was created for girls ages eight to 13.
This is not a day of sitting through motivational speeches. It is a day of movement, connection and confidence in action.
The Kind Of Confidence Girls Can Actually Use
The tween years can bring changing friendships, increasing pressure to fit in and a steady stream of messages about how girls should look, behave and take up space.
Girls On Fire addresses those realities directly.
Throughout the day, participants will explore body image, self-esteem, mindfulness, mental and physical health, making friends, navigating bullying, cyber safety and self-defence.
The schedule is filled with dancing, crafts, interactive activities and, according to the organizer, plenty of snacks.
Girls will spend the day in small groups of approximately eight to 10, each supported by a woman mentor. The mentors come from different careers, backgrounds and life experiences, showing participants that there is no single way to be strong, capable or successful.
They will guide the girls through activities, encourage conversation and cheer them on as they build their own practical Confidence Tool Kit.
Lunch, snacks and a swag bag are included with every registration.
Strong And Powerful, Not Skinny
Girls are growing up surrounded by highly curated images, shifting beauty trends and online messages that can make appearance feel more important than ability.
Girls On Fire founder Master Theresa Stanley wants the conference to deliver a different message.
“With the return of ‘skinny,’ girls need now more than ever to be surrounded by powerful women mentors and leaders and messaging that reminds them of their inner power,” Stanley said.
“Young girls are so impressionable, and we need to ensure that they get the message of strong and powerful, not skinny.”
Instead of concentrating on how girls look, the conference draws their attention to what they can learn, how they can support one another and what their minds and bodies can do.
The Martial Artist Behind Girls On Fire
Stanley is a seventh-degree black belt and the executive director of Phoenix Martial Arts, home of Phoenix Taekwon-Do Club, Ares Muay Thai Club, Limitless Brazilian Jiujitsu Edmonton and the Girls On Fire Confidence Club.
She has spent nearly 20 years teaching martial arts and seeing what can happen when young people begin to believe in their own abilities.
The idea for Girls On Fire came after Stanley heard a mother describe how profoundly her eight-year-old daughter was struggling with her self-esteem. The conversation stayed with her and inspired her to bring the confidence-building lessons of martial arts to more girls.
“As a female martial artist and a leader in the community, I felt that it was my calling to help any girl that I can reach never feel like this,” Stanley said.
“Martial arts is inherently confidence building. I wanted to teach girls that they can take charge, learn tools to help them unleash their inner fire and defend themselves if needed.”
Since 2018, Girls On Fire has brought conferences, workshops and mentorship programs to girls in communities across Alberta.
The goal is to help each girl recognize her own voice, trust her abilities and respond with greater confidence when life gets difficult.
The Moment They Will Remember
At the end of the conference, every participant receives a real wooden martial arts board.
Each girl writes down a challenge, fear or belief she wants to overcome. It might be self-doubt, fear of speaking up, a difficult friendship or something else that has made her feel smaller than she is.
Then she steps forward and breaks through it.
The board-breaking ceremony transforms an internal challenge into a physical experience. Girls get to hear the board crack, feel their own power and leave with tangible proof that they did something difficult.
Parents are invited back to watch the self-defence and board-breaking portion of the day, sharing in the moment when their daughters put what they have learned into action.
“I hope that girls leave walking a little taller,” Stanley said. “I hope they find a martial arts club in Calgary to join. I hope that because they attended, they recognize their inner warrior and perhaps that changes the trajectory of their life for the better.”
More Than Another Saturday Activity
Girls On Fire is not promising that one day will make every insecurity or difficult situation disappear.
What it offers is a full day for girls to try something new, connect with people outside their usual circles and discover tools they can use when confidence is hardest to find.
They will be encouraged to speak up, trust their bodies, support other girls and recognize that strength can look different in every person.
They may arrive feeling a little nervous or unsure. They could leave having made a new friend, learned how to defend themselves and broken through a board they might not have believed they could break.
Most importantly, they will leave knowing confidence is not something they have to wait to feel.
It is something they can build.
If this sounds like the kind of experience your daughter could carry with her long after October 3, registration is now open.
Girls On Fire Confidence Conference: Calgary
When: Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Sunalta Community Hall, 1627 10 Avenue SW
Who: Girls ages eight to 13
Tickets: $79, including the full day of activities, lunch, snacks and a swag bag
Learn more and reserve a spot at the Girls On Fire Confidence Conference.