We met back in January, 2000 to discuss the insert in Today's Woman magazine. At that time, most of us had no idea that this project would ever see the light of day, but here it is. And to tell you the truth, we're really glad that it made it.

Getting involved in this was like stepping blindfolded into a raging tornado. Once everything got put into motion, there was no stopping it. Meetings became more frequent, writing was refined and edited, artwork sprang to life, and everyone grew steadily more excited. Even as the deadline began to rear its ugly little head, we just kept plugging away until everything was in place.

The title in itself was quite a collaboration. Many ideas were tossed about, but none seemed to fit. Then WOW GIRLZ came up, and everyone liked it. Even the spelling was voted on, however, and later we kind of laughed about it since we were so worried we would never come up with a solution.

If we hadn't stuck with this project, you wouldn't be holding the finished product right now. Please enjoy our first issue of WOW GIRLZ; hopefully there'll be more in the near future. (For more information on submissions to future issues, go to website: www.wesurvive.org.)

WOW GIRLZ magazine was edited and produced by a team of young girls (with some help from editor Anita Oldham and other Today's Woman staff).

This collaborative effort between WE SURVIVE'S WOW (Women Offering Wisdon) program and Today's Woman, is the fruition of a dream of WE SURVIVE'S founder Sharon Cecil. Sharon, a breast cancer survivor and mother of a daughter who escaped a breast cancer scare in her early 20s, has committed her energies to encouraging girls to know themselves and their bodies in the hopes that early detection will translate to a lower incidence of breast cancer.