Speaking & Events

Hire Dr. Carla to Speak at Your Next Event

Are you looking for an unforgettable professional speaker who will captivate your students and leave them buzzing long after the event is over?

Dr. Carla is an internationally recognized and highly sought-after motivational speaker, leadership coach, and health and media literacy educator for pre-teen and teen girls, women, educators, girl-serving professionals, and parents. She has lectured at Stanford and other renowned universities, as well as spoken to thousands of youth and adults at schools, professional conferences, youth summits and community-based organizations. Dr. Carla has been educating and speaking to youth since her teen years. With decades of experience and expert knowledge of adolescent health and behavior, she is not the typical youth speaker!

A highly acclaimed leader in the field of girls’ studies and empowering girls, Dr. Carla is known for uniting girls from diverse backgrounds, igniting positive behavior change in young people, and cultivating safe and affirming spaces where girls and youth socialized as girls can thrive in schools and youth-serving organizations. Her one-of-a-kind keynotes, assemblies, and workshops are interactive, entertaining, inspiring, fun, innovative, eye-opening, and educational. She is masterful at reading the room, quickly earning the trust of young people, and elevating the energy of the audience through her powerful presence, relatable storytelling, and unique transformational teaching and coaching methods.

As a veteran media literacy and hip hop educator, Dr. Carla often uses relevant examples from social media and youth-influenced popular culture to illustrate key points, engage the audience in lively discussions, spark and motivate students to overcome challenges and perfectionism, make positive choices, and reach their full potential. She also draws from her experience as a certified personal development coach by asking powerful questions that encourage self-awareness and inspire audiences to step outside of their comfort zone.

Selected Youth Presentation Topics and Descriptions

Teen Girls United Pep Rally Assembly

In this interactive, transformative, and fun assembly, Dr. Carla shares relatable personal stories and utilizes powerful examples from youth-influenced popular culture to teach powerful lessons about self-worth and encourage students to adopt a growth mindset and think critically about how societal pressures, social media, and gender role stereotypes affect their daily lives, friendships, relationships, decisions, and future success. Students are highly engaged and love the opportunity to share their insights with their peers and ask questions.

Dr. Carla was the Captain of her high school cheerleading squad and Step Captain of her sorority’s step team at Spelman College, where she choreographed several award-winning routines that won first place in step show competitions. During her teenage years, she discovered her passion for mentoring and inspiring girls as a cheerleading and step team coach for younger girls and teens.

At the Teen Girls United Pep Rally, Dr. Carla brings her work full circle by performing her high-energy girl empowerment cheer, which includes elements of cheerleading, stepping (with her signature cane), call-and-response, and hip hop dance to electrify and ignite the students and encourage them to participate. Your students will be cheering and dancing along with her, jumping out of their seats, and won’t want the Pep Rally to end! By the end of the assembly, girls are motivated and inspired to unite to support each other, overcome “girl drama,” develop healthy relationships, and pursue their dreams.

What School Administrators Are Saying about Dr. Carla

“Dr. Carla’s presentation was the most amazing experience. It was more than we could have ever imagined. Dr. Carla was very interactive. As she told her stories, she also let our students have a voice as well. The interaction between Dr. Carla and the girls was so positive that at the end of the assembly, one little girls stood up and said, “I’m autistic and this is the first time I’ve felt safe at this school” and every one of the girls in that auditorium started applauding her. And that was how the whole assembly went!  

Dr. Carla was professional, she spoke to the students’ needs and talked about things that our females really needed to hear. The girls shared with me afterwards that they could relate to Dr. Carla because she talked their language. They perceived her as someone who told them things they needed to hear.

I knew that Dr. Carla had really impacted our girls when every time I ran into a student, they said, ‘OMG, Mrs. Woolpy, I LOVED Dr. Carla!’ 

The girls got excited and it was amazing. You could feel the positive energy in the room that Dr. Carla had created for every one of those 600+ girls sitting there in the auditorium.

If you are thinking about bringing Dr. Carla to speak at your school, please do not hesitate. She reaches, inspires and motivates young ladies. My 600 girls at RHS could not stop talking about Dr. Carla and that’s what all principals want for our students.

Before Dr. Carla came to our school, we had some situations with our girls involving their self-esteem, bullying, and sexting. She relayed her message to our students about what the students can do to help prevent them from getting into bullying and girl drama. She helped our students feel empowered and important and she did it in an atmosphere where she generated all kinds of positive energy!

— Mrs. Rae Woolpy, Principal, Richmond High School (Indiana)

Workshops

In interactive workshop settings, students are given the opportunity to discuss topics that are relevant to teens and construct their own media and popular education materials to educate their peers about health and social justice issues. Workshops can be customized to focus on a specific topic or issue that is most relevant for your students.

Here is a sampling of Dr. Carla’s most popular topics for youth audiences:

• Selfies, Sexting & Self-Esteem
• Making Positive Choices and Dealing With Peer Pressure
• Bullying & Healthy Friendships
• Positive Body Image in a Photoshopped World
• Building Confidence and Overcoming Challenges
• Healthy Relationships
• Leadership, Academic Success and Stress Management
• Navigating the Pressure of College Admissions
• Online Safety and Responsibility
• Goal Setting and Future Planning
• HIV/STI Prevention and Teen Dating Violence
• …and other topics customized for your event or theme

Youth Will Learn…

• How to tune out negative self-talk and use positive thinking to achieve their goals
• How to step out of their comfort zone, resist peer pressure and make positive choices
• How to develop a positive identity and think critically about harmful media messages about gender norms, sexuality, appearance, success and risky behaviors
• Techniques for handling stress and social pressures
• How to build resilience and bounce back from disappointments
• How to take control of their current and future success
• How to express feelings and manage emotions in a healthy way
• Why developing healthy friendships and relationships is crucial to their success
• How to adjust to transitions during the teen and young adult years

What Girls Are Saying about Dr. Carla

“Dr. Carla is a dynamic, fun, and surprisingly relatable speaker. She has a different approach to empowering girls that is really needed for teenage girls now.” – Anjali, Age 16 

“A lot of girls are more understanding now after your assembly!” Kaylee, High School Student 

“You left a great positive impact on all of Richmond High School.” – Student via Instagram 

“I noticed a positive difference after Dr. Carla spoke at my school. There are a lot of girls that never talked to each other before who are talking to each other now and we are more confident. It really got to all of us and we had fun with you, too. Thanks for coming!” – Tatianna, Middle School Student 

“Honestly, Dr. Carla brought more unity to us girls more than ever. She inspired me to be true to who I am.” – Manda, High School Student

“Dr. Carla’s appearance at my high school made a huge change! The girls are making sure that other girls who didn’t feel like they are part of something are involved and make sure that they feel safe to talk about anything they need to.” – Makena, High School Student

“Dr. Carla is a spunky mentor who opens the eyes of young girls and teaches them to rise up against bullying. If you’re thinking about bringing her to your school, do it! Her words are powerful and her message gets through to girls really well.” – Maggie, Age 17

“Dr. Carla helps girls in a creative way and makes it fun to help others. She’s very fun and inspirational and has changed the way us girls interact.” – Aubrey, Grade 8

“Dr. Carla is fun, lit, inspirational, amazingly talented, and the QUEEN of speaking to girls.” – Natalie, Grade 7

“If you are thinking about inviting someone to speak to girls, Dr. Carla is the only one I would pick to do it. She is amazing!” – Meagan, Grade 7

“Dr. Carla is someone who changes girls in an amazing way! I learned that I am always enough and beautiful on the inside.” – Kaitlynn, Grade 8

“Dr. Carla is an amazing and confident speaker. I would love to see her again!” – Middle School Student

Selected Speaking Topics for Adults

Dr. Carla also conducts keynote addresses, breakout sessions, workshops, retreats, teleseminars, webinars and training programs for parents, educators and youth-serving professionals.  She is known for using her unique blend of warmth, humor, insight, compassion and down-to-earth charm to deliver interactive and accessible presentations that educate, engage and inspire her audience.  When you book Dr. Carla, your audience will leave your event knowledgeable, empowered and equipped with youth-friendly strategies and practical tools they can use immediately to better understand and connect with youth and improve the effectiveness of their work.

Here is a partial sampling of Dr. Carla’s most popular signature presentations for adult audiences (available as keynotes or workshops): 

How to Raise Healthy And Resilient Girls In The Digital Age

Raising girls and youth socialized as girls in today’s media- and technology-saturated world can be scary and overwhelming for parents and concerned adults. As girls come of age, they are navigating contradictory messages about gender norms, sexual violence and societal pressures that encourage girls to be “perfect,” grow up too fast, devalue their bodies and conform to unrealistic beauty ideals and unhealthy stereotypes about women and girls that jeopardize their health and safety. So what can parents and concerned adults do?

In this interactive presentation, Dr. Carla Stokes will provide an overview of the culture of adolescent girls, the sexualization of girls in the media, and relevant health issues facing teens. In this interactive presentation, Dr. Carla shares personal stories and draws upon her extensive expertise as a girls’ studies and social media researcher, health educator and success coach. Parents, educators and concerned adults will learn specific strategies for building safe spaces that support youth and help them build resilience, resist harmful gender stereotypes, make healthy choices and develop healthy relationships during adolescence.

Participants will:

• Explore what marketers and the mass media teach youth about gender roles and female relationships (and how this can impact girls’ developing identity, self-esteem and academic success).
• Understand how to help girls develop resilience as they navigate contradictory messages in the media, Internet, etc.
• Learn developmentally appropriate strategies that parents and concerned adults can use to create a safe environment in which girls and youth of all genders can thrive
• Discuss how parents and concerned adults can protect girls from the negative impact of today’s media-saturated and sexualized culture on their health and development

How To Help Girls Develop Healthy Friendships

Societal and media messages often teach girls that being physically attractive, sexy and popular is more valuable than being academically successful or treating others with dignity and respect. As girls navigate this stage of development, they may be struggling to fit in, going along with the group, feeling left out, or facing pressures to grow up too fast or conform to unhealthy stereotypes about girls and female friendships. In addition, friendship struggles, relational aggression and bullying are on the rise during the pre-teen and teen years when girls’ peers become increasingly influential.

For today’s girls growing up in the digital generation, social media and technology further complicate these challenges. However, relational aggression and friendship challenges are often unrecognized because adults may not understand “girl world” or realize when girls are struggling with these “hidden” issues.

In this presentation, parents, educators and concerned adults will learn:

• Important tools to help girls build self-esteem and resilience as they navigate friendship struggles, social pressures, relational aggression and girl world
• The most common “mean girl” tactics and how to spot them in real life and online
• How parents can support their daughter when her feelings are hurt because she wasn’t invited to a party, her friends have turned against her, or her classmates are gossiping about her (and when not to intervene in girls’ friendship problems)
• How to help girls when they are behaving like “mean girls” in real life or online
• What parents and adults may be unintentionally teaching girls about female friendships (and how to help prevent girls from growing into a teen girl or adult woman who competes with, hurts and distrusts other girls and women)

How To Talk To Your Daughter About Anything

Research shows that girls who feel comfortable having conversations with their parents about sensitive issues are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. In addition, girls who have a strong relationship with their parents are more likely to have high self-esteem and less likely to succumb to external pressures that jeopardize their physical and mental health. Despite these promising findings, many parents struggle to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with their daughters as they strive to become more independent during the pre-teen and teen years.

In this interactive presentation, Dr. Carla shares personal examples and shows parents caregivers, educators and concerned adults practical, research-based strategies for better understanding and connecting with girls and building healthy parent-daughter relationships based on trust, honest communication and mutual respect.

Parents will learn how to:

• Help their daughters build confidence and make healthy choices
• Become an approachable parent and learn how to better understand and connect with their daughter so she will come to them (instead of her friends, boyfriend, or google) when she is upset or struggling with a challenging or serious problem, decision or health concern
• Deepen self-awareness about how parents may unintentionally discourage their daughters from opening up to them
• Avoid making common mistakes that lead to parent-daughter conflict and misunderstandings

How To Use Social Media, Hip Hop, And Popular Culture To Educate and Empower the Tik Tok Generation

Based on Dr. Carla’s work as a pioneer in the field of hip hop education and her pioneering research on girls and social media, this workshop is designed to assist educators and girl-serving professionals in understanding the role of youth-influenced popular culture in the lives of youth.

In this interactive workshop, Dr. Carla will share examples of how she has creatively used social media, hip hop, dance, and popular culture, (i.e., TV shows, movies, magazines, etc.) to educate youth and involve them in health, media literacy and youth development programs that challenge unhealthy gender stereotypes and the sexualization of women and girls. Participants will leave with a better understanding of girl world today and how to effectively engage youth in classroom and community settings.

Participants will:

• Discuss how youth are influenced by social media, hip hop, popular culture and the mass media
• Develop the skills to create safe spaces in school and community settings for engaging youth in media literacy and media education activities that promote healthy behaviors
• Learn best practices for planning youth-friendly activities that incorporate social media, hip hop, and popular culture to educate youth about issues related to their health and promote self-empowerment

In-Person Event Options

Dr. Carla’s programs are available in a range of interactive delivery formats and can be customized to meet your needs:

• Conference Keynote or Breakout Sessions: Keynotes generally last 1 hour and include 15 to 20 minutes of Q&A. Breakout session lengths vary depending on the client’s needs.
• Teen Girls United Pep Rally Assemblies (45 minutes followed by 10-15 minutes of Q&A).  In order to make presentations relevant and age appropriate, we recommend a narrow age range for youth presentations (i.e., 5th-6th grades, Middle School or High School).
• Parent Presentations for adults at your school, organization or the wider community (60-90 minutes including Q&A). Parent presentations are not appropriate for children.
• Professional Development and Training for Educators and Youth-Serving Professionals:Training programs are tailored to meet your needs and there are several possible session lengths including 90-minutes, half-day (3 hours), full-day (3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon), and two-days.
• Workshops: (90 minutes including Q&A)
• Retreats: Presentations at retreats are tailored to meet your needs and there are several possible session lengths including 90-minutes, half-day (3-4 hours), full-day (3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon), and two-days at your site.
• Webinars and Virtual programs – Dr. Carla provides several options for reaching your audience, while presenting live or prerecorded content without the travel expenses (45-90 minutes including Q&A)

Rave Reviews

“Dr. Carla did an excellent job and led a great discussion about empowering our young ladies to not allow society to put these pressures on us about what beauty really is. If you’re looking for a speaker or presenter to really inspire and encourage young ladies or women in general, please consider Dr. Carla for your next event.”

“I think she was a great inspiration to all the girls here. I’ve worked with girls for a long time and I think this is one of the better ones I’ve ever heard… They seemed to have loved her. She had a great response, so if you’re thinking about using her I would say please do so.”

“Dr. Carla’s workshop should be done in all schools and organizations that address the social and emotional development of girls.”

“I was present at the self-esteem workshop Dr. Carla Stokes facilitated for the Kappa Omega Finishing School mentees. I was very impressed with her presentation and the level of engagement of the girls.  I observed their attention, interest, and participation in the interactive activities that required them to reflect on their thinking and their beliefs about themselves.  I know that the girls left with a sense of pride and more confidence in themselves.

– Linda Thompson, Ph.D., Retired School Administrator, Atlanta, GA

What Girls Are Saying About Dr. Carla

“You helped us because you actually spoke to us and not at us. You got on our level and helped us and you’re flawless to us because we can look up to you now.”

“She is friendly and it feels like you have known her forever.”

“She is a person who is so positive and you feel good when you’re around her.”

“Dr. Carla is very relatable, open and approachable”

“She’s very positive, inspirational and motivating.”

“She’s cool, kind, intelligent, chill, and very inspiring.”

“She is someone who tries really hard to help girls make sure they know they are valuable. She is soooo caring!”

“A very inspirational woman who has gone through a lot but has overcome and is very successful”

“An ambitious person and she keeps it real”

“She is not preachy. She gets on our level and talks to us, not at us.”

“A strong woman who can relate to how young girls feel about their body and teach them how to appreciate themselves”

“She’s like an all knowing big sister.”

“She’s a woman who has overcome teen girls’ struggles”

“She’s just like us.”

“She’s really cool and very understanding about how teen girls feel.”

“She’s very smart and beautiful and gives amazing advice.”

“She’s a person who will help you change yourself and feel good.”

“Dr. Carla is an amazing lady and you will feel amazing because of her.”

“She is real, she is cool and really knows what she’s talking about”

“She’s an encouraging lady. If you ever need advice or someone to talk to, it’s her!”

Read More Reviews

• Praise from Educators and Girl Advocates
• Praise from Parents
• Praise from Young Women
• Praise from Teen Girls

I’m ready to book Dr. Carla. What’s the next step?

Thank you for your interest in booking Dr. Carla for a speaking engagement, training or workshop. The first step is to submit the speaker request form.

More Information:

• View Dr. Carla’s Speaking & Travel Schedule
• Partial Client List
• Ways to Fund Dr. Carla’s Programs
• Frequently Asked Questions