About
Girls Garage After-School Program offers hands-on classes in carpentry, welding, architecture, and activist art. The program is part of Girls Garage, a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9–18. Girls Garage is the first-ever design and building workshop for female-identifying youth in the United States.
• Ages: 9–18 years old
• Price: 100% teen students attending at no cost
Girls Garage was founded in 2013 and has engaged 1,000 youth participants and completed 207 projects since 2013. The program is led by Founder Emily Pilloton-Lam and taught by skilled female and gender-expansive instructors with decades of educational and building experience. Girls Garage is a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9–18 whose mission is to support and equip a community of fearless youth who are building the world they want to see through classes in carpentry, welding, architecture, and activist art. Girls Garage has been featured on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Magazine, and TIME Magazine. Girls Garage sits on xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe and Chochenyo-speaking people.
Participants and families have shared experiences such as building toolboxes together, creating artwork with a social justice purpose, learning about power tools while building a house, and forming bonds with other girls and non-binary people. One teen described Girls Garage as a place where she learned to “fear less and build more,” and others noted feeling a sense of belonging, resilience, and connection while working alongside peers and instructors. Girls Garage has also published a book, “Girls Garage: How To Use Any Tool, Tackle Any Project, and Build The World You Want To See,” which is packed with over 175 illustrated tool guides, 11 how-to projects, 21 essential skills, and 15 profiles of builder girls and women.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
• Ages: 9–18 years old
• Price: 100% teen students attending at no cost
Girls Garage was founded in 2013 and has engaged 1,000 youth participants and completed 207 projects since 2013. The program is led by Founder Emily Pilloton-Lam and taught by skilled female and gender-expansive instructors with decades of educational and building experience. Girls Garage is a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9–18 whose mission is to support and equip a community of fearless youth who are building the world they want to see through classes in carpentry, welding, architecture, and activist art. Girls Garage has been featured on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Magazine, and TIME Magazine. Girls Garage sits on xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe and Chochenyo-speaking people.
Participants and families have shared experiences such as building toolboxes together, creating artwork with a social justice purpose, learning about power tools while building a house, and forming bonds with other girls and non-binary people. One teen described Girls Garage as a place where she learned to “fear less and build more,” and others noted feeling a sense of belonging, resilience, and connection while working alongside peers and instructors. Girls Garage has also published a book, “Girls Garage: How To Use Any Tool, Tackle Any Project, and Build The World You Want To See,” which is packed with over 175 illustrated tool guides, 11 how-to projects, 21 essential skills, and 15 profiles of builder girls and women.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
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