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Journal empowers middle school students

The 30-day journal includes daily prompts and affirmations designed to empower and motive young girls.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — The docu-series "Surviving R. Kelly" is a top trend on social media. 

The six-part series details disturbing accounts of Kelly -- with claims of sex with minors and homes filled with sex slaves. But despite the headlines, Nicole Pacini, who normally promotes dialogue on her Facebook page, didn’t want to engage. 

“I use my social media platform to talk about stuff like that and I just didn't want to focus on all of that,” she said. 

Instead, she wrote a post about the importance of empowering young girls. In it, she highlighted a journal her 19-year-old daughter wrote for middle school girls. Pacini's post has been shared nearly 100 times. 

“If you really care about young girls you have to start somewhere,” she said. 

The 30-day journal includes daily prompts and affirmations designed to empower and motivate young girls. 

“It is a tool that is needed with all of the things going on in today's society. Something I wish I would've had when I was in middle school,” Ryann Beaco said. “I think it is something really cool for girls going through a lot of things in middle school and different changes.”

One of Kelly’s alleged youngest victims was 14. Several of the women profiled in the series said Kelly led them to believe nobody else would love or care for them. 

“I know that you must empower girls earlier on. When I look at the stuff in her journal, this is stuff that kids need to be able to experience at an earlier age, so they know they don't need to feel empowered by someone else but feel empowered by themselves,” Pacini said. “When you grow up and you don't have certain tools that were invested in you, you can be manipulated easier.”

Ryann, who is studying to become a esthetician, said the journal allows girls the opportunity to channel their inner thoughts and emotions.  

The journal is called "Expressing Me: A Journal for Middle School Girls."

"I love making people feel better about themselves. With the journal people can feel better,” she said. “It speaks to me because sometimes I ask, ‘What do you love about yourself?’ when I am feeling down, and it brings me kind of back up. I am hoping that it will do the same for other people.”

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