PHOTOS: Birmingham Brownies bring recycling to the runway for World Book Day

Girls aged 7-10 from 147th Birmingham Brownies created sensational sustainable costumes for a climate-friendly fashion show at their unit meeting this week. The Brownies brought in items of household recycling to create their favourite characters from books.

Bringing their characters to life gave the Brownies the chance to have fun while learning about recycling and protecting the planet as part of their Take Action unit meeting activity. Costumes included Peppa Pig, Taylor Swift, and Harry Potter.

Girlguiding, the UK’s largest youth organisation dedicated completely to girls has revealed a first look at three brand new badges to inspire girls’ love of reading.

The reading badges are just a handful of newly co-designed and tested badges set to be launched in the summer after Girlguiding’s programme review, with girls and volunteers leading a resounding call for more book related badges.

The new badges come at a time when the number of children said to enjoy reading in their free time continues to decline across the UK. According to The National Literacy Trust, just 1 in 3 (34.6%) children and young people said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024, a sharp decline from previous years where reading levels have stayed relatively stable at around 50% since 20051.

Book Reviewer for Brownies (girls aged 7-10); Bookworm for Guides (aged 10-14); and Booktivist for Rangers (aged 14-17) will join the current Book Lover badge for Rainbows (aged 4-7) under the ‘Be Well’ and ‘Know Myself’ themes of the Girlguiding programme enabling girls to grow their love for reading through each of the sections.

The Book Reviewer for Brownies will teach girls to become expert critics, encouraging them to compare and review different books in an exciting way. With arts and crafts being the most popular type of activity for Brownies, girls completing this badge will also be encouraged to get creative and design new book cover art.

Created in collaboration with expert partner, The Children’s Book Project, the Bookworm badge activities will encourage Guides to make their perfect book nook to relax and unwind. To complete the badge girls will book-travel across different genres and create unique reading goals.

Rangers will take their reading habits to the next level with the Booktivist badge, by exploring what empowers them through books. They’ll read things they want to learn more about like feminism, stories by Black British authors or the environment as part of the ‘Know Myself’ theme. According to the National Literacy Trust, learning more about the issues and causes they care about was one of the top motivations for reading among children in 2024, with a quarter (24.1%) citing that as a reason they read2.

Charlotte Atkins, unit leader for 147th Birmingham Brownies said: “The Brownies enjoyed creating their outfits whilst also having an awareness of recycling and protecting the planet. Girls liked the trash fashion as they liked to make their own style clothing, it was funny and fun and they liked helping their friends and give them ideas too.”

Gemma Benton, Head of Girl Experience at Girlguiding said: “Girlguiding interest badges are one of our most well-known programme elements, and we are very excited to be doubling our interest badges by adding 72 more. Working with the Children’s Book Project has been a delight and they have provided us with expertise and assurance that our incoming Bookworm badge, alongside the other book-related badges will broaden girls horizons, expand their imaginations and remind them about the joy of reading, as a means to relax and unwind, and have fun.”

Girlguiding's programme provides young girls and women with the opportunity to learn invaluable skills in the welcoming fun and supportive environment Girlguiding provides. All girls in Girlguiding are encouraged, and empowered to know they can do anything and become future leaders and change-makers in their communities

For more information about how to get involved with Girlguiding, visit www.girlguiding.org.uk