Our Beginnings

Linda Wolf founded Teen Talking Circles, previously Daughters Sisters Project, in 1993 to help her daughters make it through the teen years in as healthy and supported way as possible. Having been part of the 1960s consciousness raising and women’s empowerment movement, she understood the importance of sisterhood. Linda Wolf and K. Wind Hughes came together to write a book to help their daughters and other girls navigate their teen years. To collect data, they formed the first Girl's Talking Circle with teens from Bainbridge Island and Suquamish, WA. This became The Daughters Sisters Project. The 21 girls in the original circle insisted that they continue beyond the initial 10-weeks and circled for 2 more years. Also, a series of GenderTalks Circles took place, out of which a weekly  Boys Talking Circle was created. After the release of Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood, hundreds of people wanted to know how to start a circle in their community. To meet this demand, we held our first Teen Talking Circle Facilitator's Training in 1998 and officially became Teen Talking Circles in 2001.  Since then, we have trained adults from every walk of life and profession, how to bring our powerful circling methodology to communities locally and globally. These dedicated facilitators share our vision: to provide all teens a safe space to tell the truth. 

To help young women understand themselves and each other better and become strong, aware, healthy women, she wrote Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood, co-authored with K. Wind Hughes (New Society Publishers, 1997) and co-founded what has become Teen Talking Circles. In 1999, to help teens understand the growing youth protest movements she co-authored with Neva Welton Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century— Stories from a New Generation of Activists, (New Society Publishers 2001). She is also the co-author of TTC’s Facilitator Handbook, Speaking and Listening from the Heart.