Charly Young

Co-founder, The Girls’Network
Charly Young The Girls Network

Charly Young is the ex-CEO and Co-founder of The Girls’ Network – a charity that provides 14-19 year old girls from the least-advantaged communities across England with a female mentor and a network of professional female role models.

As a secondary school teacher, Charly saw first-hand how girls and young women were limited by their gender and background, and felt compelled to do something about it. She left teaching, and has since grown the charity from supporting just 30 girls in 2013, to over 1,200 in 2020.

Charly has experience in scaling organisations from idea to reality, and has supported social entrepreneurs working in the education and social justice space through Teach First and the Fair Education Alliance.

A confident and personable speaker with a warm demeanour, Charly is passionate about gender equity, education, mentoring and the rights of girls and young women. She is also extremely knowledgeable about the reasons for (and solutions to) educational disadvantage, as well as how to start and scale an organisation that creates real social change.

Watch Charly’s QCT talk on creating equal aspirations

Watch Charly’s TED talk

Charly Young The Girls Network