Young Women

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The Young Women's Organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 1869. All Mormon females age 12-18 are members of this auxilliary.

Young Women's Theme

Young Women Theme

The Young Women theme helps each young woman understand her identity, purpose, and destiny as a daughter of God. Young women and their leaders repeat the theme during Sunday classes and at other Young Women gatherings.

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works, and
Integrity.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Motto

Stand for truth and Righteousness.

The Young Women logo is a torch surrounded by the Young Women motto. The torch represents the light of Christ, inviting all to “come unto Christ” (Moroni 10:32). It invites all young women to hold up the light of Christ by keeping His commandments.

History

Founded in 1869, the Young Women organization was originally known as the Young Ladies’ Department of the Cooperative Retrenchment Association. Brigham Young, the second President and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called together daughters and their mothers for a special meeting in the parlor. Following family prayer, President Young addressed his family. Among other things he said: “I desire to organize my family into a society for the promotion of habits of order, thrift, industry, and charity; and, above all things, I desire them to retrench from extravagance in dress, in eating and even in speech. The time has come when the sisters must agree . . . to set an example before the people of the world worthy of imitation. I want you to set your own fashions . . . and set the style for the rest of the world who desire sensible and comely fashions to follow. I want my daughters to learn to work, and to do it.

“I have long had it in my mind to organize the young ladies of Zion into an association so that they might assist the older members of the Church, their fathers and mothers, in . . . teaching and practicing the principles I have been so long teaching. There is a need for the young daughters . . . to get a living testimony of the truth. I wish our girls to obtain a knowledge of the Gospel for themselves. . . . We are about to organize a Retrenchment Association, which I want you all to join, and I want you to vote to retrench in . . . everything that is bad or worthless, and improve in everything that is good and beautiful. Not to make yourselves unhappy, but to live so that you may be truly happy in this life and the life to come.”

The Young Women organization has been referred to by several different names throughout its existence:

   1869 — Young Ladies’ Department of the Cooperative Retrenchment Association
   1875 — Young Ladies’ National Mutual Improvement Association
   1904 — Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association
   1934 — Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association
   1972 — Aaronic Priesthood, Young Women
   1974 — Young Women

This international organization is the oldest and largest organization of its kind for teenage girls.

The following women have served as general presidents of the Young Women:

   Ella Young Empey, 1869-1880
   Elmina Shepherd Taylor, 1880-1904
   Martha Horne Tingey, 1905-1929
   Ruth May Fox, 1929-1937
   Lucy Grant Cannon, 1937-1948
   Bertha Stone Reeder, 1948-1961
   Florence Smith Jacobsen, 1961-1972
   Ruth Hardy Funk, 1972-1978
   Elaine Anderson Cannon, 1978-1984
   Ardeth Greene Kapp, 1984-1992
   Janette Callister Hales Beckham, 1992-1997
   Margaret Dyreng Nadauld, 1997-2002
   Susan Winder Tanner, 2002-present