The Fascinating History Behind This Popular Children’s Club

Girl Scout Week is celebrated in 2025 from March 9-15, and their beloved cookies are on sale between January and April. What you may not realize, though, is that Girl Scouts do a lot more than sell cookies. In fact, their program dates back over 100 years. If you've ever wanted to know the history behind your favorite cookies and the young ladies who sell them, read on.

What Is Girl Scout Week?

Each year the Girl Scouts celebrate Girl Scout Week beginning with Girl Scout Sunday and ending on the following Saturday, a day known as Girl Scout Sabbath. This year, Girl Scout Sunday is celebrated on Sunday, March 9, 2025. During Girl Scout Week, local troops participate in special activities. The week emphasizes positivity and kindness, with activities ranging from sharing positive messages with friends to community service projects.

Where Does All That Cookie Money Go?

Girl Scouts across the country sell an incredible amount of cookies. Each year, Americans buy roughly 200 million boxes of cookies during the three months they're on sale. With boxes ranging from $5 to $7 depending on location, that's a lot of money.

The proceeds from cookie sales go to the local Girl Scout council with each council determining a percentage the individual troops earn per box. According to the Girl Scout website, “net proceeds from Girl Scout Cookie sales stay local with the originating council and troop to fund Girl Scout activities and impactful girl-led community projects year-round.” Girl Scout troops pool the money from their earnings and fund year-round activities.

More Than Cookies: What Kinds of Things Do Girl Scouts Do?

Thin Mints may be what you think of when you hear the words, “Girl Scouts,” but there is a lot more that goes on in a troop of Girl Scouts each year beyond selling cookies. According to the website, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”

Girl Scouts earn badges for accomplishments and each troop has the freedom to choose activities they want to participate in. Troops may be involved in community service projects, camping, STEM activities, and a lot more. They also learn how to manage money and a business by selling cookies each spring to fund their activities throughout the year.

Girl Scout USA Chief Revenue Officer Wendy Lou had this to say in a press release about Girl Scout cookies, “Girl Scout Cookie season is about so much more than selling the iconic cookies people know and love. The funds girls earn throughout the season directly power girls' journeys in leadership, entrepreneurship and community building.”

The History of Girls Scouts: Founded by Juliette Gordon Low

In 1908, the first Boy Scout troops were founded in England by Lord Robert Baden-Powell. The program caught on and quickly grew, making its way to America a couple of years later. Around this time, Juliette Gordon Low met with Baden-Powell to discuss her plans of beginning a scouting program for girls. She started the first Girl Scout troop in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia in 1912.

Called Girl Guides, the girls learned many useful skills such as knot tying, cooking, first aid, and map reading. Girls could gain badges for proficiency in each skill. Only a year later, the local Savannah Girl Guides went nationwide and the group was renamed the Girl Scouts.

From there the movement only grew. Low wrote the first Girl Scout handbook, “How Girls Can Help Their Country.” Once World War I broke out, Low guided the girls in her troops to assist the war efforts. Girls were growing gardens, canning food, and selling war bonds.

The First Girl Scout Cookies Were Sold in a Small Oklahoma Town

The first troop to ever sell a Girl Scout cookie was the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1917, the girls sold cookies and popcorn balls in the cafeteria of the local high school to fund a project of making Christmas bags for Oklahoma soldiers in the war. Little did they know, their cookies would be the first of billions sold over the next 100 years.

With this first troop, a tradition was born. By 1920, homemade Girl Scout cookies were sold throughout the country. The original recipe, published in 1922, included simple ingredients of butter, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. The girls would make the cookies at home with the help of their mothers, and sell them wrapped in waxed paper for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.

Eventually, cookie-making was moved out of family kitchens and into factories. In 1939, the first Thin Mints were sold under the name, Cooky-Mints. Today, there are two different cookie factories making all the Girl Scout cookies. While there are a dozen different flavors in 2025, what your local Girl Scout troop is selling can vary based on which bakery they use and their personal preferences.

The 1950s Brought Communist Fears

While today most people view the Girl Scouts as a wholesome, family program, there was a brief time in the 1950s when conservative groups accused them of Communism. This was during the “Red Scare” of the 1950s when fear of Communism ran rampant. The Girl Scouts responded by editing many of their materials to showcase patriotism and emphasize the American flag. Fortunately for the Girl Scouts, they had public sentiment on their side and the anti-Communist campaign against them eventually petered out.

The Latest Girl Scout Cookie Controversy

Today, the Girl Scouts are dealing with a new controversy. Misinformation on social media claimed that the FDA had recalled Girl Scout cookies for containing lead. Snopes debunked the claims stating that a child would need to eat 9,000 cookies to consume harmful levels of naturally occurring heavy metals and pesticides in the cookies.

The Girl Scouts had this to say in a recent press release, “Girl Scout Cookies are made with ingredients that adhere to food safety standards set by the FDA and other relevant authorities.”

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Girl Scouts of America.