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Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are two of

the most popular and longest lasting

youth organizations in the United States

with each one of them dating back more

than 100 years. I should point out that

in early 2025, Boy Scouts of America was

officially rebranded as Scouting America

to reflect the inclusion of girls as

well, but strictly to avoid confusion, I

am simply going to refer to them as the

Boy Scouts throughout this video. Now,

from a distance, these organizations can

appear to be very similar. They take

young individuals and try to build their

character by instilling values that most

people would consider to be important.

Part of this is done by earning badges

that often have a strong focus on

community leadership in the outdoors.

And we cannot deny that these programs

have been meaningful and effective to

millions of people over that century.

Some of the most successful people out

there have been members of one of these

organizations. Former Boy Scouts include

Neil Armstrong, Steven Spielberg, and

Michael Jordan, while former Girl Scouts

include Martha Stewart, Hillary Clinton,

and Taylor Swift, just to name a few

that stand out to me. The Girl Scouts

conducted a survey in 2015 that showed

52% of women in business were a Girl

Scout at some point as well as most

female elected officials. However,

despite the obvious similarities here,

these are in fact two separate

organizations with some notable

differences. So, in this video, I think

it would be valuable to talk about their

history while comparing them in five key

categories. Starting off where else but

at the beginning with their foundation.

The whole scouting concept was

originated in Great Britain in the early

1900s by a cavalry officer named Robert

Ben Powell who quickly proved to be a

major inspiration behind both American

organizations. Legend has it that

William Dvoice, a publisher from

Chicago, was wandering the unfamiliar,

foggy streets of London when he

encountered an unknown scout, a

mysterious member of the newly founded

British Boy Scouts that helped him get

to where he needed to go. that scout

refused to accept a tip after doing it.

And the encounter motivated him to set

up a meeting with Robert Baden Powell

that ultimately led to Boyce officially

incorporating the Boy Scouts of America

in February of 1910. For the Girl

Scouts, again, there was already a

version of it in the UK founded by

Robert Ben Powell that was led by his

sister Agnes. Juliet Gordon Lo, also

known as Daisy Lo, was involved with

that organization before creating her

own version of it in Savannah, Georgia.

It started out with a single troop of 18

girls and within a decade there were

70,000 members with branches in every US

state. I want to point out that the

American Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were

directly inspired by the same British

concept. So many of the differences have

slowly developed over the decades.

Probably the most publicized difference

would be the next category on my list,

inclusion. Going way back before the

civil rights movement, as you might

expect, there was a lot of segregation

happening with Boy Scouts and Girl

Scouts, mostly in the southern states.

But it looks like the Girl Scouts were

more aggressive in integrating the

troops. In 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.,

a former Boy Scout, even called the Girl

Scouts a force for desegregation. Part

of that difference is likely attributed

to the Boy Scouts association with the

Mormon Church. It became a tradition

where young male members of the church

were expected to join the Boy Scouts. In

1974, the Boy Scouts were sued by the

NAACP because of the church's policy

that prohibited young black individuals

from holding leadership positions in

troops that they sponsored. The Boy

Scouts have also been criticized for

their stance toward gay members. In

1978, they made an official policy that

prohibited openly gay people from

joining. In 1999, an assistant

scoutmaster named James Dale was forced

to leave after they learned he was gay.

He filed a lawsuit against them that

ultimately ended in a 5 to4 Supreme

Court decision in favor of the Boy

Scouts. In 2012, maybe you remember that

an online petition was gaining a lot of

traction after a member was denied Eagle

Scout status because he was gay. So,

there is a lot that could be said about

the subject. To cut it short, in 2013

the policy was changed to allow gay

youth to join and then two years later

they started allowing gay adults. And as

of 2019, the program has been completely

opened up for girls to join as well.

They later changed the name of the

organization to reflect that and say

that girls currently make up about 20%

of their members, which translates to

over 200,000 people. The Girl Scouts

then went on to sue the Boy Scouts

because they felt that some of their new

messaging would confuse parents into

signing their girls up for programs of

theirs that they thought were Girl Scout

programs, if that makes sense.

Meanwhile, the Girl Scouts have been

firm on their stance to not allow boys.

Their explanation is essentially that

boys and girls are integrated

practically everywhere else in life and

that there is value in having a space

just for girls. I want to take a second

to acknowledge that these are

controversial subjects. So without going

into too much detail here, I'm simply

trying to convey objectively that the

Boy Scouts have progressively become

more inclusive. Moving away from this

and onto a much more fun category,

fundraising. Because the Girl Scouts are

responsible for one of the most

successful fundraising campaigns of all

time. Every year they sell around 200

million boxes of Thin Mints and

Dosey-Doss and all the other uniquely

named cookies, which translates to

something like 1 billion in sales. Money

that goes back toward the local councils

and troops that sold the cookies. This

year they have a new flavor called

Explore, another unique name inspired by

Rocky Road ice cream. So you might want

to keep that one in mind as the Girl

Scout cookie season approaches early in

the year. All the way back in 1917, a

troop in Oklahoma baked some homemade

cookies and sold them at a local high

school as a service project. By the

1930s, they started licensing commercial

bakeries to make the cookies on a large

scale so that they could be sold

nationwide. In the 1970s, they cut down

on the number of bakeries and made the

boxes all the same so they could have a

more standardized product. And since the

1990s, local Girl Scout councils, have

chosen between ABC Bakers and Little

Brownie Bakers, currently owned by

Ferrero, to provide their cookies, which

accounts for some naming and recipe

differences that you may have noticed.

Look, I can spend this entire video

talking about cookies. I have done that

before, but those are the highlights.

And I do not have nearly as much to say

about the Boy Scouts in this category.

Over the years, they have sold a lot of

different stuff to make money, like beef

jerky and fertilizer has been a big one.

But the main one that I can point to is

popcorn, specifically Trails End brand,

made by the Weaver Popcorn Company from

Indiana. The Boy Scouts first sold it in

1979 in Evansville, Indiana, and have

since made an estimated $4 billion from

it. Not exactly Girl Scout cookie

numbers, but still impressive. My next

comparison is going to be about the

levels and awards. Now, I will admit

that there is not much about the

business end here, but I imagine these

would be some of the bigger factors to

consider for any parents or young girls

trying to decide which organization is

best for them. And I guess the main

difference here is that the Girl Scouts

are separated into six different levels

based on age, with the youngest group

being called the Daisies, named after

their founder, Daisy Lowe. Whereas the

Boy Scouts are separated into seven

different ranks based on skill and

achievements. The highest rank being

Eagle Scout that requires 21 merit

badges along with an extensive service

project. The highest achievement for a

Girl Scout, kind of like the Eagle Scout

equivalent, is called the Gold Award,

which requires its own community

project. And they say that only about 5%

of Girl Scouts ever receive it. 3,300 of

them are earned each year compared to

3.8 million badges earned each year. So,

that shows you just how much harder it

is to earn compared to a badge. By the

way, the Boy Scouts offer 130 merit

badges that can be earned, whereas the

Girl Scouts just call them badges, and

they are much less specific. Overall,

the Boy Scout experience is more general

and structured, while the Girl Scouts

tend to be more personalized and

flexible. For my final comparison, I

want to talk about how the Boy Scouts

and the Girl Scouts have been declining.

It is hard to find verifiable numbers

concerning their membership, but as far

as I can tell, both organizations seem

to have been the most popular throughout

the 1970s when the Boy Scouts had close

to 5 million members and the Girl Scouts

had around 4 million. Today, both of

those numbers seem to be a little over 1

million, which becomes more drastic when

you consider the population increase

over that time. It's hard to quantify

exactly, but the bottom line is that a

much lower percentage of children are

joining these organizations. In fact,

the Boy Scouts claimed that their

membership was almost cut in half during

2020, even before the pandemic started.

The Mormon church ended their

association with them in favor of

launching its own youth programs, and

they filed for bankruptcy, mostly

because they have had to pay so much

money to survivors of sexual abuse. It

has been a documented issue going back

to the 1960s. And at this point, I guess

there have been more than 82,000 claims

against them, which is obviously a

troubling number that has hurt the

organization both financially and as far

as their reputation. And even though the

Girl Scouts have not experienced

anything quite as severe, they have

still been struggling. In 2024, they put

out a statement that said, "Ooperating

at a deficit, spending more than we

bring in as we have been doing is not

sustainable. We can no longer afford to

use our financial reserves and we cannot

pass through all escalating costs to our

councils. Remember the local councils

and troops are the ones making money

from the cookies while the Girl Scout

organization relies mostly on membership

dues. They have been losing 4 to5

million each year. So their solution has

been a steep increase in those

membership costs. After holding steady

at $25 for eight straight years, they

are set to go up to $45 in 2026 and $65

the year after, which would still be

cheaper than the $85 per year that the

Boy Scouts currently charged that has

also increased steeply over the past few

years. Cultural and economic factors

along with some scandals and a declining

perception of these organizations have

forced them to rely more heavily on each

person involved. Since there are fewer

people, each one has to contribute more.

And there does not seem to be much

evidence out there to suggest that these

trends will reverse anytime soon. Let me

know in the comments what do you think

about these organizations. Are they

great places to help shape the youth of

America? Or are they outdated, maybe

even unethical options with easier and

more effective alternatives out there?

Why do you think the numbers have been

declining so much? And what do you see

for the future? One more time. I realize

people are going to be passionate about

some of these subjects, so please just

keep it cool and try not to read too far

into anything I said here. It is all

meant to be objective and

businessoriented. So, to keep it light

at the end here, I'm going to ask, what

is your favorite Girl Scout cookie? Thin

Mints has to be the most obvious answer,

right? It is the most popular. But are

there any that we may have been

overlooking? That could be valuable

information. And any other thoughts you

have about the Boy Scouts or the Girl

Scouts, leave them in the comments. I'd

like to hear what you have to say. Thank

you for watching.

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