ABOUT
Girls Fight Back was born in direct response to the June 2001 murder of a dynamic, athletic, and loved college student named Shannon McNamara. After Shannon’s death, her friend and sorority sister, Erin Weed, realized the need for practical and empowering options for young women in college to learn violence prevention and self-defense. By combining core values, a fun and empowering attitude, and the best safety and self-defense methods available, Girls Fight Back was born.
In 2020, self-defense expert and international speaker Nicole Snell took over as owner and CEO of Girls Fight Back. Our personal safety and self-defense seminars aim to make risk recognition, preventing violence, and fighting back an approachable topic for everyone on college campuses and beyond.
We offer gender inclusive programs that are empowering, evidence-based, trauma-informed and victim centered. We believe that we can simultaneously work to prevent violence through culture change and offer people the skills to manage their safety in the present. No victim blaming! No restrictions on life activities! We focus on providing you with the options to open up your world.
Nicole believes that when we are empowered to live our lives freely and confidently, there is no limit to what we can do!
We serve diverse communities including: college/university, high school, corporate, conferences, non-profits, outdoor groups, retreats, military/DoD, private groups and more!
PUBLIC CLASSES
By popular demand, Girls Fight Back is now offering PUBLIC classes both in Los Angeles, CA and Virtually!
Sign up for my newsletter for updates on when the next public classes will be scheduled.
OUTDOOR SAFETY &
SELF-DEFENSE
Watch Nicole’s YT Series Outdoor Defense! She’s been empowering solo adventurers with simple self-defense strategies since 2019. There are 60 episodes available on YouTube.
Subscribe today!
PROGRAM OPTIONS
Girls Fight Back!
Girls Fight Back is the world renowned personal safety and empowerment self-defense program for women and girls worldwide since 2001! We specialize in educating groups at colleges, universities and K-12 schools however, we can and do, empower any group of women in any industry, organization or private group! The GFB Seminar combines core values, a fun and empowering attitude, and the best safety and self-defense methods available to increase confidence in your ability to effectively defend yourself and set boundaries that work for your life. You are worth fighting for!
97.9% of audiences rated our programs both useful & engaging!
Students Fight Back
Students Fight Back offers the same basic skills in Girls Fight Back, because contrary to what society might tell us, people of all gender identities can benefit when it comes to learning personal safety and self-defense. And, we can all come together to be active bystanders and create safer communities on campus and beyond. This program has a strong emphasis on how we can all partner together to put an end to violence. It is gender inclusive and Title IX compliant. This program is also 75 mins + Q&A.
98.6% of audiences would recommend our programs to their friends!
Yes I’m Hiking Solo
Ever been worried about your safety when hiking solo? Do you want to feel confident and independent venturing out on your own? Then join Nicole as she shares simple self-defense strategies to empower you to feel more confident about exploring the outdoors, running, hiking, camping, fly fishing, backpacking, solo traveling or wherever your adventure takes you. Inspired by her Outdoor Defense online series. This program is 60-75 minutes + Q&A.
Fight Back on Spring Break!
Fight Back on Spring Break is a specialized version of Students Fight Back. It is also gender inclusive and puts special attention on how we can be safer and look out for each other more actively on Spring Break or any time we want to be social, have a good time, or travel away from home. This program is also 75 mins + Q&A.
IMPACT Personal Safety
IMPACT is a 3 or 5 hour full contact, adrenaline based self-defense program. It is a perfectly designed program to follow up one of our core programs and is designed to be an intensive for a smaller group of attendees.
SAVE
SAVE (Safety, Assertiveness, Violence Prevention, Empowerment), is a gender inclusive, comprehensive, interactive seminar that is designed for companies, businesses, or private groups that want to empower their employees or community with personal safety strategies and discussions on how to set boundaries to address awkward social interactions with colleagues and co-workers. We also address techniques for professionals in industries that require being alone with strangers and clients or who travel regularly. No one should have to choose between their safety and their livelihood. This program includes hands on practice for setting boundaries in a respectful, confident way in addition to working on physical self-defense techniques. The material can be customized to fit your organizations needs and messaging.
Boundaries for Personal Empowerment
This interactive and gender inclusive program is designed for any group that wants to feel confident setting boundaries in school, professional, and personal settings. Want to know how to handle awkward encounters with people you know in an empowered way? Then this session is for you! We’ll discuss the importance of speaking up for your needs, trusting your intuition, and using clear, assertive communication. It will provide tools to help you recognize manipulative behavior as well as feel better equipped to be an active bystander. The goal is to enable you to confidently enforce your boundaries in direct and respectful ways.
The tools learned can be used every day and the practice of them can ultimately lead to forming stronger relationships in our work, school, romantic and interpersonal interactions. Plus it can help us navigate our day to day social exchanges!
PREVIOUS CLIENTS INCLUDE:
- IBM
- UCLA
- Microsoft
- Denver Broncos
- HOKA One One
- Girl Scouts
- College of St. Scholastica
- Carthage College
- Texas Christian University
- Northern Illinois University
- University of Redlands
- University of Richmond
- Texas A&M University, Commerce
- Western Oregon University
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
- Texas Tech
- Ohio Wesleyan
- Keuka College
- Davenport University
- Cal State Dominguez Hills
- US Air Force
- Guess? Jeans
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Kentucky
- Indiana Tech
- Walla Walla Community College
- Spokane Falls Community College
- Cal State Sacramento
- University of Illinois-Springfield
- Bradley University
- Eastern Connecticut State University
- Campbell University
- Lamar State College
- St. Mary’s University
- Youngstown University
- University of Texas Permian Basin
- American University
- University of Riverside