Meghan Markle Volunteers With Teen Girls Who Started an Organization To Help Teens Affected by LA Wildfires

Meghan Markle was spotted helping an organization that supports teenage girls affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. Fans of the Duchess of Sussex spotted her in an Instagram reel shared by Altadena Girls, a grassroots organization started by 14-year-old Avery Colvert.

“I want to help other teen girls in my community rebuild their sense of identity and self-confidence during this difficult time,” Avery wrote in an Altadena Girls Instagram post.

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Meghan volunteered, donated some items, and bought lunch for volunteers.

According to People, Meghan donated clothing and beauty products to Altadena Girls on January 13. Additionally, she stuck around for a while and helped teen girls affected by the wildfires look through donated items. An insider told the New York Post that she also bought lunch for other Altadena Girls volunteers. In the Instagram reel, which the organization shared on January 15, Meghan was holding large bags of donated items.

In a January 13 post, Altadena Girls thanked The Archewell Foundation for donating.

“You can now donate directly to our organization and make sure that all of these funds get RIGHT to the community where it’s needed!” the post read. “So many of you have set up your own Venmos and stuff to gather money for us and we are so grateful. A special thanks to The Archewell Foundation for your support!”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle started The Archewell Foundation to “partner with key organizations and leaders to identify immediate needs, build meaningful initiatives, and drive long-term change.”

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Altadena Girls said having Meghan Markle’s support is ‘unreal.’

“If Harry and Meghan give the seal of approval then so do I,” one person commented on the Instagram post. In response, a representative from Altadena Girls said, “just meeting her is life-changing! Having her support is unreal.”

Avery started Altadena Girls to help girls ‘feel like themselves’ again.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Avery said she started the grassroots organization to “help girls affected specifically by the Eaton Canyon fire who lost their homes feel like themselves — and feel confident again.”

“They’ve lost everything,” she continued. “And I want them to feel a sense of normalcy when nothing else in their life is normal.” In the first post on the Altadena Girls Instagram account, Avery introduced herself, noting that she’s an eighth grader at a school that “burnt down on January 8th, along with many other schools in our neighborhood.”

In another post, she explained that Altadena Girls is collecting items like feminine hygiene products, lotion, hair brushes, bras and underwear, makeup, and clothing.

She explained why she chose to focus on personal hygiene products.

“When disaster strikes, people only focus on basic survival needs,” Avery wrote on Instagram. “But for teenage girls who have lost everything, feeling like ourselves again is also really important for our mental health. Things like basic hygiene products to the makeup we wear every day help us feel normal in a time when everything else feels chaotic.”

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