A two-week canoe trip in northern Minnesota changed the trajectory of Natalie Warrens life when she was 15 years old. From that pivotal point onward, she bucked the norm of her urban Miami upbringing to chase a life outdoors. More than泭two decades later, Warren, 32, is泭recognized as one of the most accomplished adventure paddlers in the U.S.泭Shes canoed 2,000 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, paddled the entire length of the Mississippi River, carried out 30-泭and 50-day river expeditions in Canada, and paddled 450 miles in 53 hours to win first place in the Yukon River Quest. As a new mother, a泭Ph.D.泭student of environmental communication at the University of Minnesota,泭the founder of Wild River Academy, a nonprofit that teaches urban youth about rivers, and the author of the adventure memoir , Warren is spreading the gospel of outdoor adventure for teenage girls who feel like they dont fit in.泭
In 2005, Warren was burned out by daily three-hour saxophone practices and other rigors of attending an arts high school when a friend suggested YMCA Camp Menogyn, near Grand Marais, Minnesota. Despite having no泭prior relationship to the outdoors, after her泭first river trip with the camp, in which she spent泭every day paddling and every night sleeping outside, she was泭hooked on outdoor adventure. At that泭formative time in her life, she had finally emerged from what she calls the blur of living in a large urban area that had a certain ideology and tastes for material things that I泭never identified with. Living outdoors, moving slowly, observing everything around her with time to digest it, connecting with her boat partnerthese aspects of canoe life helped shape泭Warrens perceptions of the world.
She found her people, her place, and her own voice in the outdoors and on the water, which eventually provided the backdrop for the rest of her life. Now Warrens goal is to encourage teenage girls to think critically about what they actually want in lifeand how scheming adventures can help them get it. Here are four pieces of advice for teen girls ready to embrace adventure.
Fight for What You Want
Were constantly told all of these milestones that were supposed to have, Warren says. A lot of us sit back and were like, Thats not what we want.泭How do we fit into a culture thats telling us what were supposed to be doing when were not even sure that will make us feel fulfilled? Youre told泭you cant ever hop off the tracks泭because you can make one decision that will derail your potential for future marriage, job, kids, success, and retirement.泭
I really fought for what I felt like I needed, she says. For me泭it was following a feeling of what I was supposed to be doing at the time. I couldnt rationalize it. The surge of emotion when were teenagers or early twenties can be a really, really powerful force in directing us where we want to go.
Forge Your Own Path
Instead of getting an unpaid internship in the summer after泭college, I canoed for three months. I thought that would literally ruin my career, because an internship泭is what I was told I needed to do to be successful. I want teenage girls to think more critically about the messages that theyre receiving, whether theyre subtle or obvious, to be able to say, I can do something different. Start to think, like, Oh, land is connected. I wonder if I could walk across the country? Water is connected. I wonder if I can sail across the ocean?
Wilderness trips, and canoe trips in particular, are about泭getting into a flow of everybody working together, she says. We all need each other. We all serve different roles. Were trying to get from point A to point B. What are we going to eat? What is the weather like? And how do we solve problems together? That just strips away all of the added pressures and layers of what were supposed to look like, how were supposed to respond to certain things.
Have the Courage to Take a Big Trip
Its important to泭explore all the different pathways in life, Warren says. I stand out so much more because I lived in a canoe for six months. It provides fodder for interviews. Its group work. Its not a hole in your r矇sum矇泭at all. Its actually something that could make you stand out and could become your career in many ways. Without feeling like were safe to take those risks, we often forego the possibilities that those trips can provide for us.泭
Find Your Place in the Outdoors泭
What I found in that first trip especially was that I felt really confident in the outdoors. I sort of discovered what made me feel the most me when I was at that age, when high school was traumatic. I had a lot of teen angst, and when I was in the outdoors, when I was paddling a canoe, when I was living in the wilderness, I felt a sense of peace and belonging that I had just never found in the city, Warren says.
I have already introduced my daughter泭to just being outdoors and being by water, telling her stories and reading books about women doing adventures, she says. Id really love to be able to support her in taking those risks, especially at a young age, without feeling like if she stepped off the track, she would lose her future. When we step off the track, we get on another track that can be so much better.