At a time when many of us feel so deeply divided, we thought: Why not a reminder of how politics could Be?

Sunday Morning came to Angola, Indiana, for a week to change the lives of 300 girls. It’s the summer before their senior year, and they’re the last participants of Hoosier Girls State, where for 82 years young women have been learning about government and what it means to legislate and campaign.

Currently, 15 of them are running for governor, the highest office in the Girls State.

The participants are divided into two fictitious parties: the Federalists and the Nationalists.

We sat down with four of the gubernatorial candidates: Asha Adhikari, Priscilla Smith, Ivy Zhen and Ella McGrath.

I asked, “How long did you have to introduce yourself to the people you hope would later vote for you?”

“We got here Sunday afternoon,” Smith said, “and then if you wanted to run for governor, I think it was Monday, we had to file our candidacy sometime in the morning. So we had very little time. And then we were able to start campaigning by Monday afternoon, I think.”

“Have any of you come here because you are considering a career in public service?”

“I definitely want to work in public service,” says Adhikari, “because I have seen that nothing is more powerful than giving back to others.”

When asked if they think young women support each other more, they all agreed: “Yes, 100%.”

Every summer, all 50 states host versions of Girls and Boys State, programs that feature alumni such as President Bill Clinton and Texas Governor Ann Richards, Bruce Springsteen and Rush Limbaugh… and me at 16! I was governor of Hoosiers Girls State, which was one of the greatest honors of my life.

I still remember the euphoria and nervousness I felt that week 57 years ago in Bloomington, Indiana. Back then, the tensions of the ’60s were at their peak. Today, these girls say they feel the division, too. McGrath said, “I feel like in the world we live in today, it’s difficult to stand up for what you believe in and what you stand for without upsetting other people, like losing friends or upsetting family members.”

“It’s kind of hard to really put your ideas into words,” Zhen said. “You would describe it as a gloomy, depressed mood, and people are kind of afraid to go out and really say what they feel.”

But at Girls State, there is a place to let off steam. Two summers ago, Girls State was filmed in Missouri for the 2024 Apple TV+ documentary “Girls State.”

Among those attending at the time was Emily Worthmore, a candidate for governor. “People at my school don’t know if I’m conservative or liberal, and I kind of like that,” she said in the film. “I don’t want to say what I am and then half the room stops listening before I even have a chance to speak. But I really hope that after Girls State, I’ll just be open, I’m conservative, let’s talk about it.”

Worthmore, now a sophomore in college, was asked if the experience was transformative for her. “I would say Girls State was the most life-changing week in my life,” she replied.

Jesse Moss and his wife Amanda McBaine directed “Girls State” (and before that, the 2020 documentary “Boys State.”) “It’s really participatory democracy for young people to figure out, ‘How do we do this?’” Moss said.

When asked why now is the right time to make films about Boys and Girls State, McBaine replied, “We’re parents of teenagers. I think that’s part of our investigation; it’s personal. How do kids grow up politically in this incredible time that we’re in in our country? We’re very divided. How do people talk to each other when their politics are so divided? How do people from big cities meet people from small towns? We all have our silos, on social media or wherever.”

I asked Worthmore, “What do you think would be different in politics if attending Boys State or Girls State were mandatory for all students?”

“If there was a way to make that happen, we’d be in a much better position,” Worthmore replied. “People would vote more, and that’s the most important thing, right?”

Worthmore didn’t win the election, but she tells us the Girls State experience will shape the rest of her life. “The program emphasizes, no matter whether you’re left or right, just participate. Participate in democracy. Who represents your city? Who represents your county? Who represents you? There would be a lot more women represented. That would help more people get out there and have their voices heard.”

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Produced by Sari Aviv and Lucie Kirk. Editor: Steven Tyler.