Will Altadena Girls remain a success story?

Teen-founded charity tries to keep mission alive

- BY AUGUST BROWN

ALLISON DINNER For The Times ROSE, from left, Emily and Emma take a selfie in the "Sliving" lounge of Altadena Girls' facility in Pasadena.

The s'more bar was finally bubbling at Altadena Girls' new community space.

A few dozen teen and tween girls, all affected by the wildfires that had ripped their town apart in January, came together for a "cozy cabin" hangout night in downtown Pasadena — some making Christmas ornaments while others applied glittery makeup and temporary tattoos or kicked back on overstuffed furniture.

Avery Colvert, who founded Altadena Girls in January as a 14-year-old, hung garlands and decorations around the 12,000-square-foot complex, beaming that what she'd built was at last open to the world.

The nonprofit was still gussying up the podcast studios, rock band rehearsal rooms and the basement "Sliving" lounge - a young content creators' paradise decorated by Paris Hilton, who coined the term referring to living your best life.

"We have a video of Avery touring the space at the very beginning, and she was talking about what she imagined would be in each room," her mother, Lauren Sandidge, said at the event last month. "To be sitting here, and now most of the things that we were just riffing on are reality, it's a pretty amazing feeling."

Of all the charities that emerged in the chaos and triage of January's fires, none captured popular attention like Altadena Girls. Avery organized her community to raise donations of clothing, hygiene kits and other essentials (and life-affirming pleasures) that displaced teen girls needed - over a million items in all. Altadena Girls became a social media sensation and a celebrity-beloved cause.

As the community nears the anniversary of the fires, Altadena Girls' flagship project has finally arrived as beautiful a hangout space as a kid could ask for.