Discover Germany, Switzerland & Austria
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Business
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GOALGIRLS* Column
DISCOVER HER POWER WITH THE DORFGIRLS The most interesting businesses right now are not being built by people who fit the system. They are being built by people who refuse to be discouraged by it. A new GOALGIRLS* column about women building business differently.
WHAT IF SMALL TOWNS ARE NOT BORING? For years, the story around rural areas has sounded the same: Young people leave. Cities are where things happen. Culture exists somewhere else. We disagree. Small towns are not missing talent. They are missing stages. They are missing spaces where ideas can become visible. Because creativity does not belong to Berlin. Community does not belong to big cities. And impact does not need a postcode.
MEET THE GIRLS WHO STOPPED WAITING For this special edition of DISCOVER HER POWER, we are not highlighting one founder. We are highlighting a little movement. The DORFGIRL CAFÉ started as a simple question: What happens when you give young women
another inspirational quote. Sometimes empowerment is keys to an empty room and someone saying: “Try.” BECAUSE DORFGIRLS RULE The DORFGIRL CAFÉ by GOALGIRLS* is our invitation: Stop waiting for someone to bring life back into your town. Look around. The people who can create it are already there. Give them space. And watch what happens. This stage belongs to women who claim it. Check @heygoalgirls on Instagram to read more.
This column in three learnings:
WHEN POWER SHIFTS
Empty spaces are full of possibility.
What happens when young women get access to spaces? They stop asking if their ideas are good enough. They start building. Because sometimes empowerment is not
Young women do not need more permission. They need more places. Small towns are not missing ideas. They are missing opportunities. And one more thing: The future is not something we wait for. It is something we create together.
GOALGIRLS* is an international FLINTA* creative collective and agency. Follow on @heygoalgirls Would you like to be featured next? Visibility grows when we share it – so here is how you take this stage: 1. Share a post from @dorfgirlcafe or your thoughts on this story in your Instagram story. 2. Tag in your story: @dorfgirlcafe This stage belongs to women who claim it.
92
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Issue 144
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August 2026
PHOTOS: DORFGIRL CAFÉ
That is exactly why GOALGIRLS* created the DORFGIRL CAFÉ right in the centre of Scheessel, a small town in North Germany.
An empty store in the middle of Scheeßel. And the permission to create. The answer? It became a café. A workshop space. A casino. A flea market. A place for conversations, creativity and community. A place built by Dorfgirls, for their Dorf.
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The most exciting ideas do not only happen in big cities. Sometimes they happen in empty shops. On quiet streets. In places people already wrote off. There are many conversations about how small towns are dying. Less culture. Less connection. Less spaces for young people. But what if the problem was never that nothing is happening? What if the problem is that the people with ideas simply have nowhere to put them?
a space? Not a perfect one. Not a fully funded one. Not one with a five-year strategy deck. Just a space.
TEXT & INTERVIEW: KADDIE ROTHE, GOALGIRLS*
Before you start reading this column, open your Instagram app (if you have it) and look for @dorfgirlcafe – it’s the best way to feel the Dorfgirl energy we will be talking about for this special edition of our column.