By Eliza Sturges
(March 10, 2026) — Since 1910, Girl Scout cookie season has been a staple of girlhood. Around the world, millions of Girl Scouts sell thousands of boxes of popular flavors, such as Thin Mints and Samoas. Cookies are a part of the Girl Scouts reputation, but it wasn’t always this way. The cookie idea actually has humble beginnings, born in the minds of the few girls who wanted to make a difference. And boy, did they succeed.
Girl Scouts was founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordan Lowe. Her purpose was to empower young women to develop self-reliance, leadership and character outside the home. She was inspired after attending a meeting with the founder of Boy Scouts, Sir Robert Baden-Powell. She decided to found Girl Scouts the following year, urging young girls to join. Five years after its founding, Girl Scouts started gaining their cookie reputation. The cookie sales started as a fundraiser, then advanced to a way to finance troop activities. It was the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma that came up with the idea. As part of a service project, girl members, with moms volunteering as technical advisors, home baked the first of the cookies.
The recipe quickly grew in popularity, and by the 1920s the recipes had been shared with roughly 2,000 Girl Scouts. It was published in The American Girl magazine in summer of 1922 and spread throughout the world; girls baked mostly simple sugar cookies with their mothers and packaged them with wax paper to sell door-to-door for 25 to 30 cents per dozen. With these simple cookies and cheap prices, girls learned marketing and business skills. A few years later, in 1934, Greater Philadelphia became the first council to sell commercially baked cookies.
In 1937, the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York brought commercial cookie sales to a whole new level and bought their own die in the shape of the Trefoil, and finally put the well-known words “Girl Scout Cookies” on the blue box. This was the push Girl Scouts finally needed. By 1937, enthusiasm had spread and more than 125 Girl Scout councils (which is quite a lot) reported holding sales.
Girl Scouts experienced a lull during World War II when wartime rations on sugar, flour and butter were in place, but enthusiasm subsequently came back twofold. Three years after the war ended, in 1948, 29 bakers were given cookie licenses. At this point, Girl Scout cookies came in three varieties: Sandwich, Shortbread, and Chocolate Mints (which we all now lovingly know as Thin Mints). These three evolved into four basic cookies by 1956: a vanilla-based filled cookie, a chocolate-based filled cookie, a shortbread cookie, and a chocolate mint.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the number of bakers was lowered to four to allow for lower prices, uniform packaging, and uniform distribution. This marked the first time that all Girl Scout cookie boxes showed the same pictures, the same colors, the same messages… (all right, you get it). It was actually in the 1970’s that the modern names were introduced. The Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies were called Do-Si-Dos, Shortbread cookies were christened Trefoils, and the Chocolate Mints were forever named Thin Mints. A lot of cookie history happened very recently, to my surprise. It was only in the 2000’s that our beloved modern cookie box designs were introduced, as well as cookie selling by all Girl Scouts, most notably the Daisies. It was also in the 2000’s that the number of bakers was reduced to two.
Fun fact of the day: All of the cookies are kosher! Did you know that? I didn’t. What most people don’t realize is that Girl Scout cookies have had a long, rich history and countless revisions to get to the popular sale and fundraiser that we all know today. Cookies are a key ingredient (see what I did there?) of the Girl Scout experience, and I hope this essay gives you something enlightening to read as you polish off the final box of your favorite Girl Scout cookies (that you think you shouldn’t eat but you do anyway because they’re just soooo good). Enjoy your cookies!
Please support our Haddam and Killingworth Girl Scouts at one of our upcoming
cookie booths:
March 14, 2026 ~ 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Killingworth Transfer Station, Killingworth)
March 15, 2026 ~ 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. (River Valley Provisions, Haddam)
March 15, 2026 ~ 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Killingworth True Value, Killingworth)
March 15, 2026 ~ 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Higganum Village Market, Higganum)
March 21, 2026 ~ 9:00 a.m.-12:00 Noon (Jack’s Country Restaurant, Higganum)
March 28, 2026 ~ 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Killingworth True Value, Killingworth)
March 29, 2026 ~ 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (River Valley Provisions, Haddam)
April 4, 2026 ~ 8:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Killingworth Transfer Station, Killingworth)
