Young Women (organization)

Young Women

Motto	"Stand for Truth and Righteousness"
Formation	18 November 1869
Type	Non-profit
Purpose	religious instruction; personal standards and development; adolescent female support
Headquarters	Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Membership	1 million+ young women aged 12–18
General President	Bonnie L. Oscarson
Main organ	General presidency and general board
Parent organization	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Affiliations	Young Men; members join Relief Society at age 18
Website	lds.org/youth

The Young Women (often referred to as Young Women's or Young Woman's) is a youth organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The purpose of the Young Women organization is to help each young woman "be worthy to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple."

The first official youth association of the church—the Young Gentlemen’s and Young Ladies' Relief Society—was formally organized by Nauvoo, Illinois, youth on the advice of church founder Joseph Smith in March 1843. The group had held several informal meetings since late January of that year under the supervision of apostle Heber C. Kimball. The Young Women organization of the church was founded by LDS Church president Brigham Young in 1869 as the Young Ladies' Department of the Cooperative Retrenchment Association. At the organization's founding, Young set out his vision for the young women of the church:

I desire them to retrench from extravagance in dress, in eating and even in speech. The time has come when the sisters must agree ... to set an example worthy of imitation before the people of the world .... There is need for the young daughters of Israel to get a living testimony of the truth .... We are about to organize a retrenchment Association, which I want you all to join, and I want you to vote to retrench in ... everything that is not good and beautiful, not to make yourselves unhappy, but to live so you may be truly happy in this life and in the life to come.

From 1869 to 1880, the new Young Women organization functioned at the local ward level, without a general presidency. In 1871, the organization was renamed the Young Ladies' Retrenchment Association, or YL for short. In 1877, the organization's name was again changed to the Young Ladies' National Mutual Improvement Association (abbreviated YLNMIA) as a companion organization to the church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, which had been founded in 1875.