- When she was a kid, Kate Middleton was a Brownie Scout and she worked hard to earn as many badges as she could.
- According to royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl, Kate's badges included the housekeeping badge, the jester badge, and the toy making badge.
- Isobel Eeley, a former member of Kate's Brownie group who suffers from cerebral palsy, says Kate was always especially kind to her and went out of her way to help her and make her feel included.
Long before she was the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton was just a girl, going HAM at her local Girl Scouts troop (or its British equivalent, anyway) and earning as many badges as humanly possible. It's the kind of drive and determination that, in retrospect, makes perfect sense for the girl who grew up to be the Leslie Knope of being a royal.
In her book Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl reveals that Carole signed Kate and her younger sister, Pippa, up for their school's first-ever Brownie troop as kids and Kate got INTO IT. Nicholl writes:
"In their uniform of brown culottes and yellow sashes, the girls made their Brownie Guide Promise to be good and help others. With three fingers raised and a toadstool in her left hand, a demure, eight-year-old Kate pledged, 'I promise that I will do my best to love my God, to serve my Queen and my country, to help other people and to keep the Brownie Guide Law.' Once she became a fully fledged member of the troop, she was determined to collect as many badges as she could. Kate had no problem getting her housekeeping badges; she knew how to brew a pot of tea and boil an egg."
But that wasn't all. According to Kate's old troop leader, June Scutter, Kate also pushed herself to earn badges for toy making and performing. "For the Jester Badge, the girls had to get together and make a scene from whatever theme they were doing, and also make up a poem to read aloud to the others," Scutter explained.
As inspiring as Kate's full Knope approach to badge-earning is though, the most moving story from her time as a scout comes from a member of her old troop, Isobel Eeley, suffers from cerebral palsy and remembers going on a Brownie trip with the Middleton sisters.
According to Isobel, Kate's natural tendency for compassion and helping others was on full display, even as a competitive eight year old. "She helped me if I ever got stuck doing things. I can only use on hand, so she would help me with anything that needed two hands," Isobel told Nicholl.
Can someone please send Kate a "Most Inspirational Duchess" badge, stat?
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