You may notice something a little different about your favorite Girl Scout cookies this year. For the first time in thirteen years, Girl Scouts of the USA has changed its iconic cookie boxes! To help celebrate Girl Scouting’s 100th birthday, this cookie season will mark the first redesign of Girl Scout cookie boxes since 1999. Not only do the boxes sport a new look, but they serve a new purpose as well: to showcase the five lifelong financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills the Girl Scout Cookie Program teaches.  These include goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. The new designs feature girls kayaking, working in a park, and speaking at Girl Scout events, among other activities. The final package design captures moments that show the power of girls working together as they engage in activities like greening a park, volunteering at a soup kitchen, and traveling to Paris.

To celebrate the launch of the new cookie packaging, Girl Scouts of the USA teamed up with Advertising Week to host “Thinking Outside the Cookie Box: Keeping Youthful Innovation Throughout Your Career,” a panel hosted by financial journalist Jean Chatzky. Panelists included: Kate Zillio, Director of Client Sales at Anthem; Stefanie Manning, Associate Publisher at Hearst Magazines; Tessa Tinney, Partner/Creative Director at Monaco Lange; Lisa Belkin, Senior Columnist at Huffington Post and Amy Wilkins, Senior Vice President of Publishing at Martha Stewart Weddings.

The panel spent forty minutes musing on their time in Girl Scouting and its impact on their adult lives. Writer Lisa Belkin recalled that during her time as a Girl Scout “there were writing badges and I distinctly remember getting them” but felt she got more out of her time than badges for things she was already good at. She followed up with a story of joining a Girl Scouts bake-off…despite not knowing how to bake. With a laugh, she explained that the experience taught her that “ there are things that I haven’t seen yet. There are paths that I never knew I could do! The idea that there are so many directions to go in. I do believe it started with that first Girl Scout cheesecake.”

Similarly, Jean Chatzky chatted about her mother’s insistence that she join Girl Scouts, since she believed that it taught girls “how to get where they want to go.” Since goal setting is one of the five key skills girls learn from the Girl Scout Cookie Program, it’s safe to say that mom was right on that one!

“We have more than 50 million cookie customers across the country, and the cookie box is the most tangible and powerful way for us to communicate directly with consumers,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA.

If you have trouble tracking down a Girl Scout this cookie season, you can always use the free Cookie Finder app for your iPhone or Android to see the newly-redesigned boxes in person.