at a meeting of the lds church's organization for adolescent girls held june 19, 1880, in the assembly hall on temple square, taylor was appointed the first general president of the young ladies' national mutual improvement association, the original name of the church's young women organization. taylor was the general president of the organization until her death in 1904. taylor held the first churchwide conference for young women in 1890. as president, she attended meetings of national council of women and international council of women throughout the 1890s. she also attended the world's congress of representative women in 1893. under her direction, susa young gates founded the "young woman's journal", which began publication in 1889 and was published until 1929. just prior to taylor's death, she shortened the name of the ylnmia to the young ladies' mutual improvement association. taylor was succeeded by her second counselor, martha h. tingey.