Being the first or the “only” in the room is never easy. There’s no defined roadmap, lessons learned or insider tips to provide guidance. For super successful women, particularly Black and Indigenous women, being “the first” can be a particularly lonely road. There are few (if any) role models, mentors or simply others who look like you doing what you’re trying to do.

The Epic Mentor Guide: Insider Advice for Girls Eyeing the Workforce from 180 Boss Women Who Know is the advice almanac that ambitious young women never had but desperately needed. From Abbey Wilcox’s advice on “Prepping Your Sport for the Olympics” to Veronica Niele Beard’s tips on “What to Wear to Work and Why” the guide offers practical, no-nonsense sage advice from 180 phenomenal women representing nearly every walk of professional life.

Having founded Être, a mentorship program that brings girls directly into companies to meet female leaders face to face, Illana Raia has observed first-hand the confidence boost that those brief interactions can inspire. Well aware of the drop in girls’ confidence that occurs in middle school, Raia’s anecdotal evidence suggested that early access to mentors could provide just the antidote that girls needed, so she partnered with a leading authority on Millennials and Gen Z to commission a national survey to prove it.

Can finding the right mentor at the right time make all the difference for young women? If you were to ask Illana Raia, she’d say yes.

Studies have shown that girls’ confidence drops between ages 8 and 14, and many girls start to quit their hobbies and interests before they get to high school.

To counter this, Illana Raia founded Être Girls, a company whose mission is to keep girls close to what they love by offering curated free resources and inspiring female role models right when they need them.

Illana Raia is the founder and CEO of Être, a mentorship platform for girls and young women to help empower and embolden them to reach new heights. She’s also the author of The Epic Mentor Guide, where she interviewed 180 women who are certified bosses in their industry. While some of the names are familiar like Tyra Banks and Hoda Kotb, there are also women from big brands such as Nike, Disney, and Spotify– and further women such as the astronaut Katie Coleman and 3M’s “100 patent woman” Audrey Sherman.