One day before International Women's Day 2025, thirty-five girls ages eight to eighteen stormed the boardroom at Morgan Stanley HQ with their hands already raised. Knowing they were about to hear from women changing the game in sports, they were brimming with questions and geared up to talk about goals. All kinds.

Sometimes, you’re just meant to be friends.

Sometimes visions align and a mutual belief in the power of next gen girls is so strong, that you literally collide and become friends.

That’s what happened nearly a year ago when I met women at CANDLE MEDIA℠ who, in turn, introduced me to women at Hello Sunshine . We started chatting and, well…couldn’t stop.

With gravity-defying duets, soaring acceptance speeches and eyebrow-raising surprises, the 97th Academy Awards were anything but ordinary. From Conan's opening monologue to a wickedly satisfying mashup, last night's Oscars had us cheering from the start.

With a series of firsts, moments of female friendship and forward-looking speeches, here are Être's Top Ten Takeaways from the 2025 Oscars.

Today's girls know the brands they love.

They know which companies speak to them, see them and take their values to heart.

So when I founded Être, a mentorship platform designed to bring girls directly into companies and face to face with female leaders, I knew one value had to remain strong:

Girls would drive where we visited and who we met. Every time.

As we approach spring 2025 and Être's 9th birthday in May, we are still listening intently to our girls. Which companies are they clamoring to visit right now?

Here are just a few of the requests we received and the rockstar brands throwing open their doors and saving boardroom seats for girls.

These videos make us smile.

And cry...sometimes sobbing uncontrollably with hiccups.

And as we hit send to share with our friends, we wonder why do I love these viral moments so much? These mentor encounters with big names and young fans - why do we love them?

And the answer I come up with is simple: They bring joy.

Thirty seconds of unvarnished joy as eyes widen and water when a teen or pre-teen realizes she is seen. An icon she admires has stopped on her way to the locker room, the red carpet or the stage, and looked her in the eye.

A girl is seen and her goals are encouraged - this is a moment of joy.

Take, for example, when Ruby from Cambridge, Illinois held up a sign for basketball star JuJu Watkins that said "JuJu I want to be like you." When the University of Southern California point guard (who as of last week is the only NBA, WNBA or D-1 men's or women's player this century to have a game with 35+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists) saw Ruby and stopped to talk to her, it made her year. "It just gives me hope," Ruby wrote on Instagram, "that someday I'll have the same experience with a fan."

It gives us hope too.

While Eagles soared and Chiefs took cover, women scored at last night's Super Bowl and girls everywhere took notice. From the coaches to the commercials, female-led management and phenomenal performances - women ran game-changing plays and the next generation was watching.

What stood out to Être girls at Super Bowl LIX? We listened when they said...

In the aftermath of last Wednesday's crash, when an American Airlines flight carrying members of the figure skating community home from the National Development Camp in Kansas collided with a helicopter over Washington, D.C., young skaters everywhere are returning to the rink.

And, as we head towards National Girls & Women in Sports Day this week, role models they admire are supporting with wise words.

The main takeaways from their advice?

Stay in your skates. Stay moving. And stay together.

As National Mentoring Month draws to a close, I am awed by some mentor moments we have already seen. From female firefighters to first-time philanthropists, we have watched and cheered as heroes imparted wisdom and the next gen took the lead.

Before we flip our calendars to February, then, here is a quick list of mentor moments we've witnessed this month and eleven more I hope to see as 2025 unfolds.

Sometimes it's hard to find the joy. Let's pencil it into our calendars...month by month.

Six months after the first youth march for integrated schools, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the Washington Monument and urged the next generation to “make a career of humanity. … you will make a greater person of yourself; a greater Nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”

Today, as we celebrate a day of service in his name, teens are reaching out to each other through the ashes of one of the largest wildfires in our nation's history to do just that.

As an example, as TikTok was powering down, teens like Avery Colvert were stepping up.

After her middle school, Eliot Arts Magnet, burned to the ground in Altadena, 14-year-old Avery launched Altadena Girls on Instagram to help girls who had lost everything not only secure clothing, shoes, and personal care products, but "restore...their personal identity and confidence." KCRW News deemed her a ‘femininomenon.’

They run towards the fire.

With purpose and courage, real-life heroes have been fighting California flames for days now, and we are watching with clasped hands and held breath.

The devastation in Los Angeles is unimaginable.

Our awe for the firefighters is immeasurable.

We are watching hour by hour, with the next generation watching with us. And in addition to their questions about disaster, loss and safety are coming questions about courage, service and heroism.

How did she get to be a firefighter?

Could I do that too?

What would we do without so many firefighters and how did they get that brave?

Do they feel like heroes every single day?

Even in what seem like apocalyptic times, when girls have questions Être seeks answers. In this case, we started with role model NYFD firefighter Regina Wilson.

The first few days of a new year always leave me searching for fresh advice in unexpected places. Combine that with my unabashed love of awards shows, and last night's Golden Globes had me cheering for first-time winners and their wise words from the stage.

First-time speeches dominated the night, and many held mentor moments worth sharing. As a sparkly start to a brand new year, here are five first-ever winners and the advice they offered to all of us just hours ago.

Every year on the NYC Times Square Wishing wall, people leave their wishes for the new year to be included in the 3,000 pounds of confetti that falls as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.

Yesterday morning between West 45th street and 46th streets, Times Square co-sponsor Planet Fitness ran a confetti test in preparation, and the confetti that rained down included some of the written wishes from people who submitted them through the virtual wishing wall in Times Square.

‘Tis the season to give...and sometimes regift! Below is an article I wrote right after The Epic Mentor Guide released, drawing on some favorite quotes from women I admire. In the spirit of secret Santas and miracles that last, I'm rewrapping with light edits and sending it this morning with love. Some gifts are ours to keep.

'Tis the season to give.

To think about what those around us want most, to wrap it well, and to give with abandon and love.

But sometimes, there are gifts we’re meant to keep.

Every year-end report aims to take stock of the last year, evaluate strategies and measure growth. And, truthfully, some years are better than others. But it is also true that some years blow the prior year out of the water with such force that you are overcome by tidal waves of gratitude.

That is how I feel right now as I look back on 2024.

What to get tweens, teens and the off-to-college set? This is the question flying at sleigh-like speed across our feeds and texts. We need help is usually tacked onto the end of the plea. We hear it, and Être elves are here to help.

We put our heads together and - keying off the mentor mantras from Être's website - built the following next gen gift list. No assembly required. All empowerment included.

Everyone deserves the chance to fly, insists our soaring heroine Elphaba, and branding executives everywhere are nodding in agreement.

Just as Barbie turned everything pink last year (see Être's detailed review of the Barbie marketing party), by teaming up with more than 400 brands pre-release Wicked is adding a lot of green to the mix.

How much? Opening to $112 million at the North American box office and $162 million globally, Wicked is poised to shatter records like the glass window overlooking Oz. And as the holiday season swings into full gear, fans everywhere are embracing the merch magic.

What are some favorite collabs according to Être's Wicked-obsessed teen girls?

Here are a few thrillifying us already.

It's not a moment, it's a movement.

This is how we felt at Être throughout the month of November, as headline after headline brought new joy to sports-obsessed girls.

The astounding month started with baseball trailblazer Justine Siegel stepping up to the plate to tell the world that female baseball players would again have a league of their own.

The Women's Professional Baseball League (WPBL), is set to debut in 2026 and will be the only professional women’s baseball league in America. Siegel, the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team and to pitch batting practice against an MLB team, couldn't be happier, saying: “I am so excited that there will finally be a professional women’s baseball league – it is a dream come true for all the girls and women who play America’s Pastime."

Last Thursday was surreal.

Professor David Strauss, the University of Chicago Law School legend famous for arguing 19 cases before the Supreme Court and receiving the Graduating Students’ Award for teaching excellence 6 times, was clearing up his papers so I could speak before a room full of students.

I love it when alums come back, he said casually, picking up the seating charts that used to terrify us as we waited to be called on in class. Looks different from the front of the room, doesn't it? He said it with an easy smile, and as he nodded with his chin for me to take the podium, my mind flew back in time.

...the future looks tremendously bright.

As bright as the discoveries being developed in Johnson & Johnson labs.

As bright as the lights that illuminate the stunning J&J museum we toured.

As bright as the minds that gathered around conference tables asking smart questions like:

What was your college major and do you use that degree now? What's the absolute coolest thing your team is researching right now? How do you ensure that people everywhere get the medicine they need? Did you know when you started this job that you'd make such a big impact on the world?

Can we meet an actual Broadway costume designer for Halloween?

Can we talk to a female space engineer before the next rocket launch?

Can we visit healthcare innovators at their world HQ for National STEM Day?

These are some of the questions I'm receiving as Club Être chapters get underway this fall, and the answer across the board is...YES. Yes we can.

At Être, a mentorship ecosystem bringing girls directly into companies to meet female leaders face to face, we listen hard to our young community. We visit boardrooms they ask to see (think Google, Spotify, NBCUniversal, United Nations, NYSE and more), sit with icons they ask to meet (think Tyra Banks, Gloria Steinem and the late Lilly Ledbetter), and ensure that girls anywhere in the world can connect with women working in the coolest places. Even prepping for the Olympics or onboard the International Space Station.