FIRST THOUGHT: Empowering the Next Generation of Female Leaders
On every episode of The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet, she asks this question: What advice would you give to your 14-year-old self? This query is seemingly simple but actually freaking hard! A lot of women’s answers are to chill out—about boys, school, their looks. Some say to be a little wilder, while others say to rein in the crazy.
If I could look 14-year-old me in the eyes, I’d tell her to accept help from those who offer. I’d say that mentorship helps, and it doesn’t mean that you’re weak or uncool. It means that you’re strong enough to open yourself up to all possibilities.
So, what advice would you give your 14-year-old self?
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 50 Percent
Do you ever get the sense there should be more women-owned businesses? On The Dot informs you about plenty of prosperous, talented ladies out there, but why aren’t there even more? Maybe it’s because women entrepreneurs start with 50 percent less capital compared to men. That’s like only eating half a Krispy Kreme doughnut or only getting a perm on half your head. How can you succeed? Well, we’re women, so, of course we’re still thriving. In 2007, women owned only 6 percent of all businesses. Five years later, women owned 36 percent! If we received the same amount of moolah as male entrepreneurs, I dare say we might take over the world.
WOMAN TO WATCH: Alexis Jones, Founder of I Am That Girl and ProtectHer
Alexis Jones wears a lot of hats. She’s an author, activist, film producer and more. By the time she hit 22, she earned her master’s degree in communication management from the University of Southern California. Oh yeah, and she was also on the long-running reality show Survivor. Jones used the media interviews following her 33-day run on the series to promote her passion for female empowerment. In 2008, Emily Greener and Jones launched I Am That Girl, a nonprofit that aims to inspire girls to feel, you guessed it, empowered. Jones wrote a book by the same name, which received acclaim by celebrities like Kristen Bell and Kate Bosworth.
Jones has her finger on the pulse of what girls and women need. When she’s not hosting the United Nations: Nexus Leadership Conference, or in a Washington, D.C. meeting strategizing the United State of Women Summit, she’s crusading against sexual harassment and assault with her new campaign, called ProtectHer.
In Darling Magazine, Jones writes about how ProtectHer began when she spoke to 18 high-school quarterbacks about respecting women. She has now advised jocks from universities in California, Texas and Florida on how they can re-invent manhood. Jones has lived the kind of harassment she fights to end. Recently, she used Instagram to declare that she and her mother were verbally harassed by a few men at a stoplight. Two of the alleged harassers were later identified as L.A. Lakers basketball players.
It looks like Jones’ work has just begun.
QUITE THE QUOTE
This quote by Malala Yousafzai is everything. Yousafzai is an activist for female education, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate and leads with a gentle soul. She said: “I raise up my voice, not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot succeed when half of us are held back."That’s all for now. Be sure to share this so more women can have a voice! Thanks for getting ready with us.
To learn more about our conversation, check us out at OnTheDotWoman.com and talk to us @OnTheDotWoman on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear your voice.