January is National Mentoring Month - Why it Matters to Gen Z More Than Ever
Photos via Sam Wallander and Erin Borzellino | Être
January is National Mentoring Month - and it's the perfect way to start a new year.
From famous quotes about mentorship (think Oprah Winfrey's "A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself") to advice offered by 180 women like Hoda Kotb, Bobbi Brown and Tyra Banks in The Epic Mentor Guide, wisdom shared by mentors makes a formidable difference.
It can help us mark goals, change course or set direction early in the year, and as founder of Être, a Gen Z mentorship platform, I see this mattering to girls more and more - whether they are raising their hands in the classroom, the locker room, the boardroom of a company they love or on the floor of an exchange that trades that company's stock.
Just ask them.
Photo via Sam Wallander at Morgan Stanley
"When I first met the mentors at Morgan Stanley, I couldn't believe they would spend so much time answering my questions! But they made me feel really important." - High school junior
"The mentors we met at Pinterest cared about how we use the platform; I felt very connected because they asked us as many questions about what we pin as we asked them about their jobs!" - High school senior
"I was nervous before trying out for club soccer, but meeting professional athletes reminded me that everyone feels that way before tryouts. I still text my mentor before games for extra confidence." - High school sophomore
And the science backs up the sentiment.
Click image to read Hello Sunshine: The Gen Z Rewrite Report, conducted by YPulse in partnership with Être (2025)
In research conducted last year by Hello Sunshine in partnership with YPulse and Être, The Gen Z Rewrite: Joy is Rebellion, 92% of girls with mentors said they felt more confident than those without. That statistic not only bolstered findings from Être's 2024 survey with YPulse, The Current State of Girls' Confidence, where 91% of girls believed higher confidence was directly related to mentorship, but brought into view with startling clarity an impactful solution to the confidence gap.
Specifically, The Gen Z Rewrite notes:
“As girls move through their teen years, confidence and joy take a measurable hit — with a 16% drop in confidence and a 23% drop in everyday joy between ages 13 and 18. But mentorship is a powerful buffer. Gen Z girls with mentors are not only more confident (87% vs. 69%), but also more joyful (86% vs. 73%), more optimistic about their future (90% vs. 78%), and more comfortable asking for help (92% vs. 57%).”
And there's more...
“In a time when so many feel pressure to navigate life alone, mentorship offers something deeper: real connection, guidance, and the power of being seen. And that connection goes beyond one-on-one support. Gen Z girls with mentors are anchoring their identities in the communities around them. 79% say the communities they’re part of in real life are a big part of who they are — more so than the ones they belong to online (69%).”
This couldn't come at a better time as our news feeds fill with dire predictions about the next generation. Parents worry about connections being made online. Schools struggle to offer enough role models through extracurriculars. Brands seek to connect to the younger set and Gen Z wants to be seen and heard...in person.
Photos via Erin Borzellino at Être TED-Ed
Indeed, Être TED-Ed speakers have doubled down on this sentiment. Throughout five seasons of TED-Ed talks, Être members have mentioned - exclaimed, really - how seen they felt when Hall of Fame athletes, award-winning Broadway playwrights, runway fashion designers or space-walking astronauts have mentored them.
The result? Gen Z voices got louder, backs stood straighter and game-changing ideas burst forward wrapped in confidence that gleamed like armor...because epic mentors showed up.
I will never tire of hearing girls thank their mentors - confiding in public and privately how much of a difference their mentor's time, energy, advice and unflinching support meant to them. I met my mentor at exactly the right time, so many of them have said to me. And I nod every time in agreement.
Images via Être at MarketSite, YouTube and Morgan Stanley
Because early is exactly the right time for girls to come face to face with first mentors. And whether that mentor is a teacher, a coach, a neighbor with the ridiculously cool job or an exec at a brand beloved by Gen Z, mentor moments matter. Right now.
As we head back to work and school this month, may we all - in any way we can - continue to make mentor moments happen. Not only will boardrooms be filled with fresh ideas, but your mentorship will slam the confidence gap shut like lockers.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: Three more statistics about mentorship you won't want to miss during National Mentoring Month: 93% of girls said a finance mentor would give them more confidence about future goals, 86% of girls said they'd be more willing to work towards hard or scarier STEM goals if they had a mentor, and 70% of girls said they'd be less likely to quit their sport if they had a mentor (Être 2024).
