Now in our fifth season of Être TED-Ed, the breadth and depth of topics this year are astounding. From the power of pop-ups to how girls are portrayed in media...from deaf awareness to deepening access to education...from class status to clean water to clear-eyed entrepreneurship, the topics on Être's 2025 roster are off the charts.

And our speakers' locations are across the map! Hailing from 15 US states and 7 countries, Season 5 of Être's TED-Ed series is bringing over 60 global girls to the iconic TED-Ed mic on a single day to share big ideas.

With so many memorable commencement speeches on the books - including a few that actually were turned into books - a list of recommended reads for grads seems in order. Whether wrapped in congratulatory paper, slipped into new briefcases or stacked on nightstand TBR piles, here are 21 books packed with "what's next" advice that Être can't wait to share.

A quick disclaimer: While there are many more books that dive deeply into workforce dynamics, pay landscapes and career progression...in this case, they come later. See the Êxtras section below for a few favorites and stay tuned for more lists this summer. For now, these 21 titles offer broad inspo along with bite-sized action items to those eyeing and entering the adult world for the first time.

It can be terrifying. And exhilarating.

But thanks to authors like these, the next gen can take a summer masterclass and gain insider wisdom from boss women who know. So if you're still looking for a grad gift idea, consider one or more of these:

Wise women across the country are stepping up to graduation mics this month...and dropping them with style. Leaving freshly minted 2025 grads with smart tips, hard-won strategies and mantras we want to engrave on every gift, these commencement speakers are leaving it on the field as stadiums echo with cheers.

With new speakers being announced daily it's hard to keep track, so here's a quick list of Être favorites so far plus a calendar of upcoming addresses - click each video to play. Takeaways are highlighted - feel free to share with the new grads in your world or offer your own cap and gown advice in the comments! We'll be over here unable to stop humming pomp and circumstance...

A few months ago we asked girls to search for the best place to hold Être's 9th birthday, and one response came back with ringing clarity:

"Um, we're all doing this search on Google...couldn't we just GO to Google?"

We could indeed. And because, like all things since the launch of Être's mentorship ecosystem in 2016 the best ideas have come from our girls, it made perfect sense to reach out to Être mentor Lindsay Leone (Van Houten) and ask about a visit.

Senior Business Lead at Google / YouTube and one of Google's earliest employees (catch her career advice in The Epic Mentor Guide), Lindsay responded immediately: Definitely! But let's do it in the new offices. You have to see them.

"I would literally never work from home if I worked there. How cool was THAT?!"

"I would go to law school just to work there." [quickly followed by] "No one would even believe you were a lawyer - it's too cool a job for lawyers to have."

"I'm glad there were engineers there. They answered all of my questions...and I had A LOT.'"

"I'm going to pin what my dream office would look like at Pinterest..."

Snippets of conversations I heard in the elevator as Être girls left Pinterest's NYC offices last week with visions - and vision boards - full of new goals and dreams.

I have never known a time in my career without Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

Launched in 1993, the same year I graduated law school and began work at Skadden Arps, Take Our Daughters to Work Day burst on the scene as the brainchild of a formidable team made up of Gloria Steinem, Nell Merlino, Kristen Golden and The Ms. Foundation.

The goal?

To usher girls into the workplace to glimpse potential careers as early as possible.

"Where are you going?”

"Have you decided?"

"What's the waitlist situation?"

"HOW are we supposed to even DO this?"

With National College Decision Day around the corner on May 1st, high school hallways are buzzing with conversation. The graduating class of 2025 - reportedly the largest the country has ever seen at 3.9 million students - faced a markedly different admissions cycle this year amid public backlash and protests, and came away with a few takeaways.

Consulting further with admissions experts in our network, reviewing new data released by schools and DM'ing directly with Être seniors embedded in this process day to day, here are a few lessons we have gleaned as the 2024-25 admissions cycle winds down.

"I love being here. I can't believe we get to talk to everyone!"

"These speakers are amazing - I just interviewed the CEO of Angel City!"

"Um, how did Worth Magazine get so many incredible women on one stage?"

They did it with a history of inspiring summits under their belts and a topic called "Rise and Lead" as this year's banner. And once again, the money mentors at Worth Media Group took our breath away with their roster and gave next gen girls teen journalist credentials to cover the whole thing.

Worth's annual Groundbreaking Women Summit is always a hit, and this year was no exception. I was honored to be selected as a Groundbreaking Woman last year, and this year was thrilled to take the stage this year alongside Maureen Polo from Hello Sunshine and Miriam Spritzer from The Golden Globe Foundation.

It's here.

Être's fifth season of next gen TED-Ed Talks launched last week and I could not be more excited.

Why?

Because the issues we see splashed across headlines, news crawlers, ticker tapes and feeds are affecting today's teens in unprecedented ways.

From global topics like the economy and climate change to national issues like immigration and student debt; from community concerns like class size and sports teams to at-home discussions about social media and self-confidence, the next generation is staring down today's headlines through a unique set of lenses.

And they have something to say.

Even better? TED-Ed wants to help them share it.

As Women’s History Month and Q1 2025 hear closing bells ring together, it sounds like the perfect time to celebrate Q1 highlights before looking ahead to Q2 2025. Having spent a career in M&A I have an unabashed love for growth metrics, so with a nod to our last quarterly learnings report, here are our new top 10 mentor moments from Être's Q1.

Stand-outs include exciting new partnerships with Hello Sunshine and sports mentor moments with Morgan Stanley, a fifth season with TED-Ed and boardroom visits at Bubble. For photos and details just click each image – I’m endlessly grateful to every CEO, collaborator and champion who started 2025 by saving seats for world-changing girls.

As we head into the last full week of Women's History Month 2025, girls are watching women win. In the news and in the market...from space to SXSW...future leaders are watching women score in a big way this month, and we had to make a list.

In no particular order but with all the applause and praise, here are Être's Top Ten Wins for Women during Women's History Month:

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.’