As Women’s History Month and Q1 2024 simultaneously pull to a close, it seems the perfect time to look back on highlights that launched our year and expectations for the quarter ahead. Having come from a background in M&A and a love of all things measurable, each Être quarterly learning report holds a special place for me. With a new name, Mentor Watch, this quarter’s report blew the doors off all of our expectations, and I couldn’t wait to share them.

Today marks the 100th edition of The Epic Mentor Newsletter, so it delights me to dive into the numbers! One hundred weeks of Monday mentor moments, interviews with icons and continuing the conversation between today’s leaders and tomorrow’s workforce that began with our book, The Epic Mentor Guide. One hundred weeks of bringing global girls into the room (or zoom) as they come face to face with women in the workplace.

Her voice is filled with power.

When she speaks the whole room sits up a little straighter.

And, as Lilly Ledbetter gazes levelly into the camera and in her unmistakable accent tells her story, hundreds of women and girls imagine themselves in her shoes.

Because her story is as current as if it had happened today…and her fearlessness will take us all into tomorrow.

By now you’ve seen some of the stats from Être’s powerful new survey. You’ve read that between ages 13 and 18 girls’ confidence drops by 20%. You’ve heard that between the same ages the percentage of girls who say they feel smart and optimistic drops by 50% and 52%, respectively…but that 91% of girls feel higher confidence is directly related to mentorship.

There’s more.

The survey broke new ground, telling us that mentors not only make girls more confident – they encourage and empower them to step out of their comfort zones and try harder things.

Let’s dive into the numbers - here’s some more of what Être found…

Are you ready for it?

Force of Nature: A Celebration of Girls and Women Raising Their Voices, from bestselling author-photographer Kate T. Parker, hits bookstores tomorrow and I could not be more excited. Perfectly timed for International Women’s Day this Friday and Women’s History Month, Parker’s electrifying new book celebrates girls and women finding, using, amplifying, and sustaining their voices to empower themselves and change the world…right now.

Être girls were more than ready for it, having loved her Strong Is the New Pretty series since its release in 2017, and bombarded me with questions in advance of my interview with Parker. What to ask a world-famous author, photographer, director and Ironman whose work has led to collaborations with brands like The Walt Disney Company, Athleta, Kellogg Company and NBCUniversal? Having posed questions to Parker once before in The Epic Mentor Guide, Être girls were ready.

Below is a lightly edited version of my conversation last week with Kate T. Parker – who is, herself, a force of nature.

It’s here.

With the definitive clang of a morning locker slamming shut, Être’s brand new survey The Current State of Girls’ Confidence: How Mentors are Slamming the Confidence Gap Shut Like Lockers was released at 8 am ET today (see the press release here), and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I used to wonder when we brought girls into boardrooms: Is this confidence boom we see just anecdotal? Could we measure it? And how much of a role in girls’ confidence does the introduction to early mentors play?

The best way to solve a problem is to do the math, and that’s just what we did.

If someone handed you her resume, you’d think she was a seasoned journalist – maybe with an Emmy or two. With a roster of interviews that include Michelle Obama, Chadwick Boseman and former President George W. Bush alongside sports legends like Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, Chloe Kim and Sue Bird, and with her work featured on EPSN, CBS and Sports Illustrated, Pepper Persley is clearly an award-winning journalist on the rise.

She’s also twelve years old.

It’s easier than asking someone to be your valentine – I promise.

Asking someone to be my mentor might sound like the most daunting sentence in…ever, but it doesn’t have to be. And during a week full of candy and flowers, focusing on careers and futures may well be the gift that lasts longer.

How do I even start? As the founder of Être, a girls’ mentorship platform, I hear this question a lot. Closely followed by what exactly should I say and am I too young to ask? Most of the time, as they are spinning in boardroom chairs at companies they voted to visit when they ask, I defer to the women hosting us for answers.

We’re already on our feet cheering.

With National Women & Girls in Sports Day hitting the field this Wednesday, a first-of-its-kind WNBA-NBA competition coming to the paint ten days later, attendance at women’s events reaching record-breaking levels, and the Women’s Sports Foundation turning 50 this spring, 2024 is proving to be game-changing for girls watching sports.

Oh, and there’s a football game on Sunday promising even more rockstar action.

What exactly are girls seeing and why does it matter?

Girls are seeing a groundswell of mentor moments in the form of players, coaches, general managers, and leagues who are working toward their future in sports.

As innovative ideas burst forth in a new year and National Mentoring Month winds to a close, I can’t help but reflect on a group of extraordinary pitches I witnessed at the Girls Into VC Summit at Harvard University last quarter. Speaking on one of the panels and then happily seated in the audience enthralled by undergraduates, surgery fellows, artists and TechStar fellows pitching ideas to a panel of venture capital judges, I was blown away by their expertise and, well…their fearlessness.

It was something to behold.

Because pitching is hard and can be more daunting for young women.

On the heels of our list of 20 Women in AI That Girls Should Know that generated so much interest names are still being highlighted in the comments, and with boots arriving on the ground for NY Fashion Week 2024, we felt another role model list coming on.

Because whether eyeing fashion from afar or chatting directly with industry mentors (hat tip to Emilie Rubinfeld, President of Carolina Herrera, who met with a Club Être chapter just last week), girls are raising their hands with questions: If women do more of the designing in fashion, why aren’t they running more of the companies?

They’re not wrong. According to Forbes, even though women design approximately 40% of womenswear brands, they hold only 14% of leadership positions in the largest fashion companies. Moreover, they lead less than 13% of Fortune 1000 Retail & Apparel companies.

Can female founders in fashion fix it?

You bet.

“It's a privilege and an inspiration to share this space with individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving others, and hopefully I’ll make even a fraction of the impact that the fellow awardees have.”

So stated Gitanjali Rao two nights ago to a rapt audience and her words still ring in my ear this morning.

Honoring global individuals and organizations that exemplify “excellence in leadership, pursuit of social justice, and commitment to creating the Beloved Community in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King,” the 2024 Beloved Community Awards were joyfully celebrated on Saturday, in anticipation of Martin Luther King Jr Day.

Did you see the New York Times list of leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) that featured twelve men…and zero women? We did too.

What’s more, girls heard about it and immediately raised their hands with questions:

Um, where are the women?

No way only men are running the show in AI.

So…did AI actually make this list?

Because while other lists have been more comprehensive, the lack of women’s names on the NYT list was stunning. And potentially career-stunting for women and girls.

There is nothing like the first day of a calendar. Like a blank page laid invitingly before us, it marks the starting line of the year. The crackle of fire before we feel the heat. Flawless icing before the first bite.

Because you know that moments of joy await. Arianna Huffington, a role model of mine whose advice in Être: Girls, Who Do You Want to Be still gives me goosebumps, wrote yesterday about looking back on moments of wonder and awe, and it made me think about the mentor moments I hope to see for the next generation in the coming year.

Here are 12 that spring to mind.

In the last week of 2023, it’s exciting to look back at all the firsts. From awards won to women making news, in navy hats and baseball caps, and while running companies and readying themselves to walk on the moon, women in 2023 showed girls how to be first.

Let's start out with an asterisk: Yes, Lessons in Chemistry hit shelves in 2022, not 2023. But then Apple TV brought the story to the screen in 2023 and gave girls a brand new STEM hero to watch. I'm including it on this list because when Être girls asked author Bonnie Garmus what her main character, Elizabeth Zott, would tell curious girls today, her answer made my entire year. More about that at the end.

But this is a Top Ten List, so let's start at the top - here are ten books by epic women that illuminated and empowered our 2023.

A good year-end report allows an organization to look back on its achievements, evaluate strategy strength, document what was learned and measure goal-oriented growth. A great year-end report reveals the numbers and brings us behind the scenes to show the moments behind the metrics. Taking stock of who we were in ‘23 and who we want to be in ‘24.

Être, a mentorship platform I started with joy in 2016, had its biggest year yet - with moments that surprised our mentors, stunned our girls, and brought me to tears in the middle of Times Square.

It’s not partridges and pear trees I think of as we enter December. Never mind the calling birds and geese…the lords and the leaping. The drumbeat I hear as I look back on 2023 has one ringing refrain: mentors. Mentors matter.

Because throughout this year we watched as mentor moments won the gold, made the news, met the next generation and tipped their hats to first sources of inspo. Mentor moments were key in ’23 – here are 12 from our Insta that made our year at Être.

Why do you want to be a TED-Ed speaker?

I see an injustice that needs righting.

I know a problem that needs solving.

I heard an idea that needs exploring.

I have a voice that needs raising.

Comments I heard back in April when Être’s third year as a TedEd Club got underway. Our inaugural season was 2021 when, in response to COVID shutdowns that halted our boardroom visits, I looked to augment the sudden loss of middle and high school extracurriculars and searched for a fresh way for girls to dive deeply into areas of interest from their homes.

Last week leaders in science and engineering gathered in Washington, DC for the 2023 American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Conference, and the next generation was watching.