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.

Let me start by saying I adore Halloween. The costumes, the candy, the creativity, and...um, the candy. With my birthday just three days beforehand, I had costume parties every year growing up; if you know me, you know how much I love this day.

This year it's especially sweet because I'm looking back on a month I can barely believe. Since our launch in 2016, Être has always had a busy fall season - think back to school, new clubs launching and International Day of the Girl events.

The past few weeks, though, truly took my breath away. As we help kids with costumes or don them ourselves today, asking each other who do you want to be, my grin grows wider with every memory. It is Être's favorite question to ask the next gen, and this month women from every industry helped us answer it.

With grateful thanks to every company, leader, mentor and Être member who made October 2024 a month to remember, all the candy imaginable to...

We promised you details about Être's first-ever live TED-Ed event in NYC - and here they are. Who were the speakers and where were they from? What were their topics and who mentored them? Is it true that Gloria Steinem was one of the women introducing the girls?

Yes, it's true - alongside former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, professional skydiver Melanie Curtis, athlete Hall of Famer Atoya Burleson and DEI champion Daisy Auger-Domínguez. It's all true.

And now you can watch it all on the livestream right here.

I still can't believe it.

Yesterday was so magical I almost don't know where to start.

Should we start with the fact that girls from 7 countries and 10 US states participated?

Start by honoring the epic women who took the mic to introduce them - global icon Gloria Steinem, pro skydiver Melanie Curtis, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, PhD, entrepreneur (and newly-inducted athlete Hall of Famer) Atoya Burleson and DEI champion Daisy Auger-Domínguez (she/her/ella)?

Or start by thanking the companies whose leaders took the time to mentor young speakers as they prepped for the TED-Ed stage - The Nobel Prize Geena Davis Institute NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Hello Sunshine The Jed Foundation (JED) I am a voter. The Female Quotient The Conversationalist UBS and more?

It's hard to know.

"Look up! Look up, that's ME!"

"THERE I AM! It says I have the power to be a CEO!"

"I have the power to win a Nobel Prize!" "And be in the Olympics!"

"We look so TALL! And POWERFUL!"

And as faces beamed behind raised cellphones, girls staring at themselves on Times Square billboards nodded in unison.

Yes, they agreed. They looked powerful.

"We look," the youngest among them whispered, "like we can do ANYTHING."

It's coming.

This week, on October 11th, International Day of the Girl 2024 will be here. And given all the ways mentors are pulling out the stops to celebrate, we just wanted to say thank you in advance.

Because thank you notes matter. And as busy as the next few days will be, we want to make sure our gratitude is shouted from the rooftops. Or skyscraper tops.

Thank you...

...to our mentors at The Female Quotient for inviting three teen Être Board members to join me on a panel at ADWEEK on Tuesday, October 8th, to talk about the impact of early boardroom visits and the power of mentorship;

When Q3 hits I feel a burst of energy.

Maybe it's the excitement I see as Être girls head back to school and new companies invite us into their boardrooms.

Maybe it's the beckoning of new books, BFFs and events that threaten to blow my mind. Or maybe it's the delight we all take in seeing dreams realized and new goalposts set.

Whatever the reason, with this Mentor Watch I’m thrilled to share Être’s top 10 mentor moments of Q3 – paired with our grateful thanks to every leader we met and every company we visited. Thank you for not only saving us seats, but rolling in fleets of extra chairs to fill the table.

Early confidence matters. Mentors across all industries showed us how much in Q3.

MG did you see...our TED-Ed letters for the stage are huge!

What country are you from? I heard your topic's amazing!

Is it true that a Nobel Prize winner is your Être TED-Ed mentor?

How can I get a free ticket to attend this live in NYC? Wait, is there a livestream?

Comments we're starting to hear as Être girls across 7 countries edit and rehearse their TED-Ed Talks before they take the stage one month from now at our first-ever live TED-Ed event!

We have questions too - we can hear more girls, women, parents, teachers and the coolest aunts saying. We hear you. And we've got you covered. Below are important details about the TED-Ed LIVE event for girls coming up on October 20th in NYC we're beyond excited to share...

• When, where and how do I attend? Join us Sunday, October 20th, 2024 from 10am to 2pm ET in one of two ways: Live at the 52nd Street Project Inc theater in NYC (yep, the whole place is coincidentally Être orange) or via livestream at the same time. Free tickets and registration? Grab all the spots you need here asap!

I couldn't love the fall season more.

From fashion week walks to non-fiction drops, there is a freshness and jolt of insight running through the air like a current. As we fill backpacks with glossy books and our calendars with circled dates, let us also jot down some September titles for our own TBR stacks! Written by mentors we admire and releasing throughout the month, here are eight epic role model reads you won't want to miss as we all head back to class...

You know her from watching her lead at companies like Google, The Walt Disney Company and VICE Media. You've read her stellar insight about dismantling workplace racial inequity in Inclusion Revolution, and I was over the moon grateful for her wise words to girls in The Epic Mentor Guide. Now, Daisy Auger-Domínguez (she/her/ella) is launching a brand new book about burnout called Burnt Out to Lit Up...and its buzz could light the world.

What is it? A roadmap. A blueprint. A compass and a bible designed to help a modern-day workforce conquer the chaos of burnout and reclaim our love of leading.

Earlier this summer I wrote about why, when launching a mentorship platform to bring young girls directly into boardrooms, I named it Être (French for to be). I explained that not only do I love asking today's girls who they want to be...but I love it when women in senior roles at Billboard, CBS, Goldman Sachs, Google, Morgan Stanley, NBCUniversal, Nasdaq, NYSE, Spotify, TikTok, YouTube and more look the next gen squarely in the eye and ask the same question.

As a follow-up piece on Labor Day 2024, here are six new versions of what mentors are hoping girls - and the moms, coaches and cool aunts reading over their shoulders - keep in mind as we all head back to classrooms, locker rooms and boardrooms.

If you have a phone screen protector, tinted car windows or have had a surgical procedure in the last 15 years, you've benefitted from her inventions. If you've read Être's interviews with leading women or scanned The Epic Mentor Guide, you know how much inspiring the next generation of innovators matters to her.

But now, Audrey Sherman - famous chemist, scientist, inventor and mentor with over 165 patents to her name - has given girls yet another reason to be awed.

We see it - and we're cheering!

As we head back to school it's fun to take a look back at a few Être summer stars and see how they changed not just their worlds, but the world around them. From degrees earned and awards won to books published and music dropped, girls today had a summer so bright we needed shades to watch.

Since the day I launched Être I have loved the how it started / how it's going aspect - marveling at what girls have accomplished since we first met. Here are six summer stars whose names you won't forget and whose progress you'll want to follow:

As the Olympic games drew to a close yesterday, there are new games on the horizon.

Think…

Debate stages instead of diving boards.

Registration drives instead of rugby.

Voting booths instead of vaults and beams.

And in Election 2024, as in all competitions, results are decided by the players who show up.

As the founder of a girls’ mentorship platform – one that encourages girls of all ages to raise their voices – I am energized all over again when new voters stand to be counted. When they unite as a team to see their issues brought forward.

The real question is – will they come to play?