This smart lady tells it all;Emily Raleigh is a 20-year-old rising junior at Fordham University and the Founder & Smart Starter of Smart Girls Group. Emily is redefining what it means to be a “smart girl.” It all begins with her personal story.What needs to be fixed in the world?
When I was a little girl, I would walk downstairs every morning after putting on my school clothes and ask my mom, “Mommy, do I look smart?” My parents encouraged my sister and me to see being smart as doing your best and pursuing your passions, regardless of what they may be. While we both succeeded in the classroom, that was not what defined us as smart. We had our strengths and we pursued them full heartedly.
Feeling smart gave us a strong sense of self-worth and in turn, a level of confidence that many girls lose at a certain age. That is where the true problem lies. Somewhere along the journey between childhood and teenage years, girls forget that they are smart. They start to feel defined by their GPAs or, worse, they forget they are smart all together and look for self-worth in their appearance.
We consistently hear that women and girls need to have more confidence or to lean in, but that is a goal, not a solution. There needs to be a strategy if we want to truly see more women in corner offices, starting movements or leading nations. That strategy needs to start with every little girl believing she is smart and to continuously arm her with the tools, resources and opportunities she needs to pursue her passions–what makes her uniquely smart. That may sound impossible, but if we simply start by redefining what it means to be smart, and stop equating it with SAT scores, grades or the prestige of the prep school or college she attends, we will see an astronomical difference in how much young women achieve. If we continue to set such rigid requirements on labeling someone smart, we will only continue to discuss why women and men are not equal. We need to redefine what it means to be smart so that every woman and every girl can feel that she has something to offer the world.
What will it look like when it’s fixed?
We will see an equal representation of women in leadership roles. The media will stop portraying women as second-class citizens. Girls in developing countries will be in school, because they will be viewed as valuable as their male counterparts. Positive social impact will be at an all time high, because every girl who wanted to change the world will believe that she can and therefore act accordingly.
When women and girls believe that they are smart, they will have the foundation to follow even their wildest dreams, and when that happens, our world will be a far better place.
How are you fixing it?
When I was a senior in high school, I started Smart Girls Group, a monthly digital magazine that provided empowering content for the next generation of superstar women. In two years, we have grown into a multi-platform brand that provides products, resources and opportunities that empower ambitious girls (and women) to succeed in all facets of life, all in a unique sisterhood environment throughout 40+ countries. Smart Girls Group serves as an umbrella to a number of different Smart Girl brands, including:
Smart Girls Sisterhood & Community. A sisterhood environment where ambitious young women can foster their passions, inspire, be inspired and form bonds with like-minded, intelligent young women from across the globe. This is accomplished through our various online platforms, specifically our online community, in addition to live events. We just held our first conference in New York City that brought together over 300 girls ages 13-25, with the support of 30+ partners, including Whole Foods and Kenneth Cole.
Smart Girls Society is our campus chapter program that works to establish sisterhoods on middle school, high school and college campuses across the U.S., Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Publications. Smart Girls Guide is a monthly digital lifestyle magazine featuring empowering content on current affairs, style, health, leadership and more. The Smart Girls Loop is a daily aggregated news blog that provides girls all over the world the opportunity to have their own column to discuss what they are passionate about.
Giving Back. Smart Girls Shop is our online shop to purchase branded merchandise, with a portion of the proceeds sponsoring girls’ education in the developing world.
Education. Smart Girls School offers free online classes, including social media strategy, personal finance and leadership. The curriculums are written and supported by experts in their fields.
That’s a lot of work to manage. You’re 20 years old. How do you do it and go to college?
It’s teamwork. We have a staff of eight right now, who, like me, are pursuing Smart Girls Group and college simultaneously. Trying to give 100% to Smart Girls Group with school can be very difficult, but the entire team has such an incredible level of determination. In addition to the staff, we have 30 interns each semester.
Everyone on our team has the same goal, even though their roles in making that happen can be so different. They see Smart Girls Group just as I envisioned it back in high school, but they challenge that vision and our potential every day. It isn’t a job for every college student, but we have seen the affects of our efforts, especially this year, and that motivates us to always be moving forward.
Every staff member has stories of girls telling them how Smart Girls Group has impacted their lives in such a positive way. One of my personal favorites is from a girl in Abu Dhabi. Like many girls, she was looking to connect with like-minded change makers when she joined. She has contributed to a number of our publications, currently writing for our magazine and is now starting a writing project in her community to empower other young creatives to use their voices on a local level. When someone says that they were inspired to create some sort of social change thanks to Smart Girls Group, there is truly no better feeling.
|
Emily Raleigh
Each of our platforms has its own specific business plan so that they can work independently of each other or together, but our revenue model across our platforms is predominantly native advertising. We work with brands who want to have engaged conversations with ambitious women and girls. We create marketing campaigns around their individualized needs.
What are the top three things you have learned from the sisterhood?
There is value in diversity. When I first started Smart Girls Group, I was advised to target one specific ambition, whether it was a space for aspiring entrepreneurs, journalists, doctors, etc. That may make sense for marketing purposes, but I wanted nothing to do with that because I knew the community would be stronger the more diverse it became. Now I see girls who are passionate about health are learning about voting rights from girls who are passionate about politics. I have learned so much from meeting and corresponding with girls from so many walks of life. It’s easy to only surround yourself with like-minded people, but diversity is truly where you learn.
Ambition isn’t a dirty word. In the beginning, I was nervous to describe the brand as a space for ambitious young women and was actually advised not to do so because it would turn people off. I remember telling this predicament to a girl and she said, “Emily, seriously? Think about the people you admire the most. Aren’t they all ambitious?” She was right. We quickly learned that girls are proud to call themselves ambitious. Earlier this year in an article about Smart Girls Group, I was described as having “aggressive ambitions.” Not even five minutes after we shared the article, I was getting emails, texts and tweets from girls who were frustrated that by being ambitious, I was being characterized as aggressive (in a negative way).
Girls don’t think they are smart because the world is telling them otherwise. I truly believe the media is the biggest culprit of this. What I have learned from the sisterhood is that we don’t really see how the media is affecting us, but when it is pointed out, suddenly it becomes so clear. It’s astounding that at 2014, we still feel the need to celebrate advertisements that empower women, as if that is such a revolutionary idea. Many girls have told me that before finding something like Smart Girls Group, they didn’t realize they didn’t believe they were smart simply because they never thought about it. There are societal norms that do not point to women being smart as a positive thing. And that needs to change.
0 comments:
Post a Comment