“We know the names of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. But what about the female entrepreneurs? What’s their story?
From brand new startups to million dollar industries, it’s time we stop telling girls they can be anything they want to be and show them what it means to be a leader.” Dream, Girl
Four years ago, our company was a firm of all professional women (since then we have added some amazing men to our staff). All women in finance is a true rarity not only in Alaska but in the nation. As we worked through our priorities, we unanimously decided we wanted to give back to women in our community. We wanted a way to inspire the next generation to make non-traditional careers more traditional. Many of us had daughters and we knew that we had the best chance of changing things if we let them know when they were young that nothing should stop them from reaching for their goals. We found that this goal was shared by an incredible number of professional women in Anchorage. They generously wanted to donate their time, sharing with teen girls the path that they had paved in our community.Â
It all sounded so easy, but as the mother of two teenagers, I also know that getting their attention is sometimes hard to do. What can lure teenagers in? Why, pizza of course. Along with movies, music, social media and unbelievably encouraging women. The Teen Girl Empowerment Project was born. Since then we have hosted 100’s of teen girls in Anchorage from all high schools, Covenant House, home schools and the surrounding communities. Girls have been inspired to start women empowerment clubs at their own schools, provide safe spaces to talk with their peers and begin to change the conversation with their male peers.
We want you to experience this uplifting event on October 18th. Join us at the Bear Tooth Theatre for an uplifting afternoon. We will be playing Dream, Girl a short film about remarkable entrepreneurial women, we will be serving free pizza, there will be social media, music and best of all teen girls will be encouraged to mingle with the incredible array of professional women. Help them meet and hear the stories of our female fire chief, architect, engineer, musician, women of the trades. These women can encourage and inspire your daughter, granddaughter or friend. This is a teen and chaperone event so come feel the energy that a room of wonderful women young and old can produce. I promise you will forget about the weather and bad news for this one sunny afternoon. Get your free tickets at https://empoweredteens.brownpapertickets.com.
Laura Bruce, CFP®, ChFC®
Director, APCM Wealth Management Wealth for Individuals
10/9/19
