"Whatever trouble I got into was trouble for good.”

Jessica Zachs

Jessica Zachs, Founder & Chairwoman, Dignity Grows

“I changed my question from 'Why me?’ to 'Why not me?’ Sometimes when we go through painful situations, it leads us to a bigger purpose.”

Monique Rodriguez

Monique Rodriguez, Founder & CEO, MIELLE Organics

"When I was 8 or 9, I started racing against grown men. Starting to win against them—that’s when I realized I was a TroubleMaker."

Kayla Yaakov

Kayla Yaakov, 15-Year-Old Professional Motorcycle Racer

“Everything that took place in my life was attributed to what I was allowing. And so snatching back that power and sharing my story put me in a position to have influence over other women—and give them the space to do the same.” ~Tommi A. Vincent ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• “I was doing something that was unconventional: bringing women into the room with me.” ~Troy Vincent

Tommi & Troy Vincent

“Hormonal fluctuations associated with the eventual path to menopause begin in our late thirties and early forties. For some it’s a non-issue, but for others—like me—it was really disruptive.”

Nina Coslov

Co-founder, Women Living Better

“I am a TroubleMaker at the Last Mile by listening to what our grantees need to ultimately be successful—not only in college but in life.”

Kendra Grady

Grantee Engagement & Communications Specialist, Last Mile Education Fund

“You don’t need to measure your self-worth by metrics that other people set.”

Arwa Mahdawi

Journalist & Author of “Strong Female Lead”

“My one piece of advice goes hand-in-hand with my overarching message: living undaunted. You are only given challenges when the world thinks that you can handle them.”

Kara Goldin

Founder, Hint Inc.

“Every moment with anyone is meaningful. Every conversation has a purpose.”

Jinisha Patel

Volunteer & Lead Information Security Engineer, Last Mile Education Fund

“Every moment with anyone is meaningful. Every conversation has a purpose.”

Jordan & Jodi Harouche

Co-Founders, JZips

“Connect and inspire yourself to truthfully blend your passions into your work."

Jennifer Langton

Senior Vice President of Health and Innovation, NFL

"Know yourself. Know what you stand for. Know what your values are. People know when you’re confident in yourself, what your values are, and what you bring to the table.”

Angie Ankoma

Vice President of Equity Leadership, RI Foundation

“I directly coach and develop students that have historically been marginalized in tech—which includes pieces of my identity—that need to be celebrated, embraced, and protected.”

April Christina Curley

Engagement and Partnerships Manager, Last Mile Education Fund

“Focus on the wins, not the woes. When you focus on that win, you are creating a path of behavior towards wins. And THAT is how you will cause more trouble.”

Michelle Sims

Chief Executive Officer, Year Up Professional Resources

“My purpose for being on the planet is to leave it better than I found it.”

Colleen Ammerman

Director, Harvard Business School Gender Initiative Co-Author, “Glass Half Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work”

“There’s so much experimentation. You’re building the plane while you fly it.”

Romy Newman

Co-Founder and President, Fairygodboss

“The women on my team are experts at what they do, and they know more than I do about their specific areas. My ambition as a leader is to surround myself with people who are smarter than me.”

André Branch

Senior Vice President, General Manager, M·A·C Cosmetics – North America

“You get back what you put in. You invest in young people, and they give back tenfold to the world.”

Ruthe Farmer

CEO & Founder, Last Mile Education Fund

“I think back on those days and think, gosh! I kind of can’t believe that I did that. But at that age, nobody has told you that you couldn’t yet.”

Jennifer Dulski

CEO / Founder, Rising Team

“How frequently I have been the only in the room. Only woman. Only woman of color. Now, I’m focused on how I make sure I’m not the only.”

Christa Baker

Director, Alliance Management, Year Up

"Every time you stand up for yourself, you make a little deposit, and then you see that it worked."

Dr. Crystal Wood

Chief Operating Officer, Blue Mistral

"Your story is a story that only you have. It's so very important that you own it, that you bring it."

Donna Sams

Partner & Sr. Consultant, SpencerConsultingGroup

"The mission of Elektra from day one is to smash the menopause taboo. The way that we do that is through education and content."

Jannine Versi

Co-founder & COO, Elektra Health

"It's a great gift to live the life that you live. There's a story in every life."

Ting Ting Cheng

Director of Columbia Law School’s ERA Project

"I knew I was a TroubleMaker when I thought I could sell a $20 makeup sponge which previously had been free."

Rea Ann Silva

Founder & CEO, beautyblender

"I knew I was a TroubleMaker when I dropped out of university to talk about menstruation for a living."

Claire Coder

Chief Estrogen Officer (CEO), Aunt Flow

"I would have to literally somehow magically transform into a white man to be perceived as likable and not aggressive.

Tobi Bosede

Founder and CEO of Ilekun Health

"When you actually love what you do, you have the privilege of following your instincts and trusting that you’ll end up where you belong and where you are most needed."

Tarika Barrett

CEO of Girls Who Code

"I learned balance by losing my balance."

Helena Foulkes

Candidate, Governor of RI

"You'll never know unless you try. I don't want to spend my life not knowing."

Hilary Levey Friedman

PhD, Author and Sociologist

"Start with what you're passionate about and build from there. Find the possibility in the failure or the outcome."

Jocelyn Mangan

CEO & Founder, Him For Her

"I never bought into the status quo. You can do what you want, at any age. Because we can always have the 'what ifs.'"

Fern Leslie

Artist. Maker. Surface Pattern Designer. Entrepreneur

"Instead of just creating clothes, how about we create a really cool lifestyle?"

Teresa and Ashley Freeborn

Teresa Freeborn – Co-Founder; Ashley Freeborn – Co-Founder & CEO

“I want to create a real inclusion revolution.”

Emma Butler

CEO & Founder at Intimately

"Look, I can teach you how to be good at this job, I can't teach you how to love yourself."

Lisa Sun

CEO of GravitasNewYork.com

"People think that authority does not look like a young, short Indian woman."

Medha Bankhwal

McKinsey & Company/ Previously Co-Founder, EdTech non-profit

"When you're happy doing it, you're all the better for it."

Stephanie Morimoto

Owner & CEO, Asutra

"Some day I'm going to see that man at a cocktail party and he's going to cringe and say, 'ugh, I should've invested in you.'"

Diane Hessan

Entrepreneur, Investor, Board Member & Columnist. Author of Our Common Ground: Insights from Four Years of Listening to American Voters

"You should believe in your potential and the transformation you can bring from your experience and your ideas."

Sophie Kelly

SVP of Whiskies, Diageo North America

"My best piece of advice is to be brave. There's a certain moment of bravery in doing something knowing that people are going to push back."

Emily Oster

Professor of Economics, Brown University

"There's so many things I wish I could've done differently, but I didn't know what I didn't know."

Ennie Lim

CEO & Co-Founder, HoneyBee

“We want to rethink the concert experience and highlight underrepresented works. A lot of times these works were sidelined due to race or gender.”

Karla Donehew Perez

Karla Donehew Perez, Violinist, Founding member of Catalyst Quartet and Project Uncovered

“Women are better at thinking outside the box because we’ve never been let inside the box.”

Karen Kaplan

Chairman & CEO, Hill Holliday Group

“The mission of the Gazmine Mason Foundation is to increase opportunities for disadvantaged children and young adults while promoting a healthy lifestyle and fostering education through the sport of bowling.”

GG Mason

5x Olympic Gold Medalist; Founder of Black Girls Can Bowl 2

"I've struggled to make sure the quieter voices get heard. What they have to say is just as important as the loud voices."

Liza Donnelly

Writer, Cartoonist, Visual Journalist

“Decisions that are the best are sometimes the most costly, and we're ok with that."

Chieh Huang

Co-founder & CEO of Boxed.com

“If you keep moving forward, something will happen. It’s an impossibility for it not to.”

Tracy Edwards MBE

Round the World Sailor, Motivational Speaker and Activist

“When you have the opportunity to stand up for yourself or others, you do it, whether it’s one person in the room or ten thousand.”

Dawn Riley

Exec. Dir of Oakcliff Sailing; Leader, Sailor, Athlete, Mentor

“As a women, we’re already dealing with so much stuff. And when you add an illness on top of that, it’s kind of like this double burden.”

Hannah Olson

Co-Founder and CEO, Chronically Capable

“Every eleven minutes a black woman dies of a preventable disease.”

Reverend Angela L. Shannon

All Saints Lutheran Church of Bowie, MD; “Audacious Angie” GirlTrek Organizer

“We’re searching the world for women who have a daring vision for change."

Alyse Nelson

Co-Founder, President and CEO of Vital Voices

"I was told 'we don’t hire women your age. It’s not worth investing in you because you’re just going to get married and have kids.'"

Katherine Franke

James L. Dohr Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the ERA Project

"Get comfortable being uncomfortable."

Shelley Zalis

CEO of The Female Quotient

"Nothing happens without women. Absolutely nothing."

Tina Cane

Poet Laureate of Rhode Island; Founder/Director, Writers-in-the-Schools, RI

“My sisters and I were raised not necessarily to cause Trouble, but with a very clear sense of right and wrong, of what justice is, of what kindness is, of what equity is. That was embedded in every single thing my parents did as they raised us.”

Sonali Rajan

Associate Professor at the Department of Health and Behavioral Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University; Girls On The Run Board Member

“I think you have to get used to not always being the nice girl or being the good girl and always kind of looking for that approval. Look for other ways to improve yourself internally.”

Róisín McGettigan

Olympian, Licensed Medical Health Counselor (LMHC) & Mother of 3

“I couldn’t say the R-word for a year after I was assaulted. It’s still really difficult to label myself as a rape survivor because there’s so much that comes with that label. There’s so much trauma, pain and difficulty that still is here with feeling safe in my own skin.”

Chessy Prout

Co-Founder of I Have The Right To, Author, College Student & Survivor

"I’ve learned to not get thrown by other people’s own limited view."

Rabbi Rachael M. Bregman

Berman Family Rabbinate; Rabbi of Temple Beth Tefilloh

"Go after what you believe in while staying true to yourself – strive to believe in yourself and your own abilities and surround yourself with good people."

Emma Walker

Expert Whisky Maker

"You are worthy and your voice matters."

Lindsey Leininger

Public Health Educator, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

“If super heroes were real, they would only be women."

Elaine Davis

Fashion and Lifestyle Blogger

"I want to empower women to feel like the best version of themselves."

Alejandra Alonso Rojas

Creative Director, Designer & CEO

"She is not broken, the system is broken."

Banu Ozkazanc-Pan

Professor of the Practice in Engineering Director, Venture Capital Inclusion Lab, Brown University

"I was thirsty before it was a thing!”

Laura Brown

Editor in Chief, InStyle Magazine

"Video games are interactive stories. I believe the stories we tell each other profoundly influence how we see the world."

Abigail Corfman

Writer and Consultant at Gameloft

"Ambition alone is not enough to create success. Create a plan, take risks, ignore barriers and be intentional each step of the way."

Shellye Archambeau

Author, Board Director for multiple companies, former CEO of MetricStream

"Thinking back, I was seemingly always keeping a secret."

Melissa Isaacson

Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism faculty member, Former award-winning sportswriter

"It is 100% ok to ask for help."

Nadia Christina Jagessar

Marketer, Entrepreneur, Reality Star

"I am a Lilly….and so is half the world. If you have been othered or obstructed or limited in any way…then YOU are a Lilly."

Rachel Feldman

Director, Filmmaker

“The most important thing I know about overcoming struggles and troubles is that it does not matter how hard or far you fall, what matters is that you rise up and keep moving -some days all it takes is to put one foot in front of the other - persist, persist, persist!”

Deborah Jackson

President, Cambridge College

"In schools, we tell all children that they can be anything they want. It’s a striking irony that the leaders of our school systems — district superintendents and state chiefs — overwhelmingly are white men. "

Julia Rafal-Baer

ED, Chiefs for Change

“My message to women and girls today is to develop a relationship with yourself first. Develop YOUR standard for beauty, YOUR standard for success.”

Suzanne LeRoux

President, One Love Organics

“The 21st century has to be feminine. It’s about sharing resources, it’s about accepting each other.”

Valerie Grandury

Founder and CEO, Odacité

“You can’t get what you don’t ask for.”

Melissa Palmer

Chief Executive Officer + Co-Founder, OSEA Malibu

"The difference if I look at the beginning of my career and now is women supporting women, instead of always looking at each other as our competition.”

Heleyne Mishan-Tamir and Joyce Avalon

Co-Founder and President, Surratt Beauty

“Self advocacy is important. There’s nothing wrong with speaking up.”

Elana Drell-Szyfer

Chief Executive Officer, RéVive Skincare

“I would like to tell women and girls to do what frightens them.”

JuE Wong

Chief Executive Officer, Olaplex