International Women’s Day arrives each year with familiar language: celebration, empowerment, progress. The truth is less tidy. The fight for equity has never been linear, and lately, the backlash has felt louder than ever.
We still hear the language that reveals exactly how fragile progress can be—female reporters told to “smile more,” women in public life dismissed with insults meant to shrink them back into place. The message underneath it all remains stubbornly familiar: know where you belong.
American women have spent generations proving that place is not assigned—instead, it’s claimed.
Despite the noise, the work continues—often quietly, often through something as simple and powerful as mentorship. That spirit is part of what International Women’s Day is meant to recognize: women opening doors and then holding them open for others.
At Worth’s 2025 Groundbreaking Women Summit, one of those moments unfolded in real time.
Golden Globe Foundation Treasurer Miriam Spritzer and Être Girls Founder Illana Raia joined Hello Sunshine executive Maureen Polo on stage to discuss the importance of mentorship—particularly for young girls aspiring to leadership roles in media and entertainment.
What began as a conversation about empowering young women quickly evolved into a collaboration connecting teenage girls with leaders across entertainment, journalism, and media.
“I was incredibly fortunate to join a panel with two outstanding women, Illana Raia and Maureen Polo, to talk about mentorship at the 2025 Worth Magazine Groundbreaking Women Summit,” Spritzer said. “Whether it was luck or perfect curation from the magazine, our group was incredibly aligned in finding ways to help the next generation of women thrive.”
Être Girls, founded by Raia, introduces teenage girls to careers they may not yet know exist by connecting them with leaders across industries. Through the partnership, Golden Globe Foundation members now serve as mentors to girls interested in entertainment, journalism, culture, and media.
The collaboration has already created several hands-on opportunities. Golden Globe Foundation members participated in the NASDAQ International Day of the Girl event and partnered with Être Girls on its TED-Ed programming, pairing industry leaders with student speakers and participants.
For Raia, the connection reflects something she sees every year at the Groundbreaking Women Summit: the impact of letting young women witness leadership up close.
“Every year Worth saves seats for junior Être correspondents,” Raia said. “Last year, the entire first row was filled with high school girls in rapt attention with pencils poised. They wrote down every word and asked questions backstage afterwards.”
Moments like that, she said, reinforce the point of the partnership itself. “They proved the point Worth set out to make—that mentors matter… early and in person.”
As the collaboration continues to grow, the organizations plan to expand programming that introduces young women to careers in media and entertainment while providing direct access to mentors already shaping those industries.
For Spritzer, the partnership offers a simple but powerful lesson. “This collaboration is a perfect example of how networking and fostering genuine relationships can lead to amazing results,” she said. “That in itself is leading by example.”
The impact of that access goes beyond a single event. As research from the Geena Davis Institute has shown, the stories we see on screen help shape how young people understand their place in the world. Representation in media doesn’t simply reflect culture—it reinforces it.
When women are behind the camera as writers, directors, and producers, the numbers shift. Studies show that female creatives increase the number of women on screen by as much as eight to 10 percent. In an industry where stories shape identity, those shifts matter.
Mentorship, then, becomes more than guidance. It becomes access to careers, to networks, and to the ability to shape the narratives that define the next generation.
