“With the Legacy Out Loud curriculum . . . I learned how to cross who I innately am, my strengths and passions, with what the world really needs. That intersection gave me specific purpose and allowed me to live with direction and intention... With reverse engineering, I have become fearless to dream and ready to tackle all of my goals.”

“Over the last year, I have been a part of Legacy Out Load. My group of girls was the very first Legacy Out Loud cohort. I can truly say that being a part of Legacy has given me the opportunity to connect with amazing women in entrepreneurship. These women include my current mentor and other female founders who are out there conquering the world. I have built a special bond with my mentor because we were both teen moms turned entrepreneurs. She motivates me, encourages me and is there for me when a little extra push. Having her as a role model in my life and being supported by Legacy is a constant reminder that I can be anyone and do anything I wish to do with my life!”

“Last week I was given the opportunity to spend 2 days with young college women pursuing entrepreneurship at the United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. It was an incredible experience that had multiple panels taking place from 9am-5pm... All of these women came from different backgrounds and places around the world. What was most interesting to me about this panel was the conversation that contradicted so much of what I’ve learned about feminism. Feminists I know all talk about how disempowered they are as women. They also tell young women that they will have many obstacles to face as a women pursuing their own business. At the end of the day, the underlying factor that so many of these young women overlooking entrepreneurship have to overcome first is their lack of confidence for facing obstacles that women have very prominently made them recognize.

Christine Souffrant, founder of Vendedy, made a strong statement calling out feminists who do this and challenged them to erase that mentality for themselves and the girls that surround them... If we keep telling girls that they will have such a harder time becoming successful than a man, that will deter them from being successful. The way I see it, a women can walk into a conference with 5 men present and given a new mindset, see herself as just as capable and without fear of being undermined by the males in the room. Souffrant says it is not that women do not have to work harder, it’s that we tell them they do that gives them extra fear and lack of confidence men don’t face. So what must we tell these girls?

They are capable.

They are equally strong.

They can.

When a female actually is discriminated because of gender, I am not saying that this should not be acknowledged. What I am saying is that we should not make that into a barrier by telling motivated young girls from the get-go that business is harder for you because you’re a female. The choice in language must be positive. When these girls feel more confident to go into STEAM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & MATH), diverse females in these fields will become a norm. Very relevant to this assumption, there is a tag called #Ilooklikeanengineer that shatters the image of the white male engineer.

Amazing things can happen when women are confident in their ability to be smart, to be right, to be capable.”